Wake Up on Mars

WAKE UP ON MARS

A first feature documentary film by Dea Gjinovci
75 min, CH, FR, 2020

A 10-year-old Roma boy living in Sweden attempts to come to terms with the mysterious Resignation syndrome that has put his two sisters in a coma. The tight-knit family is trying to rebuild a normal life far from their native Kosovo where they were victims of persecution. While their entire future hangs in the balance of a pending asylum request, the little boy dreams of building a spaceship to leave it all behind.

Festivals

New York, Tribeca Film Festival, April, 2020

Nyon, Visions du réel, National Competition, April, 2020

Italy, Biografilm Festival, June, 2020
– Special Mention “Best New Talent”

Montenegro, Underhill Fest, June, 2020

Solothurn, Journées de Soleure, January 2021
 – Nominé pour le “Prix de de Soleure” et le “Prix Opéra Prima”

Prizes (development)

Prix Perspectives d’un Doc, Visions du Réel 2018

Sundance Documentary Fund, 2018

Dea Gjinovci

Dea Gjinovci has been filming and writing documentaries following her studies between Geneva, London and Paris. In parallel, she has always worked, either on film projects, or as a freelance journalist for Swiss media (Le Temps) or Anglo-Saxon (AJ +). For them, she directed «This is the sound of climate change» during the protests of COP21 in Paris. In early 2017, she coordinated a crowdfunding campaign for the documentary Mr Gay Syria, a campaign relayed by media such as Vanity Fair, the Guardian and The Economist. In 2017, she directed her first film, «Sans le Kosovo». This short documentary was awarded Best National Film Award at the 2017 edition of the Dokufest Festival, and has been presented at festivals in Palermo, Paris, Vienna and Visions du Réel in Nyon.

Filmography
2019 Wake up on Mars
2017 Sans le Kosovo