From colonial horrors to rebuilding Ukraine, the buzzy documentary projects at DOK Leipzig’s co-pro market

The projects pitched this week at DOK Co-Pro Market, the co-financing and networking event of DOK Leipzig festival, received a mixed but generally positive responses from international sales agents and festival programmers. 

“The projects are strong. It’s quite buzzy here, very auteur-driven for sure, but I’ve found it extremely positive,” said Killian Kiefel, a sales executive at French company Mediawan Rights.

“For me, what has been a pleasant surprise is the strength of projects. There were at least three or four projects that were very strong which is above the average for most markets you go to,” commented Rohan Berry Crickmar of French sales outfit Lightdox.

“I liked the selection of projects – a lot of different topics and different ways of dealing with those topics,” agreed Martina Droandi of new youth-oriented Vienna-based sales outfit, Odd Slice Films, whose slate includes pickups like the IDFA-bound Amilcar from Miguel Eeek and Stories Of A Lie from Olia Verriopoulou.

However, a few sales agents complained that projects being presented were at too nascent a stage, meaning that it was difficult to commit to them, and not yet clear when, or if, they would be completed.

“They’re too early and too personal, there is no market for them. It breaks my heart but I don’t know what to tell these filmmakers. If they have a completion date in 2028, I can’t do anything,” commented one veteran sales agent.

Buzz titles

Argentinian-German animated feature Black Diaries, from director Patricio Plaza, about young idealistic Irish diplomat Roger Casement discovering the horrors of Belgian colonialism in the Congo, caught the imagination of several sales agents in Leipzig – although some feared they couldn’t pay the hefty MG likely to be demanded.

Finnish director Hanna Nordenswan’s Sense And Sensibility, about a mother and her recovering alcoholic daughter who works at a cemetery, also had its champions with delegates commenting on the dark Nordic humour of the project, already a prize winner at the Finnish Film Affair.

Ukrainian director Roman Bondarchuk and Vadim Ilkov’s feature documentary, Recovery, produced by Darya Bassel of Moon Man Films, was another title sparking strong interest. The film, co-produced by Pauline Tran Van Lieu of France’s Hutong Productions, looks at the rebuilding of Ukraine.

“We are trying to see whether the country has a chance to be rebuilt in a modern form, get rid of the Soviet past and find a more modern way of thinking,” said producer Bassel. “This project is directed into the future but the paradox of rebuilding is that it is happening simultaneously with destruction.”

“It has been two great days,” added Bassel after around 30 meetings in Leipzig. But she also said it was too early for concrete deals. The film is still in development and due for completion by 2028. “Our main aim was to meet representatives of funds, broadcasters and sales agents just to place the project on the map, get reactions and see how it will go.”

Other titles generating early buzz included Czech director Tereza Bernátková’s Sisters, based on 8mm footage found in a convent for teenage girls classified as mentally handicapped, and Paraguayan title That Soul Stealing Device, from Giuliano Franco Ochipinti.

Meanwhile, industry delegates predicted that Speak Image, Speak from Berlin-based director Pary El-Qalqili, an outspoken doc about the distortion and silencing of Palestinian history, would provoke strong debate and that sales might well follow.

There was enthusiasm too for the fable-like Gongon from Carlos Yuri Ceuninck, about rapid social and environmental changes in a fishermen’s village on a Cape Verde island, and for Polish director Magdalena Szymkow’s The Chef Suffragette.

Some of the docs presented in DOK Leipzig’s Preview Germany, for new German docs and works in progress, also generated interest among sellers and festivals.

Sabine Lidl’s English language Siri - Dance Around The World, produced by Irene Höfer at Berlin-based Media Film Factory and about novelist and philosopher Siri Hustvedt, was widely liked. It follows on from the same director’s earlier documentary about Hustvedt’s late husband, Paul Auster, What If?, and features the last interview with novelist Auster before his death in April last year. This was tipped as a likely festival contender for early 2026.

Another German feature, Florian Kamer’s Finding Connection, about lonely people seeking love and companionship through AI chatbots, was likewise warmly received. Produced through Domar Film, this is at rough cut stage and will be ready for early 2026.

However, international sales agents and distributors in Leipzig generally agreed they were there more to scout projects than to strike deals.

“At Leipzig, you get a very strong sense of what is going on in the German market first and foremost,” said Lightdox’s Crickmar. “Even within the co-production market, there are definitely projects being picked because there is potential for a German co-production.”

“What I feel is that DOK Leipzig is basically a place for producers to find co-productions and to present their projects in different stages,” noted Benjamin Cölle, managing director of Berlin-based sales and distribution outfit, Pluto Film. “For us, it’s a market for acquisitions, not for selling.”

• Sales agents call on filmmakers to regard them as strategic partners rather than an afterthought