Final Cut for Real’s The Killing of a Journalist to World Premiere at Hot Docs

The Killing of a Journalist is the next major documentary film by multi-Oscar nominated Danish outfit Final Cut for Real (Flee, The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence), producer alongside US partner Organised Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The film directed by OCCRP’s Matt Sarnecki tells the story of the 2018 murders of OCCRP’s Slovak colleague Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová. Sarnecki used leaked police files from the murder investigation to uncover a vast corruption network at the highest levels of Slovak society.

“I made this film to honour the legacy of Ján and Martina, two young people who were working to build a better, more just Slovakia,” said Sarnecki. “I also made it because the story has a twist that tells a deeper, more shocking account of grand corruption, a never-before-seen blueprint of how it works, and is a testament to the power of investigative journalism.”

“Ján worked at the nexus of politics and organised crime, the most dangerous beat in journalism,” said Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu, the film’s executive producers and OCCRP co-founders. “Matt has made a profound film that shows the tragic loss of a gifted journalist, but also how that loss blossomed into a citizen-led revolution that felled a crooked government. We are grateful for Final Cut for Real’s partnership and looking forward to premiering our first joint project at the Hot Docs Festival. This film is a testament to our credo: Killing a journalist will not kill the story.”

Final Cut for Real CEO and producer Signe Byrge Sørensen said “investigative journalism is a cornerstone of any healthy democracy, and we hope this film will reach audiences around the globe.”

The Killing of a Journalist was co-produced by Denmark’s GotFat Productions and the Czech Republic’s Frame Films, with WDR/Arte and BBC Storyville. It was made in association with the Nordic pubcasters DR, SVT and NRK, with support from the Czech Film Fund and the West Danish Film Fund.

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The world premiere of The Killing of a Journalist at Hot Docs on May 1^st, will be followed by a Q&A with Sarnecki and investigative journalist Pavla Holcová.

Final Cut for Real will be showcasing another three films at the leading North American documentary festival unspooling April 28-May 8: the Ukraine-set multi-awarded A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont and Outside by Olha Zhurba (majority produced by Ukraine’s Moon Man), as well as Our Memory Belongs to Us by Syrian director Rami Farah, co-directed by Sørensen.

Both The Killing of a Journalist and Outside are competing at Hot Docs’ International Spectrum competition programme.

Nordic documentary films world premiering in Toronto also include Iceland’s Band by Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir (Compass Films) about an all-female rock band who give themselves one year to make it or break it, and the South African/Finnish film African Moot by Shameela Seedat, about over 100 high achieving law students, arguing hypothetical human rights cases at the annual African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. Finland’s Tuffi Films is co-producing.

Meanwhile Denmark’s Absolute Beginners by Thora Lorentzen which scooped a Prix Europa Best Documentary Series 2021, will have its international premiere at the festival’s Deep Dive programme. Lorentzen received a Nordic Talents Special Mention Prize in 2017 for the project produced by Rikke Tambo Andersen for DR.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond supported documentaries screening as part of the Nordic Bridge initiative include Sweden’s Calendar Girls, Nelly & Nadine, Historià-Stitches for Sápmi, and Denmark’s A House Made of Splinters.

For further information, check: www.hotdocs.ca