Alisa Kovalenko: My Dear Théo/ 2

Second time I saw this film. Same reaction. Emotional reaction. A mother decides to go to war to fight for her country. And first and foremost for the future of her child with whom she video-communicates during the film and to whom she writes letters. A different version but thematically basically the same as British Humphrey Jennings did in 1945 with “A Diary for Timothy”.

Faces, small movements, boredom in the trenches in Ukraine at the front line. They sit, they lie in the grass, they smoke, they are in the house that is their home, here there is internet connection so they can talk to their loved ones. 98 minutes long is the film, not a minute too long, my wife said to me after the screening, and she is normally having this comment after a screening, “it was too long”.

I saw it this time… how the intensity of the narrative is increasing towards the end of the film, when the volunteer brigade moves to liberate village(s) near Kharkiv. With losses. To be understood clearly when the end credits roll. Unbearable to read “lost in action” on one photo after the other. Of mostly middle aged men. Fathers and husbands. Unbearable because we just saw them alive minutes ago in the film! (I remember a film director who once said that “this is why we make films… to keep “them” who were on the screen alive”.)

This second screening took place at ZagrebDox. Alisa Kovalenko was there, alone. At CPH:DOX Théo and his father and grandmother were there. I asked Théo what he thought about the film, thumbs up was his reaction. Me too!

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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