The discrepancy could not be greater. Media Minister Florian Herrmann (CSU) and Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) have just happily set the bar high for Munich's DOK.fest 2023. They recall that last year's opening film about Alexei Navalny received the Oscar. But, hey: "no pressure". Herrmann refers to the 359,000 euros with which the Free State of Bavaria supports the festival every year, and Reiter gives a guarantee of existence for the next few years. So far, so moody and normal.
But a break follows. Images of the martial appearance of Defense Minister zu Guttenberg in combat gear, his predecessor Rudolf Scharping in the pool and the smiling Ursula von der Leyen underline the speech of festival director Daniel Sponsel in the overbooked auditorium of the Deutsches Theater. He quotes the overwhelmed ex-Minister of Defense Christine Lamprecht ("Many great encounters with interesting people") and presents the opening film "Etilaat Roz" by the present director Abbas Rezaie. This is "a unique chamber play," says Sponsel. "World-historical events, mirrored in small rooms and with a handful of people. A film that wouldn't be possible without smartphones."
The phase of struggle
Before the film begins, Sponsel refers to the film "Forever" by Carsten Rau and Hauke Wendler, which won the Documentary Film Production Award: "Eva and Dieter were a couple for 70 years. As examples, they experience the five stages of a relationship: being unconditionally in love, disillusionment, the phase of change and struggle, then resignation or acceptance, resulting in phase 5 with separation or reconciliation (also with fate). We are in the phase of struggle," says Sponsel. Some films testified to not being resigned, some even to an unconditional love of life," he says and concludes with a poem by the 80s band Palais Schaumburg: "Tomorrow the world will end".
In Kabul, the one for the editorial office of the newspaper "Etilaat Roz" has sunk. Only very slowly. The editors and their boss, chain-smoking publisher Zaki Daryabi, hear the news of the Taliban's rapid successes in disbelief. An editor reports that 4000,500 government soldiers were defeated by <> Taliban fighters. "And they must have had only three rounds in their Kalashnikovs," reports one editor, half indignant, half admiring. "In Afghanistan, things change overnight," Daryabi says. He still feeds his beloved coffee machine with Illy and opens his laptop. He is quickly faced with the question of how the newspaper should continue to report.
Until now, it has been possible to report on state corruption, even if in the end it was not the corrupt official, but the editor who was on trial. The Taliban won't let critics live, the editor suspects. He allows his team to escape. But many remain. One editor sees all freedoms in danger: "It will certainly be worse than before," she says unveiled into the camera. Then two journalists return from a report on a demonstration for women's rights. The Taliban police beat them green and blue. As it turns out later, not because they were reporters, but because of their origins.
Editors are spread all over the world
"We have to stay alive," Zaki Daryabi implores his editors, who have to live with the dichotomy of being provided with information by readers. The last printed edition will be published on August 15, 2021. After that, fatalism spreads: "If the company continues to come to a standstill, we have already lost. We become needy immigrants." Through tears, Daryabi says: "We want to be part of the value system. I can't do justice to my mother or my colleagues." In the end, the publisher also leaves his 100 square meters of Kabul and flees in an old rusty Toyota Corolla. Today, they are spread all over the world and still try to report on the reality in Afghanistan, says Sakina Amiri, who now lives in Spain. In Munich, she stands on stage, quietly and falteringly reports on the hardship in her country, her overtired daughter in her arms. The audience is silent as a mouse and spontaneously donates money – for the displaced journalists and the people in Afghanistan.
A further 129 films from 55 countries await at DOK. Festive until May 21 for visitors and online viewers. They will all broaden the horizon and view of world events, which is often limited in this country.