Fighting Demons with Dragons

Austrian premiere! / *** Thessaloniki Int. Doc Film Festival Silver Alexander, Newcomers Competition ***

DK, 2024, 90 min, Danish with English subtitles
Regie: Camilla Magid

Donnerstag
7. November
20:30
Heimatsaal im Volkskundemuseum
Paulustorgasse 13a, 1. Stock


FILMGESPRÄCH
with film subject (tbc)


CO-PRÄSENTIERT VON
RosaLila PantherInnen, ACT AUT - Autismus ausleben



Fighting Demons with Dragons is a coming-of-age documentary about feeling excluded - and for the first time finding a community. The film follows three pupils at Østerskov Boarding School, one of the most unique schools in the world, where learning takes place through play, and where role-playing is an integral part of the teaching.

The school attracts students who have been outsiders all their lives and here, many of the children feel accepted and included for the first time. We meet Ask, Luca and Josefine who all long to be part of a community and yet still trying to hold on to their uniqueness.

In the two years that we follow these students, they combat anxiety and insecurity while in costume and armed with swords. Filled with all the vulnerability, savagery, and courage of youth, they’ve embarked on a journey through the corridor connecting childhood and adulthood.

“...an homage to uniqueness” - Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

“The conversations on screen stand out with their emotional candidness, discussing the experience of being trans, sexual abuse, being neurodivergent.” - Variety

“A whole generation of young adults is suffering, but, instead of posing a societal critique, the director wanted to encourage active care, “to look into ourselves and ask: what can we do to help?” - Variety