IRON CASTLE – My Macedonian Film Workshop

Following the pandemic lockdown, Austin-based filmmaker Kevin Keaton comes to the town of Demir Hisar ("Iron Castle"), population 2000, situated in South-East North Macedonia. He is to lead a "Film as Therapy" workshop for the patients of a local psychiatric hospital. Despite mounting financial challenges and serious confidence depletion, Kevin persists. The poignant enthusiasm and creative mindset of the participant/patients redeem him as well as the workshop. It culminates in the “Demir Hisar Oscars" Ceremony, erasing along the way, the borderline between documentary and fiction.

A seriously entertaining hybrid feature that questions what is 'real' in a story that begins like a documentary about Filmmaking as Therapy and ends like a fairytale, testing viewers' perception throughout.