Thessaloniki

Abstract

Ana Grgić and Antonis Lagarias report from the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which celebrated its 24th year with a return to in-person programming following the pandemic. Reflecting a programmatic interest in cinematic themes relating to the future of a humanity facing ecological and techno-existential threats, the festival’s focus was “postreality,” a popular term for indicating the sensory world’s mediation through images and virtual universes. Outside of this special focus on documentaries that challenge conceptions of the “real” world, films employed a range of archival materials to explore issues of individual and collective memory. The festival’s retrospective focused on the Latvian director Laila Pakalniņa, whose central preoccupation is observing and documenting a subjective view of reality.

“A Study of Remembrance in Post-Yugoslav Cinema Through Aida Begic’s Snow”.

“…She accentuates the notion that cinema doesn't necessarily need to portray hostility to bring pain or be loud to awaken anger or fear. In her latest feature film, A Ballad (Balada) from 2022, Begić continues to experiment with expressive aesthetics and her self-reflective approach (Grgić and Lagarias 2023) to filmmaking, prompting spectators to reflect on her film's dialectic relationship not only with the cinematic experimentation but also with reflection and remembrance of times long behind, but still very much alive.…”