Hot Docs’ European Program Explores Bodily Autonomy, Rise of Right-Wing, Labor Conditions in EU

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The seventh edition of The Changing Face of Europe, a section in Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival, explores the cultural, economic and political forces shaping contemporary Europe.

From an investigation of a right-wing group in Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning’s “Norwegian Democrazy” to the fight for bodily freedom in Elina Psykou’s “Stray Bodies,” this year’s selection broaches a series of urgent — and, at many times, highly-sensitive — sociopolitical topics at the forefront of European society from filmmakers who may not always get the support they need within the international festival landscape. “The section is very important because it allows us to get films from filmmakers who we wouldn’t normally get films from,” Hot Docs festival programming director Heather Haynes tells Variety. “It helps create an exchange and communication between what’s happening in Europe and what we are doing at Hot Docs.” The Changing Face of Europe, which is presented in partnership with European Film Promotion, will stage the world premiere of Helen Lõhmus and Leana Jalukse’s “Kelly – Someone Else’s Dream.” The film uncovers the parental abuse suffered by Estonian freestyle skier Kelly Sildary, who became the youngest gold medalist at a Winter X Games event at the age of 13. “In Estonia, this story started a snowball.

As a society, we need to figure out if a 13 year old should be an Olympic winner,” says Lõhmus. “We used to have gladiators, but we don’t do this anymore.