Ukraine War Doc ‘Trenches,’ Cuban Migrant Title ‘Option Zero’ Win at Spain’s MiradasDoc Film Festival
variety.comAnna Marie de la Fuente Documentaries about the conflict in Ukraine, the Cuban migrant situation and the Palestinian refugee crisis were among top winners at MiradasDoc, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival which wrapped its 15th edition on March 12.
Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region. “Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
In a video message sent to the festival, Bureau said: “The situation now in Ukraine is still catastrophic and I’ve been trying to reach my friends all around the country but it’s complicated as some have gone to fight and others have already died; everyone I know in this country is either fighting or fleeing.” Bureau, who has covered Ukraine for the past eight years, said the prize was the only piece of good news he’d received in the past two weeks.
Expressing his fears that the conflict was going to last for months, a visibly moved Bureau commented: “’’Trenches’ somehow explains how we got into this situation.
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