Hungarian Premiere

Ali, the Hungarian Yazidi

Réka Dubinyák is a scriptwriter from Budapest. After completing a degree in legal studies, she turned her attention to the film industry. She has written scripts for documentary series (Öregharcos, Együtt az Életért Egyesület: Én, te, ők), public service commercials (NANE- Women For Women Together Against Violence Association: Warning sign of domestic violence, 12 weeks) and TV films/series. She has written and directed her first feature-length documentary, and an online series, “Nofilter”. In the past few years she has focused on scriptwriting. She is currently working on several projects and is developing a short film.

Rocks in a Windless Wadi

EJ Gagui is a Filipino filmmaker residing in Abu Dhabi and Pampanga. His first short film, Ing Tianak, was funded by the Film Development Council of the Philippines for Mit Out Sound 2021. His second short film, Rock in a Windless Wadi, premiered at the Opening Scenes competition at Visions du Réel 2022. He is currently producing both commissioned and independent projects under the regional collective-boutique film company, Eximious Produkt, which he co-founded.

The Revolution Devours Its Children!

Jan-Christoph Gockel, born in 1982, grew up near Kaiserslautern. He studied theatre, film, and media studies in Frankfurt/Main, and directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. He has worked as a freelance director since 2007. His productions usually focus on political issues. Since 2013, Gockel has been intensely engaged with Africa, and the relationship between Europe and former colonies, the effects of colonialism, and economic dependency have become the themes of Congo-Müller, Heart of Darkness, The Mission: Danton’s Death and Coltan Fever. His works have been nominated for the Nestroy Theatre Award (2010, 2016, 2017), which he won in 2017 for The Mission: Danton’s Death. The Revolution Devours Its Children! is his first feature-length film.

A Portrait on the Search for Happiness

Benjamin Rost studied directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and philosophy in Munich. His films have been screened at festivals like DokLeipzig, Dokfest München, and Max Ophüls Preis a.m.m. He has been part of the scholarship program of the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” since 2016. In 2017–2019, he lived in South Africa and Rwanda, supporting the German Development Organisation (GIZ) with the launch of the youth television channel “Iwacu”. In 2019 he participated in the Documentary Campus Masterschool with #Harraga. A Portrait on the Search for Happiness is his graduate film.

memoria

Peter Podolský is a fourth-year student at the Atelier of Documentary Directing, at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He previously studied product design. He is active in theatre and photography in Prague, where he currently lives.

Khan's Flesh

Kristina Savutsina was born in 1989, in Riga, into a Belarusian family. From 1993 to 2014 she lived in Belarus. In 2011, she graduated with a degree in cultural studies, in Minsk. Since 2015 she has been studying film and fine arts at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg. In her work, Kristina deals with regulatory politics and its concrete manifestations in Belarus. She lives and works in Hamburg.

Jozsef in Autumn

Cecilia Belén Sandoval is an Image and Sound Designer from Argentina, who graduated from the University of Buenos Aires. She is currently studying at DocNomads Master’s programme. She works as a director, DoP and camera operator for documentary and experimental film.

Erin Macpherson is a documentary filmmaker from South Africa, with an Honours in documentary filmmaking. By the end of 2022, they will graduate from the DocNomads Masters Programme. Their films often explore humanitarian socio-political issues, such as queer rights, climate change, and mental health advocacy, to name a few.

Judit Sára Elek started her documentary film directing MA at University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest but she graduated at the Academy Of Performing Arts, Slovakia, 2022. She will graduate in filmmaking master’s at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. Her first short documentary, Station (2019) won several prizes in Hungary. She works as assistant director in short fiction films, and in documentaries.

Lesia Diak is a Ukrainian documentary film director. She began studying documentary film directing with the international DocNomads masters program in 2021. She is finishing a feature-length documentary, Dad’s Lullaby, about the family life of an army veteran traumatized by the Russian-Ukrainian war that began in 2014.

I Am Michelle

Olena Siyatovska is an artist and emerging filmmaker. She received a MA in English Philology and Art History from the National University of Oles Honchar, in Ukraine, and studied New Media Arts at the University of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland. Her artistic practice focuses mainly on social relations, human rights, and identity in the digital dimension. She has participated in exhibitions and residencies in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and the US. Siyatovska has received the Polish Ministry of Culture of Poland, “Gaude Polonia” scholarship twice. She is currently using this to create a documentary about Ukrainian women who have fled the war. I Am Michelle is her directing debut.

How I Became a Partisan

Vera Lacková is a Roma director and film producer. Born in Slovakia and based in Vienna, Austria, she is the founder of the Czech-Slovakian production company, Media Voice. Her background working with Roma people, sharing their stories and movements, enables her to bring a unique insider perspective on important and timely ethnic and political Roma themes for the community. A participant of the 2019 IDFA Academy, her feature-length documentary debut film, How I Became a Partisan, attempts to uncover the fate of forgotten Roma partisans. Her own search for and exposure of stories of Romani partisans is primarily based on the life of her great-grandfather, Ján Lacko. The film premiered at goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden, in 2021. There she received the Federal Foreign Office for Cultural Diversity Award. The project was developed at the Ex Oriente film workshop, pitched at the 2020 East Doc Platform, and is part of the East Silver Caravan distribution program, supported by the Institute of Documentary Film.

Far Eastern Golgotha

Born in 1995, in Moscow, Julia Sergina graduated from the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK), and the non-fiction film workshop of Sergei Miroshnichenko. Her film, Therapy, won the Laurel Branch award for best debut documentary. She is the Co-founder of the STAYA.DOC documentary film studio.

22nd Verzió

11-19 NOVEMBER 2025.