{"id":74400,"date":"2026-04-21T11:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krakowfilmfestival.pl\/?p=74400"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:27:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:27:58","slug":"hope-above-all-else-new-titles-in-the-international-documentary-competition-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krakowfilmfestival.pl\/en\/hope-above-all-else-new-titles-in-the-international-documentary-competition-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Above All Else. New Titles in the International Documentary Competition Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em> by Marco de Stefanis and If Pigeons Turned to Gold<\/em> by Pepa Lubojacki \u2013 winner of the Caligari Prize for best documentary at this year’s Berlinale \u2013 combine the social and political with the profoundly personal to remarkable effect. Both leave space for the hope of genuine change.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political Awakening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Winning Generation<\/em><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Winning Generation, dir. Marco de Stefanis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Winning Generation, dir. Marco de Stefanis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pivotal moment arrives with his father’s imprisonment \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can You Mourn Someone Who Is Still Alive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If Pigeons Turned to Gold, dir. Pepa Lubojacki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If Pigeons Turned to Gold, dir. Pepa Lubojacki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If Pigeons Turned to Gold<\/em><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected titles from the International Documentary Competition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n