Closure Takes Home Golden Alexander at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival; Birds of War Shines with Four Awards
Closure, directed by Michal Marczak, was awarded the Golden Alexander in International Competition at the prestigious Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece. This accolade marks the festival’s highest honor.
Premiering in the World Cinema Documentary competition at Sundance, Marczak’s film tells the poignant story of Daniel, a father searching for his missing teenage son, Chris. The last confirmed sighting of Chris was on a bridge over the Vistula River in Warsaw, where a rotating CCTV camera initially captured him before he vanished.
Marczak was present at the awards ceremony, which took place on a picturesque pier in the port city along the Aegean Sea.
Closure is set to open the forthcoming Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival in Marczak’s home country of Poland.
“We completed this movie in 14 months from our first meeting with the protagonist, shooting for a year,” Marczak said. “We worked quickly to edit as we went along, striving to maximize our limited resources and release the film.”
A central theme of the film is the uncertainty surrounding whether Chris took his own life. His father’s relentless search for his son’s body unfolds alongside this haunting question.
Reflecting on the film’s impact, Marczak shared, “When you see people genuinely touched by the movie, that’s beautiful. I received a voice message from someone who said, ‘I’ve had some bad days and deep, dark thoughts, but after seeing your movie, I know I will never commit suicide.’ I cried when I heard that message.”
At the TiDF awards ceremony, Birds of War captured an impressive four awards, including the Silver Alexander in International Competition. Directed by Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, this documentary was crafted using a wealth of footage collected by Habak during the Syrian civil war, which has displaced millions and resulted in a refugee crisis in Europe.
Director Abd Alkader Habak holds several of the awards his film ‘Birds of War’ won at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece.
Habak noted, “The film contains a lot of my archive, which includes footage I shot in Aleppo during the siege. It reveals a part of my experiences and what I endured while working there.”
‘Birds of War’ by Abd Alkader Habak
Habak expressed concern about the potential for Syria to become further embroiled in regional conflicts, especially following recent tensions involving Israel and the U.S. attacking Iran, alongside Israel’s assaults on Lebanon, which harbors Hezbollah militants.
Further details regarding the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival awards are expected to emerge.
