Two deeply moving films from the International Documentary Competition demonstrate that as long as the struggle continues, nothing is yet set in stone. In one, the stakes are nothing less than the democratic future of Armenia; in the other, the dignity of one’s nearest and dearest. The Winning Generation by Marco de Stefanis and If Pigeons Turned to Gold by Pepa Lubojacki – winner of the Caligari Prize for best documentary at this year’s Berlinale – combine the social and political with the profoundly personal to remarkable effect. Both leave space for the hope of genuine change.
Political Awakening
The Winning Generation chronicles the birth of a new political generation. Shot over the course of several years, the film traces the journey of Shahen Harutyunyan as he takes up the mantle of his father and grandfather, both of whom fought for Armenian sovereignty.
The pivotal moment arrives with his father’s imprisonment – an event that awakens Shahen’s political consciousness and sets the course of his life. Marco de Stefanis sketches a portrait of a young man who shoulders the weight of familial duty, increasingly convinced that he must not abandon the hope vested in his generation.
Can You Mourn Someone Who Is Still Alive?
This is the question Pepa Lubojacki asks in her extraordinarily intimate film, a meditation on familial pain and inherited addiction. Over the course of five years, the director documents the lives of four close relatives, above all her brother, who is battling alcoholism and homelessness.
If Pigeons Turned to Gold is at once radically intimate and formally arresting. The director’s gaze grows ever more mature. She resists the temptation to reduce her brother to his addiction alone, nor to cast herself in the role of a saviour. By accompanying her subject through moments of anguish as the flickers of hope, she crafts a deeply empathetic account of the attempt to understand that which defies simple answers.
Selected titles from the International Documentary Competition:
- The Arctic Circle of Lust, dir. Markku Heikkinen, 97’ Finland, Germany, Sweden, 2026
- The Fabulous Time Machine, dir. Eliza Capai, 71’, Brazil, 2026
- Silent Flood, dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, 90’, Ukraine, Germany, 2025
- Redlight to Limelight, dir. Bipuljit Basu, 100’, India, Finland, Latvia, 2025
- If Pigeons Turned to Gold, dir. Pepa Lubojacki, 110’, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2026
- Holofiction, dir. Michal Kosakowski, 102’, Germany, Austria, 2026
- Tickling the Devil, dir. Piotr Małecki, Maciej Nabrdalik, 82’, Poland, 2026
- Magic Hour, dir. Marcin Borchardt, 80’, Poland, 2026
- Synthetic Sincerity, dir. Marc Isaacs, 72’, United Kingdom, 2025
- The Winning Generation, dir. Marco de Stefanis, 101’, Netherlands, 2026
Insider passes for the 66th Krakow Film Festival are now on sale!
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of film events qualifying for the Academy Awards® in short film categories (fiction, animation, documentary) and feature-length documentary, the European Film Awards in the same categories, and serves as a qualifying event for the BAFTA Awards.
The Krakow Film Festival is organised with financial support from the City of Krakow, the Polish Film Institute, the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state purpose fund. The Polish Filmmakers Association serves as co-organiser.The 66th Krakow Film Festival will be held in cinemas from 31 May to 7 June 2027 and online on KFF VOD from 5 June to 19 June 2026.