Noth­ing shocked the polit­i­cal left in the 1960s as much as the brutal murder of Con­golese Prime Min­is­ter Patrice Lumum­ba. He was the sym­bol­ic figure for the lib­er­a­tion of the African con­ti­nent from Euro­pean colo­nial­ism. While the USA and Bel­gium were still secret­ly plan­ning Lumum­ba’s elim­i­na­tion, the US State Depart­ment sent jazz greats such as Nina Simone and Louis Arm­strong to the Congo - a tac­ti­cal diversion? 

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT is a tes­ti­mo­ny to this per­fid­i­ous coup. Visu­al­ly and musi­cal­ly designed in the style of the iconic Blue Note jazz label, Johan Gri­mon­prez’s film draws view­ers into the mael­strom of the Cold War and the polit­i­cal power games between Europe and the USA. After exten­sive research, unpub­lished inter­views, speech­es by Lumum­ba, and musi­cal per­for­mances by Miles Davies, Miriam Makeba and many others were woven into a grip­ping narrative. 

The film won numer­ous awards at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and was nom­i­nat­ed for “Best Doc­u­men­tary” at the 2025 Oscars. 

When his grand­fa­ther died, Jakob Oss­mann was still a child. He never spoke to him about Nazi Ger­many. Now that his­to­ry is repeat­ing itself in a cer­tain way, he returns to his fam­i­ly’s past, and in pur­suit of a con­ver­sa­tion they were never able to have. Through a min­i­mal­is­tic approach that weaved togeth­er found footage, archival pho­tographs, and while blend­ing memory and real­i­ty, Jakob blurs the bound­aries between per­son­al and col­lec­tive his­to­ry. By doing so, he crafts an explo­ration of inter­gen­er­a­tional trauma, shared suf­fer­ing, and the endur­ing need to con­nect across time and culture.

Jakob Oss­mann, orig­i­nal­ly from Stuttgart, Ger­many, has been importing/exporting fears and desires since 2000. He start­ed his stud­ies in Com­put­ing Sci­ence before switch­ing to the arts with a focus on sto­ry­telling through film and photography.

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of Indian farm­ers flee out of eco­nom­ic des­per­a­tion into sui­cide. They leave behind their wives with a moun­tain of debt, social exclu­sion and con­demned to slav­ish labor. For his first fea­ture-length doc­u­men­tary film, direc­tor Kin­shuk Surjan has ini­ti­at­ed a sup­port group for such widows. San­ji­vani, wid­owed for 7 years with two chil­dren, becomes his main pro­tag­o­nist. She con­ceals her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the group in front of her broth­er-in-law’s family where she lives, and who are strug­gling with poor har­vests and falling prices them­selves. The young mother is deter­mined to become self-suf­fi­cient through fur­ther edu­ca­tion and work.

The film cap­tures San­ji’s every­day life with almost fea­ture film-like inten­si­ty. The camera makes her face speak, cap­tures beau­ti­ful­ly her close­ness to her chil­dren. Clev­er­ly chosen obser­va­tions local­ize her role in her broth­er-in-law’s family. How­ev­er, her fate is most impres­sive­ly reflect­ed in that of the other widows, whom the viewer expe­ri­ences through her eyes in their despair - only rarely in hope­ful moments. A scare­crow in the dry fields becomes fig­u­ra­tive­ly a ghost of the deceased.

Kin­shuk Surjan is an Indian film­mak­er, based in Brus­sels and Bhopal. He stud­ied doc­u­men­tary film at the mobile film school Doc­No­mads. His short film POLA (2013) won the Indian Nation­al Stu­dent Film Award for Best Film and Best Script in 2013. He went on as a 2nd assis­tant direc­tor on the fic­tion film ISLAND CITY (2015), award­ed at Venice Film fes­ti­val. He con­tin­ued stud­ies at the Royal Insti­tute for The­atre, Cinema & Sound, Brus­sels and made the exper­i­men­tal short DIVIDED LINES (2015). His grad­u­a­tion film THE FLANDRIEN (2017) depicts a boy in Flan­ders, who was pushed into a cycling career by his par­ents, won the Flan­ders Audio­vi­su­al Fund’s “Wild­card” and was later broad­cast­ed. His project MARCHING IN THE DARK par­tic­i­pat­ed in Berli­nale Tal­ents 2021 and received the Human Wrights Awards-Spe­cial Men­tion at CPH:Dox 2024.

DOR (LONGING) enables us to share moments of encounter between some very ground­ed char­ac­ters, a group of young shep­herds in Roma­nia– and a person in a moment of being in limbo and tran­si­tion, their appren­tice Stefan. Stefan is quite lost, but also in search for some­thing. He has returned to Roma­nia after having lived in Bel­gium, to start a new life as a shep­herd. Stefan and the local shep­herds are very dif­fer­ent kinds of people, but they find ways to relate with each other. While Stefan knows how to get a tattoo done for the local guys and tags their names with graf­fi­ti on stones in the middle of nowhere, the young shep­herds help him to know his way around in the new envi­ron­ment. 

This medium-length film might appear long and slow to some audi­ences, because it does not follow a very par­tic­u­lar story with a con­ven­tion­al red thread. How­ev­er, exact­ly this is the strength of this film. It medi­ates a strong immer­sive atmos­phere through its pacing, rhythm, sound-design and its dreamy melan­cholic images. There­by, the film seems to speak about how the pro­tag­o­nist Stefan feels in a moment of uncer­tain­ty. DOR (LONGING) is an evoca­tive film. After all, it pro­vokes emo­tions and brings the pro­tag­o­nist close to us, while pro­vid­ing at the same time large space to wonder and reflect, as it also leaves us in the dark and does not reveal every­thing. 

(Thomas John) 

In the middle of a photo ses­sion in the Royal Museum for Cen­tral Africa in Bel­gium, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er is dis­turbed by the images cap­tured, macabre mem­o­ries, a mau­soleum of his cul­tur­al her­itage. Pos­sessed by the objects in the museum, he is over­whelmed by a sense of alien­ation from these arte­facts. This pow­er­ful and mys­te­ri­ous film nav­i­gates between fic­tion and real­i­ty, colo­nial­ism and muse­ol­o­gy, rais­ing ques­tions about appro­pri­a­tion and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. A unique and dream­like work that takes view­ers on a voyage from tra­di­tion, to moder­ni­ty, to futur­ism. (lefifa.com)  

This film will be screened simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at Unseen as part of our #Junction_Nairobi, fol­lowed by a shared discussion.

Matthias De Groof, born 1981 in Bel­gium, is a film­mak­er and schol­ar. Cur­rent­ly a fac­ul­ty member of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ams­ter­dam. His award-win­ning films LOBI KUNA and PALIMPSEST OF THE AFRICA MUSEUM (2019) have been select­ed at IFFR, Le FIFA and the Berli­nale, among others. He edited a book on “Lumum­ba in the Arts” (2020) which reached the top-100 “books to escape the news”. He has held fellow appoint­ments at the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Waseda Uni­ver­si­ty in Tokyo.  

Direc­tor: Matthias De Groof
Script: Mehkar Azari Kiyoso, Matthias De Groof
Key Cast: Mekhar Azari Kiyoso

Under a full moon in an arid moun­tain land­scape a young woman wan­ders and reach­es a dried-out riverbed. She waters a plant and is at one with her silence. When sleep enfolds her on the broken earth, she is trans­posed home. And then she starts danc­ing.  

A por­trait of a young woman look­ing for ten­der­ness in a vaste envi­ron­ment. A decep­tive­ly simple, chore­o­graphed dance filmed in the heart of an oasis endan­gered by drought.  

This film will be screened simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at Con­flic­to­ri­um as part of our #Junction_Ahmedabad, fol­lowed by a shared discussion.

Dieser Film wird gle­ichzeit­ig im Con­flic­to­ri­um als Teil unser­er #Junction_Ahmedabad gezeigt, gefol­gt von einer gemein­samen Diskussion.

Gré­goire Ver­beke born 1987, is a film­mak­er and pho­tog­ra­ph­er. His first short doc MOUNTAIN was screened at Sheffield Doc Fest 2018 and Palm Springs Short­fest 2019. I FEEL YOUR EYES, his second short film, had its pre­miere at DOK Leipzig 2019.  

Amina Abouel­ghar born 1997, is a dancer, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, Dance and Yoga teacher based in Cairo. Abouel­ghar has chore­o­graphed dance pieces such as Nafaq 2: Under Con­struc­tion, We Are Coming Back After Every­body, This Gaze, Those Eyes. Her work encom­pass­es dif­fer­ent ele­ments such as dance, expres­sion, and phys­i­cal­i­ty. 

Direc­tors, Pro­duc­ers: Gré­goire Ver­beke, Amina Abouelghar
Chore­o­graphed and per­formed by Amina Abouelghar

Even though China does not cel­e­brate Christ­mas, there are over 600 Christ­mas-dec­o­ra­tion fac­to­ries in Yiwu, China. They are often run as a family busi­ness and man­u­fac­ture year round, employ­ing people from across the coun­try. This obser­va­tion­al doc­u­men­tary focus­es on sev­er­al of them, locat­ed in and around Yiwu. There are no high-tech machines, just people work­ing really hard putting glit­ter on baubles, pom poms on Christ­mas hats and assem­bling Father Christmases.
The camera trails the work­ers at the fac­to­ry and else­where – their con­ver­sa­tions, love issues, a game of pool, shop­ping and eating, and the calls home, far away from Yiwu’s pros­per­i­ty. People joke about child labour in China, com­plain about the heat, but basi­cal­ly every­one seems to accept this arti­fi­cial, sur­re­al soci­ety where your col­leagues are your new family and the fac­to­ry is home. A por­trait with­out voice-over of a place cre­at­ed where com­mu­nism and glob­al­ism inter­sect and trans­form one anoth­er. (IFFRot­ter­dam)

Best Doc­u­men­tary, Sara­je­vo Film Fes­ti­val 2020

Mladen Kovače­vić, born 1979. Ser­bian film­mak­er and founder of Horopter Film Pro­duc­tion. He stud­ied fic­tion film­mak­ing in London and Cape Town, but ded­i­cat­ed him­self to doc­u­men­taries in past years. His films UNPLUGGED (2013, about a musi­cal tra­di­tion of blow­ing on tree leaves) and WALL OF DEATH, AND ALL THAT (2016, about a nomadic fair­ground artist) were multi-award­ed in fes­ti­vals as Hot­Docs, CPH:DOX, FID­Mar­seille, DOK Leipzig. The essay­is­tic por­trait of a moun­taineer 4 YEARS IN 10 MINUTES (2018) received the Spe­cial Men­tion at Visions du Réel, Grand Prix at Bel­docs and was fea­tured at IDFA Best of Fests. Eurodoc alumni, his fourth film MERRY CHRISTMAS, YIWU was made in copro­duc­tion with ARTE and Doha Film Institute.

Direc­tor: Mladen Kovačević
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Marko Milovanović
Edit­ing: Jelena Maksimović
Com­pos­er: Olof Dreijer
Sound­de­sign: Patrik Strömdahl
Pro­duc­tion: Horopter Film Production
Dis­tri­b­u­tion: Deck­ert Dis­tri­b­u­tion, Hanne Bier­mann info@deckert-distribution.com

Fünf Jahre lang kämpft die Bürg­erini­tia­tive DoucheFLUX dafür, ein Gebäude zu finden, zu finanzieren und zu sanieren, wo die am meis­ten Benachteiligten der Stadt sich duschen und wo sie ärztliche Hilfe bekom­men können; kurz: wo ihnen ihre Würde zurück­gegeben wird. Kon­fron­tiert mit der poli­tis­chen Real­ität der Stadt, entwick­elt sich ihr Unter­fan­gen zu einem wahren Thriller. Das Selb­st­bild­nis der Stad­to­beren will nicht, dass die Armut in der Bevölkerung im Alltag sicht­bar wird. Zum Ende aber obsiegt die Zivil­courage über Brüs­sel­er Bürokratie und Phan­tasie über poli­tis­che Blockaden.

Effi Weiss, born 1971, Amir Boren­stein, born 1969, both in Israel. They meet each other study­ing art in Jerusalem, then con­tin­u­ing at Sand­berg Insti­tute, Ams­ter­dam, where they receive their MFA. Since 1998 they col­lab­o­rate on inter­dis­ci­pli­nary works with video, pho­tog­ra­phy, instal­la­tion, per­for­mance and often par­tic­i­pa­to­ry projects. After DEUX FOIS LE MEME FLEUVE (2013), SOUS LA DOUCHE, LE CIEL is their second fea­ture doc­u­men­tary. In 2020 they mean­while released the docu-fic­tion CHANCE. www.effiandamir.net

Direc­tor, script, cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Effi Weiss, Amir Borenstein
Edit­ing: Simon Arazi, Effi & Amir
Sound: Fab­rice Osinski;
Pro­duc­tion: Centre Vidéo de Brux­elles (CVB), La chose à trois jambes
Dis­tri­b­u­tion: Philippe Cotte, CVB philippe.cotte@cvb.be

“Even when I close my eyes, I can hardly remem­ber what my vil­lage looks like, but I carry the beauty of Karen state in my mind for­ev­er.” Some say the fight of the Karen people against the Myan­mar gov­ern­ment is the oldest ongo­ing war of our time. One of its results is the over 400,000 Karen refugees many of whom have fled to the neigh­bour­ing coun­try of Thai­land, where they live as second class cit­i­zens, strug­gling for proper doc­u­ments. I AM GOLDEN KAREN tells the story of Thaawa, a young rapper who is part of a gen­er­a­tion of Karen who have spent a great part of their lives in Thai­land but who long to return home to their moth­er­land, Karen state, in south­ern Myan­mar. We follow Thaawa as he nego­ti­ates his iden­ti­ty as a young migrant arriv­ing in Bangkok to becom­ing a father who ques­tions his respon­si­bil­i­ties towards his family and the Karen people.

On the eve of the post­poned Con­golese elec­tions, two Con­golese and two Bel­gian cineasts are col­lab­o­rat­ing on a film about Kin­shasa and its resis­tance against the lega­cies of colo­nial­ism. The four film­mak­ers want to tell a story togeth­er, but because they have grown up on oppo­site sides of his­to­ry, they have dif­fer­ent views about how to tell that story. How should it look like? Who should be in it? Who are they making it for?
FAIRE-PART is the story of these four film­mak­ers’ search for an ade­quate way to por­tray the city. By focus­ing on film­ing artis­tic-polit­i­cal per­for­mances in public spaces, they paint a provoca­tive pic­ture of Kin­shasa and its rela­tions with the rest of the world.