Last week of February in Zagreb has, for the past eleven years, been reserved for documentary films. Most people didn’t even know how much they love auteur documentaries until Zagrebdox opened its doors for the first time. At first viewed as a niche festival, it soon become of the most popular cultural events in the city and a recognized festival brand in the European film landscape due to its continuously spot on selection of films, themes and auteurs.
That’s why there are great expectations from the local public when it comes to 12th Zagrebdox, starting on Sunday, February 21st. An expectation the organizers assure is going to be met with the program they’ve set up this year. Two major themes explored on the festival this year are refugees, from experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina refugees in the 90s (Flotel Europa) to more recent crisis (Abdul and Hamza) and the rise of global extremist tendencies from European rightists (The Érpatak Model) and west born Muslim extremists (Jihad) to Orthodox extremists movements in Russia (God’s Will).
Aside from two main themes, more than 160 films will be shown as part of the main and side programs such as Biography Dox, Musical Globe, Happy Dox, Controversial Dox, Masters of Dox, State of Affairs, Teen Dox, Factumentaries and a special Russians are Coming program focusing on the new wave of Russian documentaries such as Children 404, Nepal Forever, Strange Particles and other.
A special feature on ZagrebDox this year are Virtual Reality film projections, screening short interactive VR documentaries from Vrse Works, a production company specialized in new film making technologies.
ZagrebDox will take place from Fabruary 21st to 28th at Cineplexx Kaptol Centar, Nova ves street 17. You can check out the full schedule here.
