It took me by surprise, when I saw that the film about Katja Schumann was selected for Nordisk Panorama. I had read the overall positive review of Danish Kim Skotte in Politiken but in competition with other Danish documentaries by a director I had never heard of before. And with the quota system of Nordisk Panorama – equal number of films from each Nordic country – could that happen?

Right choice! The film is an excellent portrait of the former Circus Princess from the Schumann dynasty, Cirkus Schumann, that I remember from my childhood and youth, when I was taken by my parents to the Circus Building in Copenhagen for wonderful performances. The last performance in that building, that still carries the name Circus, was in 1969 – I will get back to that.

I’m not ready to be archived, Katja Schumann, born in 1949, says. And the film shows a very active elderly woman, who sees it as her responsibility to pass on, what she has learned in the Ring. 20 year old Liv is her student, who moves into the home of Katja and her Luffe at their place in Northern Jutland. But I don’t know how to pass on, she says, I hate the word pedagogical! Learning by Doing shows to be the solution.

That’s one of many layers in the film, the relationship between Katja and Liv, described with warmth and smiles from both of them. Another is the going back to archives, where you see Katja as the princess, where you are told and shown, how the horses are trained, Katja being recognised as one of the best horse trainers ever. And there is a trip to the US, where her two children are living. And grandchildren. Key scenes with her son reveal that “it wasn’t easy for my kids”, when she divorced their father and left for Denmark. There is pain in these scenes, that come at the right moment, and witness that the editing overall is simply formidable.

From the US back to the circus in Jutland to the training with Liv; how to whip the horses, how to walk in the arena, how to… flavoured with archive and with showing of costumes, and a trip to circus Knie in Switzerland, where the owner, with whom Katja has performed, says “in the old days everything was learned by force, today there has to be enthusiasm… “. Liv has that enthusiasm and we see how she improves.

Back to the Circus Building, where Katja has not been since 1969. How is it to be here, the director asks behind the camera. Terrible, Katja answers, and if you ask more questions I start to cry…

A unique cultural art form is no longer. But a unique documentary has been made reminding us, what we have lost, conveyed by a wonderful circus princess.

Denmark, 2025, 95 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️❤️ ❤️

How do I start a review of this outstanding documentary? With one of the characters? Why not Yuri? Maybe not a character but…

… a dog who comes back again and again in the editing. Yuri is outside the house, wanting to come in, making scratches on the window – “Let me in!”. Yuri is inside eating at the table together with Tero, who portions This is for me and the next bite is for you. Yuri is “upgraded” to sit next to Tero in the car, when Henri is not there. Yuri is running, barking outside inside the fence around the house. And the barking is sometimes like he is crying…

In dramaturgical sense Yuri serves as breaking the narrative: In the many episodes with Tero and Henri, with Henri and his girlfriend, with the grandparents, with Tero in the car, proudly looking out the front window. Yuri sets often the tone, the melancholy of the film, accompanied by the wonderful many Finnish folk and pop songs, that the director has chosen. Very creative!

I have known Tero through Jukka Kärkkäinen’s work since 2009, where he was in the director’s “Living Room of a Nation”. The director started filming him 2003 meaning that they have known each other for more than 20 years. You sense that cearly, the intimacy of the characters in the film is amazing, there is a constant atmosphere or call it a tone of Love towards the characters. Tero is of course the protagonist, a man or call him a big boy. who drinks too much, a man who is easily moved to tears and constantly says, how much Henri means to him. Without you I would have hanged myself, he says! For those who have or have had alcoholics in their family, like me, you can easily identify with the emotional painful situation that unfolds towards the end of the film, where a dialogue between father and son is recorded, while the camera stays outside the house. Oh, it is so authentic!

The two in the car, Tero and Henri, great scenes and dialogues, the two on holidays in Rome, hilarious scenes, as said it is a film with Love and it is a film where you get to love all three generations. One highlight is, when Henri tries to get his driver’s license; he fails the first time, but succeeds at the end and they are all happy and proud. It means everything for the grandfather, who celebrates emptying a bottle of vodka, whereas the grandmother, Pirjo, hugs him, whereas when he is out driving with the girlfriend, she is afraid he drops down into a ditch…

The grandparents are developed as characters in a beautiful manner. Grandfather is going to have a new hip and maybe he has other illnesses. Tero calls the hospital and gets complicated information about where he is now, actually he does not understand medical terms, who does?, being taken from one section to another. I can move my foot, grandfather says when wife and son Tero (constantly in tears!) pay a visit – I, writing this, remember from my hip replacement that this is what the nurses check as the first thing, when you have woken up from the operation.

Put your hand on mine, grandmother says to grandfather, when they sit in their chairs. Another caring, humorous situation is, when grandfather comes home with some flowers to her for celebration, she reacts in a happy manner: Are we gonna have some hanky-panky tonight? Wonderful moments as the film is full of.

Life goes on: Tero sits alone in his armchair with his cellphone talking to Henri – Could there come more from you two, (Henri and the girlfriend) than puppies! Tero wants to be a grandfather. I think Yuri has the same idea, someone to play with or run after. I see it in the dog’s face sitting in the car on the front seat next to Tero. Life goes on.

Thank you for the film Jukka, you carry a lot of love inside you, and you know how to make films!

Finland, Norway, 2026, 94 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️❤️ ❤️

There are several documentaries from Taliban’s Afghanistan on the market. I was last year in the jury of WatchDocs in Warsaw, where “Kabul. Warrior’s Prayer” by Aboozar Amini was given the main award. And I saw “If Luck Will Come” by Camille Bildsøe (https://filmkommentaren.dk/camille-bildsoee-if-luck-will-come/) at its world premiere in Copenhagen. And now another strong film, “The Secret Reading Club of Kabul” has crossed the water from Copenhagen to Malmø to be in the main competition of Nordisk Panorama, the film of Danish Camille Bildsøe is also in Malmø competing in the section New Nordic Voices. Both films will be discussed in the juries, when awards will be decided. All three mentioned documentaries are far away from the reportage, they go behind the headlines with brave protagonists and filmmakers.

Below you will find the catalogue text of the film, when it was at CPH:DOX, but before you read that let me praise the film for having found a quiet tone of compassion and an elegant way of going from the voice and presence of Shakiba Adil in Helsinki to the videos of three young Afghan women, to the – seen before but still shocking, a warning – clips of women being shot in public stadions, or the beating in streets, constructed with information year after year from 2021, when Taliban regained the power and continued their terrible atrocities. Linked by the story about the three young women reading the diaries of Anne Frank, first together, later through cell phone connections as it grew too dangerous to leave their houses. And the catalogue text:

“In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where women are denied the right to study, work, and speak freely, a group of young women risk their lives to form a secret reading circle. Inspired by Anne Frank’s experiences in 1940s Amsterdam, a group of young women in Kabul begin to write their own diaries. They secretly establish a reading circle. They have to, because the Taliban forbids women from reading and educating themselves. We experience with shocking clarity what is at stake when the Taliban storms a hidden school or arrests young girls for practicing martial arts.

Partially filmed by the women themselves, ‘The Secret Reading Club of Kabul’ is an intimate and confidential testimony to the power of art to keep hope and humanism alive. It is also a moving declaration of love for literature and for the act of reading itself. 

The story is interwoven with director Shakiba Adil’s own journey. As a girl, she grew up under the first Taliban regime, and after the fall of the Taliban, she became the first woman to appear on Afghan television. After being forced to flee her homeland twice, she has now dedicated her film to the new generation facing the same oppression she herself has endured.”

Finland, Norway, 2026, 94 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️❤️

… by Guro Saniola Bjerk, who comes from “Båtsfjord, one of the northernmost fishing villages of the world, where cod is more important than God. In Cod We Trust is a mosaic puzzle, where people are knit together by fish, the town and nature. With an observational camera and closely heard dialogue, you (will) feel like you are there, candidly watching them, as they reveal how history and circumstances shape us and our perception of home. Båtsfjord might be the most remote and coldest place on earth, but here you will find the warmest people with the most outstanding humour.”

Agree! with this quote taken from the website of the production company Wacky Tie Films. It is a film that is a true Nordic co-production and therefore the obvious choice as the opening film of a Nordisk panorama.

The issue, however, with a – as it is called in the quote above – mosaic puzzle structure, the fragmentation, is that you get close to a character, who you want to stay with for longer, but cut and you are taken to a new person or episode or problem. The latter could be the tensions with the Russians, the constant quota threat to the fishermen, the hard winters for the older population. Is there a lack of focus or should I just be happy to get it all, a bit messy maybe but full of beautifully shot images, music that I loved, small poems, foreign faces of immigrants who left their country, be it Syria or Ukraine, and earlier a lot of tamils came and when the king came to visit, Båtsfjord could be proud of having 0% unemployment. We depended on the foreigners, who came, some locals say in the film. And Doris celebrates her 90 years in a hilarious scene… I enjoyed the film. Go and watch!

Photo: the director.

Norway, Finland, 2026, 84 mins.

IGA: The project The Shepherd’s Son (Azerbaijan) directed by Nurlan Hasanli received the Baltic Sea Docs Award at the 30^th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, held in Riga.

A total of 26 projects were showcased and, for the first time, ARTE presented an award.

The forum was attended by film sales agents, representatives of international TV broadcasters, festivals, and producers from across Europe and other parts of the world.

Baltic Sea Docs 2026 was held 6–11 September 2026, organised by the National Film Centre of Latvia with support from Creative Europe – MEDIA, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.

WINNERS:

Baltic Sea Docs Award:The Shepherd’s Son (Azerbaijan)
Directed by Nurlan Hasanli

ARTE European Talent Development Award:Two of Us (Lithuania)
Directed by Jūratė Samulionytė

BBposthouse Award
Going Underground (Latvia, Estonia, Finland)
Directed by Armands Začs
Produced by Mistrus Media
Coproduced by Allfilm, Making Movies

Sheffield DocFest Award:
Lunatics (Finland)
Directed by Saila Kivelä

Movies That Matter Award:Two of Us (Lithuania)
Directed by Jūratė Samulionytė

IDFA & Baltic Sea Docs Collaboration Award
Borderline (Estonia, Finland)
Directed by Ville Seppänen, Johan Huimerind
Produced by DOKFILM

East Doc Platform Award:
35 Letters (Poland)
Directed by Zuzanna Solakiewicz

TV3 Group Award:I See No Death (Ukraine, Latvia)
Directed by Yevhen Titarenko
Produced by Braha Production Company, Ego Media

Good evening, friends, colleagues, and guardians of the documentary tradition.

It is wonderful again to see the many friends and colleagues I have known for almost 30 years, but it is even better to see all of you who are decades younger and take part in the Forum to shape the future for yourself and for all of us.

Thirty years ago—on a June morning in 1997 twenty-five documentary projects were presented to a panel of commissioning editors in the old Kino Gudhjem on the island of Bornholm.

That first Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries was more than a pitching session. It was an act of faith. Faith in the power of co-production to build understanding across borders that had only recently begun to open. Faith in stories from the East that deserved to be seen in the West. Faith in a genre—documentary—that was, at the time, struggling to find its place in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Today, as we gather in Riga for the 30th anniversary of Baltic Sea Docs, we celebrate not just an event. We celebrate a movement. A movement that has helped shape the very concept of the Baltic documentary film producer—a profession that did not exist under the Soviet regime.

What were the visions

The founding vision of this Forum was simple yet profound. As the early documentation states: “If you wish to access funding in another country than your own, you need to have an alliance with a co-producing company in that country.”

When we started the main investors were national public service media and film institutes that planned to screen the final productions.

This principle—born from the practical realities of film financing—became something far greater. It became a method of peacebuilding through culture.

Think about what that means. Co-production is not just about money. It is about trust. It is about relationships. It is about sitting in a room with people from different countries, different languages, different histories—and finding common ground in a story that matters.

Over three decades, an average of 25% of the projects that participated in this Forum have received international funding or become international co-productions. But the numbers tell only part of the story.

What truly matters is the collaboration across borders that these meetings have created. Developing projects with the help of TV commissioning editors who love to take part in a creative process. Building networks that outlast the Forum itself. Creating alliances that turn competitors into collaborators.

Look around this room. Some of you have been here for twenty editions. Some of you are here for the first time. But all of you are part of the same story—a story that began on Bornholm in 1997 and has travelled through Dubrovnik, Tallinn, Vilnius, and, since 2006, found its permanent home here in Riga.

The Founders and Guardian Angels

No anniversary celebration would be complete without honouring those who made this journey possible. Let me begin with the names that must be spoken tonight.

Tue Steen Müller. Tue’s voice has guided this Forum from its first morning in Gudhjem to this 30th edition—moderating, mentoring, and never losing his addiction to documentaries from the East of Europe. As he wrote in 2016, celebrating 20 years: “Thanks for letting me into a world of documentaries that I have become totally addicted to.” Tue, we thank you for that addiction—and for sharing it with all of us.

Sonja Vesterholt who could not be present, joined me in 1989 on Bornholm to document the complete regional transformation toward democracy and European cooperation and laid the groundwork for what would become the Balticum Film & TV Festival and, ultimately, this Forum. The Baltic Sea was no longer a divide but a new possibility of cooperation.

On that first morning in 1997, it was Sonja who opened the Forum alongside Alexander Krivonos from St. Petersburg with Searching of the Russian Avant-Garde Artists, setting the tone as bold, creative, and unafraid to tell difficult stories.

Simon Drewsen Holmberg. – One of the founders of Baltic Sea Docs, as my deputy at the Baltic Media Centre on Bornholm. Simon was a visionary who saw that unknown Baltic stories were worth breaking out into the world.

Lelda Ozola wrote in her tribute earlier this year: “Simon has undoubtedly left his footprint in the Baltic documentary scene, and it cannot be erased. And we are sure that he’ll continue to guide us as a guardian angel from the silver lined heaven.”

Simon’s passing is a profound loss. But his legacy lives on in every project that finds its way through this Forum to international audiences.

The Latvian Success Story—Lelda and Ilze

And then there are the two names that keep on coming back, as Tue Steen Müller wrote: Lelda Ozola and Ilze Galite Holmberg—the guardian angels of the Forum.

Lelda Ozola produced the first three editions of the Forum on Bornholm (1997– 1999). Her journey from the Soviet republic of Latvia to becoming a cornerstone of the National Film Centre of Latvia exemplifies the transformative power of this Forum.

As Lelda herself recalled, she used her experience from Bornholm to continue growing together with the Latvian film industry. Today, Lelda remains a vital force in Baltic documentary culture.

Ilze Galite Holmberg produced the fourth edition of the Forum and, as director of the National Film Centre of Latvia, initiated the parallel film programme that has become a Forum tradition.

Ilze’s logistical and technical skills carried the Forum through challenging moments— including the memorable 2001 edition as part of the SEE Docs of Dubrovnik that was a sister festival to Balticum Film & TV Festival.

Ilze’s warmth and professionalism, alongside Zanda Dudina’s, became the fundament of the Forum, when it found its permanent home in Riga in 2006.

Together, Lelda and Ilze represent the Latvian success story that we celebrate tonight: the transformation of the Baltic Sea Forum from Bornholm into a solid international event that has become the most important documentary event in the Baltic countries—highly respected for its professionality and loved for its friendly and inclusive atmosphere.

The Balticum Model—Economic Sustainability Through Culture

We must also stress the Latvian success with making the Forum into a solid international event for the economy of documentaries.

What began in 1990 as a festival founded by TV2 Bornholm evolved into a model of sustainable cultural cooperation. The setting up of the Forum created a unique ecosystem where artistic excellence met economic viability—where festival fees, distribution deals, and co-production agreements could multiply a filmmaker’s income.

As the role of commissioning editors’ financial importance decreased over the decades, sales agents and distributors grew enormously in influence—becoming go- betweens, who could secure festival money, VideoOnDemand deals, and non- theatrical distribution.

The Balticum model anticipated this shift. It created a space where filmmakers could meet not just broadcasters, but the full spectrum of decision-makers who determine whether a documentary finds its audience, It is about building a sustainable ecosystem for documentary film in a region that has known censorship, conflict, and the struggle for independence.

Why Documentaries Matter

Why does this matter? Why was it worth spending thirty years with this Forum? Because documentaries ask not just what is happening, but how does it happen—

and perhaps also why does it happen that way.

In a region that has known conflict, censorship, and the struggle for independence, documentaries have been a tool for telling the truth between the lines—creatively, visually, courageously. Today, as the Baltic Sea countries face renewed tensions— Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, hybrid threats target critical infrastructure, and NATO responds with enhanced security measures—the work of documentary filmmakers carries even greater weight.

From Ivars Seleckis’s Crossroad Street to Ukrainian filmmakers documenting their reality with extraordinary courage at this Forum, these projects have not only recorded history—they have helped shape it. In an age of electronic warfare and contested narratives, documentary film remains one of the few spaces where we can still navigate by True North.

The Next Thirty Years

Let us continue this work—of co-production, of collaboration, of building understanding through the power of documentary film.

Photo A. Zeltina.

Bent 09.09.2026