Better Go Mad in the Wild and Grey Zone are among the films representing Slovak cinema at this year’s International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. The 68th edition of DOK Leipzig takes place from October 27 to November 2, 2025.
Better Go Mad in the Wild, directed and produced by Miro Remo, continues its successful festival run at one of the oldest documentary festivals in the world. Its magical look at the lives of twins with different personalities living alone in the Šumava forests will compete for an award in the Audience Competition. The film has already won the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary IFF and, in addition to Leipzig, will soon be presented at the Ji.hlava IDFF, the Festival dei popoli in Florence or the IDFA in Amsterdam.
Daniela Meressa Rusnokova’s feature debut Grey Zone (pictured), a film essay, a personal story, a tribute to mothers and families of premature babies, at-risk newborns, and vulnerable disadvantaged people, will be screened in the Doc Alliance Award section. The film won several awards at last year’s festival in Jihlava and was presented at MoMA Doc Fortnight in New York and Movies That Matter in The Hague, among others.
The Slovak Film Institute is a partner of the special program 5×5 Shorts from the East for the fourth time. It is a continuous screening of 25 short films from Central and Eastern Europe, this year from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Serbia, and Slovakia. The festival audience can see the films Criss Cross (dir. Nina Rybárová, Tomáš Rybár), forests and coasts near zingst (dir. Peter Podolský), Neptune (dir. Tereza Dodoková), Poisoned Well (dir. Radek Ševčík), and Rosso Papavero (dir. Martin Smatana).
Three upcoming films will be looking for new partnerships at the festival. The DOK Co-Pro Market will feature The Chef Suffragette (dir. Magdalena Szymków) and Sisters (dir. Tereza Bernátková), both co-produced by Peter Kerekes on Slovak side. The short film Limits to Our Pain by visual artist Kvet Nguyen, produced by NINJA FILM, was selected for the DOK Short n’ Sweet program.
In conclusion, during the panel Story Sovereignty: Building a Framework for Respectful Romani Representation, Slovak producer Vera Lacková (Media Voice) will share her knowledge and experience on the topic of Romani representation both in front of and behind the camera.
More information at: www.dok-leipzig.de/en
