europe! docs showcasing european documentaries with transatlantic appeal

"‘MARIINKA’ begins long before the world watched the full-scale invasion. In eastern Ukraine, the film traces several young Ukrainians whose lives have been forever shaped by more than 10 years of war and conflict in the Donbas region. Amidst the war a promising boxing talent turns military paramedic, a girl is smuggling unexpected goods across the frontline to survive, and as in a Greek tragedy, two brothers now fight on opposite sides of the front line – against each other – while their youngest brother lives in safety far from the war with a foster family in the United States. Through letters, videocalls and silent meetings, a story unfolds about belonging, national loyalty and the fault lines where political conflicts can trump even the bonds of blood." – CPH:DOX

"In 1971, hundreds of young people occupied some abandoned army barracks in Copenhagen, and Christiania was born. A wild experiment in freedom and community that became a real alternative to mainstream society. Filmmaker Karl Friis Forchhammer tells the story of how the self-declared freetown with love and a twinkle in his eye. A story told from the inside about radical democracy and free creativity, but also about violence, drugs and pressure from the outside world. About the idealism of the new settlers, the hippies, a religious doomsday sect, an alcoholic bear and consensus democracy. About how gangs entered the hash market, the battle for Pusher Street and the Christianites’ attempts to once again set limits on what the community should accommodate." – CPH:DOX

"In Venezuela, giving birth has become a life-threatening act. At the center of this crisis is Carolina, a fearless activist who has been fighting for justice since her teenage years. Drawing from her past, she creates a resilience network in her underprivileged neighborhood, leading women in the fight for bodily autonomy and safe birthing conditions. With her right hand Yanni, Carolina transforms a small car into a makeshift ambulance – part hearse, part nursery, part safe space for conversations about sexuality. A chorus of women enter and leave, each seeking to give birth safely and with dignity. From these struggles emerges Carolina’s most radical idea: a birth house, created outside failing state structures." – CPH:DOX

"Rachel Taparjan sits both in the director’s chair and in front of the camera in her debut film, which feels like it has been a lifetime in the making – and indeed it has. As a child, she was adopted from Romania to England. In adulthood, questions of origin resurface. She looks for her biological mother and the sisters who have long existed only in absence — and in that search, she begins to rediscover herself. While helping another woman find her biological mother, Rachel revisits her own family history. In her search for her missing sisters, she uncovers a shocking legacy and a self-destructive pattern of abuse and exploitation. The question is whether the creative power can help her rewrite the life story she has inherited? ‘Something Familiar’ is an unusually powerful and unsparing film that courageously and compellingly tells a personal story with more than one twist along the way." – CPH:DOX

"In 1996, a Brazilian civil servant and a Swedish journalist venture deep into the Amazon to meet the Korubo tribe, who live far from civilisation. The expedition ends in a first encounter, and the footage is hailed as a sensation: rare images from a hidden world that no one has ever seen before. Decades later, the material resurfaces and raises new questions. Filmmaker Nathan Grossman rewinds the tape to investigate the other side of the story. And what he finds is no small matter. The entire first half of ‘Amazomania’ consists simply of the original material, while the second half follows the Swedish journalist on his journey back to the tribe 30 years later – and it doesn’t go quite according to plan.The Korubo tribe demands compensation and insists on the right to tell their own story." – CPH:DOX

"There are still corners of the planet that are not connected to the internet. But there are fewer and fewer of them. In the Arctic Ocean, a colossal ship drifts along, while thousands of kilometers of fiber optic cable slide from the deck into the dark depths of the sea. The internet cable reaches a remote island in Alaska – one of the last communities on Earth that was not yet online. At the same time, the data streams herald a bright future for the local community, which is now – finally – connected to the rest of the world. But what does that really mean? Filmmaker Ian Purnell has been working on his epic debut for 10 years, and it shows. Everything is enormous – from the massive cables to the images and phenomenal sound design – but the human scale never disappears from view. The islanders reflect on the technological changes based on their own values and worldview, while the Filipino crew aboard the cable ship battle loneliness on the open sea. Their smartphones are their only fragile connection to their homeland on the other side of an increasingly connected globe." – CPH:DOX