DOCAVIV 2023 Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival is the only film festival in Israel wholly dedicated to documentaries. In 2018, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences included the Tel Aviv event on the list of leading festivals whose winners automatically qualify for consideration for an Oscar nomination.
Such an honour has now been given to the short documentary made by Karolina Karwan and Tomasz Ritter and produced by Munk Studio.
On a small island somewhere in Indonesia, subject to the whims of nature, a mother and her grown son live in seclusion, the latter speaking to spirits in a dance-induced trance. Moody is a beautifully filmed tale about the turbulent relationship between two people who have become marooned in this tropical “paradise” and can only count on one another. It is a story of solitude and alienation, but also a mystical journey in which music and dance become a means of communicating with the spirit world, leading to acceptance and understanding.
You can find out more about the festival here.