Against Bleak Global Backdrop, Kosovo’s Dokufest Ponders ‘How to Survive?’

Sixty-eight-year-old Cava will work until 11 p.m., trying to earn enough money to buy the medicine his wife needs to treat her cancer, while festivalgoers hurry excitedly through the city, tickets and souvenirs in hand.

One cob of Cava's roasted corn costs a euro. He sells up to 50 a day during Dokufest, but barely 10 on other days.

"It's very hard dealing with corn right now because of the heat from outside and from here," he said, pointing to the barbecue he uses. "So hot that you can't even eat bread, only water, otherwise your lungs will rot. I'm very worried because my wife has cancer and I can't get enough of the medicines. She's been operated on five times."

Cava's plight speaks to the theme of this year's Dokufest, which ends on Saturday - 'How to survive?'

Returning in full after a year of only operating online and another in hybrid mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dokufest 2022 has hosted 250 documentaries and shorts, exhibitions, workshops and talks, all held against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The topic 'How to Survive?' came as a result of many events in the world, starting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences at the global level, the war in Ukraine, the increase in the effects of global warming, the increase in right-wing ideologies in Europe, America and Asia, etc," said DokuFest co-founder Veton Nurkollari.

A definitive answer is unlikely, but, Nurkollari told BIRN, "we were and continue to be concerned about all of this and we thought of putting the theme of the festival in the form of a question, hoping for an answer from the films, filmmakers, visitors and all those who in one form or another are there at the festival."

Economic...