Last Men in Aleppo..in Kiev
I have just come back from giving an introduction to a screening of “Last Men in Aleppo”, written and directed by Feras Fayyad, produced by Kareem Abeed and Søren Steen Jespersen Larm Film Denmark, co-directed by Steen Johannessen. A screening in Ukraine Cinema in Kiev within the program of the Docudays ua festival. Full house = close to 500 people in the cinema. Most of them young people. The reason for me giving this introduction was that the Danish ambassador could not be present – I did not mind saying some few words about the film that is winning awards all over = meaning, much more important, that it is shown globally. And I passed some words about my personal experience being in Damascus for the DoxBox documentary festival until it had to stop in 2011, alas. The director of the festival, Orwa Nyrabia, is now appointed director of IDFA festival Amsterdam! There IS an audience for documentaries, also in Kiev at the Docudays festival, I have attended three screenings with full houses and one with 300 spectators, Arunas Matelis, “Wonderful Losers”, this afternoon. It’s all very professionally organised. More will follow, and on behalf of the Embassy of Denmark and Danish documentary it’s nice to see not only “Last Men in Aleppo” but also “Distant Barking of Dogs” by Simon Lereng Wilmont, “Lida” by Anna Eborn and “Bobbi Jene” by Elvira Lind.
http://docudays.ua/eng