ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival taking place in Zagreb every year, in the first quarter of the year. Launched in 2005, the festival is intended to provide an insight into recent documentary films, stimulate national documentary production and boost international and regional cooperation in co-productions. Its competition programme has international and regional categories, both presenting the best documentary films produced in the past year, with a focus on everything that is new, brave, off mainstream and intrepid. Besides the competition programme, ZagrebDox has a number of non-competition programmes – retrospectives and films focused on specific subjects, genres, techniques and esthetics.
ZagrebDox will present a selection of short films from this year's competition programme.
FILMS:
Who Loves the Sun, Arshia Shakiba, Canada, 2024, 19'
Who Loves the Sun focuses on the lasting impact of war on both Syria's people and their environment. Soon after the uprisings against the Assad regime turned into a bloody conflict and then a civil war, over half of the population had to flee their homes and the region. Those who stayed had to adapt and survive, building a strong sense of community along the way by helping each other overcome their collective problems. As the official oil industry crumbled, makeshift local refineries sprouted out of necessity. Since crude oil could still be pumped up and exported, makeshift refining soon became a viable source of income for local civilians. They turned to these unsustainable coping strategies as solutions for their unemployment and need for fuel.
The Other Side of the Mountain, Yumeng He, USA, China, 2024, 20'
In The Other Side of the Mountain, a filmmaker sets out to document her father’s return to his childhood home in Chongqing, fulfilling a wish from his aging mother. Fifty years after he last saw the city, the once-familiar streets and landmarks have been drastically reshaped by urbanization. Frustrated by the impossibility of reclaiming a vanished past, her father turns to his sketchbook, creating drawings that attempt to bridge memory and the present. We encounter former family friends and strangers who tell their personal connection with the transforming place. The film explores the relationship between the permanence of human longing and the impermanence of the landscapes we call home, and questions the reason behind different modes of documentation and image-making.
Field Trip, Jozo Schmuch, Croatia, 2024, 23'
Every year, over 35,000 students from elementary schools across Croatia visit the city of Vukovar as part of the Memorial Center of the Homeland War program. The film follows an eighth-grade class on this trip, documenting their entire journey, from departure to their return home. Initially, the dynamics among the students unfolds. However, when confronted with the wartime events of the 1990s in Vukovar, will their curiosity and the respect that this trip is meant to instill take precedence, or will their focus remain on adolescent relationships typical of their age? On a secondary level, the film explores how education shapes collective memory and questions whether memorial centers are an effective way to honor victims.
Lessons of Happiness, Oleksii Yeroshenko, Ukraine, 2024, 21'
The third school year begins in Ukraine under the shadow of a full-scale war. Natalia, a teacher in a seemingly peaceful Ukrainian city, is about to welcome a new class. She creates an island of safety and joy for her fifth-graders, which helps her to abstract from worries about her own son, who serves on the front line. “No one will ever stop us from celebrating the day of knowledge!” says Natalia. But on the first day of classes, her dreams are shattered by the reality of war.
This Is (For) The Sea, Renata Poljak, Croatia, 2025, 15'
The idea for the film arose from a speculative question: Can we heal the sea, help it, or at least play music for it – to make it feel better? Our beliefs and convictions have been shaped by stories, which, over the years and centuries, have been subject to change. In old Slavic mythology, the sea god was not seen as a bearer of good energy. With the mythical voice of Amira Medunjanin, combined with a contemporary live composition by Alen and Nenad Sinkauz and a poem by Monika Herceg, we create a new myth that seeks to shift the narrative. A 12-year-old boy, Vanja, has been catching and studying plankton for the past two years. He owns a professional plankton net and conducts scientific research under a microscope. His research has already contributed to new scientific discoveries.
*films are in original language with English subtitles
