There are documentary film festivals in Belgrade, Serbia but I think many people like Magnificent 7 Film Festival , which 2013 showed once more that quality that is above quantity with only 7 worldwide important documentaries in the selection of Danish doc industry veteran Tue Steen Müller and selector for the festivals DOCS Barcelona, DOK Leipzig, Damascus . And teaching in his the film school Zelig in Bolzano in Italy etc. It is worth mentioning that Müller’s base is New York, a metropole of two important independent filmmakers: 86 years old Albert Maysles and the 90 year old Jonas Mekas.

The festival Magnificent7 opened with the Searching for Sugar Man directed by Swedish film director Malik Bendjelloul, the winner of BAFTA Award 2013 for the Best Documentary and internationally the most successful documentary of 2012. There are many articles written about this festival but for me this is the most exciting story about as it is said “the search for evidence of one legend’s authenticity and a journey into the unknown.“ The composition of the film is the most interesting and suspenseful, like a thrillerwithin the subtle and sophisticated layers interwoven into the narrative.

The Magnificent 7 Festival in Belgrade brings the best docs made documentaries with a diversity regarding the themes , by many people slightly minimalistic but with original interpretation of an urban social reality, for instane in in Sofia’s Last Ambulance by Bulgarian Ilian Metev, film director who studied in UK National Film and Television School (NFTS) or maybe beautiful and respectful sight of people who do very seldom appear in the media in Tea or Electricity by Jérôme Le Maire , a film about unreal poverty in 21st century or  Winter Nomads about professional shepherds by Manuel von Stürler. Also the portrait of a great humanist, Olof “Palme”, a wonderful film etc…Magnificent7 is a tribute to the art of cinema, but it is also a tribute to the power of film craft itself of making good documentaries with or without breaking a rules.