Marcin Sauter: I Grew Up as You Slept

An ordinary story told in an extraordinary way. Because Marcin Sauter is not “only” a skilled director, he is a cinematographer who knows about composition and framing of images. This film has no boring moments, it is intense and full of emotions and beauty. And the music reflects the atmosphere of melancholy surrounding the granny and the granddaughter, when they meet in the countryside of Belarus, the country Karalina (who, according to credits at the end of the film, bears the same surname as the director) has chosen to leave to have more opportunities to develop her music career. In a scene with two friends, also from the music school, it is obvious that she is not the only one, who has left or wants to leave their home country… an ordinary story.

The film operates in present and past. Black and white images constitute the childhood, when berries were picked in the garden, cut to today, where the same action in colour takes place with wonderful granny and red-dressed granddaughter in the picture. The director has made his aesthetic choice. Scene after scene, situation after situation are a pleasure to watch.

An award for this poetic film tonight at the Krakow Film Festival closure?  

For me no objections!

Poland, 2018, 50 mins.

Music!

He was a musician, he says, Ryūichi Sakamoto, in the portrait film “Coda” about him. He talks about Andrey Tarkovsky and in the film a clip from “Solaris” is shown, a close-up on drops of water bringing nature’s sounds to the screen. It’s a wonderful film that again makes me think that music is the most interesting art form, where film is so much more concrete, concluding and interpreting. With music you can create your own images – and yet Sakamoto, the master of film music (Oshima’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983), “The Last Emperor” (1987) and “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), “The Revenant” (2015) by Alejandro G. Iñárritu…) states that he tries to think “cinematically”, when he in his studio in New York and on his journeys to the North Pole and Africa collects sounds to be used in his composing. The film by Stephen Nomura Schible gets very close to the composer, who reveals that he is fighting against a cancer illness; it is in itself a piece of film history with clips from the films mentioned above plus archive material that shows Sakamoto in his psychedelic period and as an activist against nuclear plants to be rebuilt after the Fukushima catastrophe. To be linked to his “Opera” from 1999, where he summarizes the state of our civilization with continuing quotes from the man who “invented” the atom bomb, Oppenheimer.

After having seen all films in the documentary competition, I “took the day off” to let me be

seduced by music documentaries. Apart from the Sakamoto film I was entertained and charmed by “Concerto for Two” by Polish Tomasz Drozdowicz with composer and conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk, and his wife Ewa.

The film is a tribute to a man, born in 1936, who is full of energy, loves life, who is always active, who is generous in his teaching young, upcoming conductors – and pretty much depending on his wife, who takes care of him, to say the least. She is always there close to him, she is a guarantee for him looking ok with his wild white hair. As well as smelling good – she “deodorants” him!

But for me the main quality with “Concerto for Two” is the inspiration Maksymiuk passes on in the film. He makes me want to listen more to music than I normally do. Always with the baton in hand, even when he is chilling out on a hotel bed somewhere on one of his many, he talks about music, composes, praises Piazzola, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Chopin.

When writing this text on the two films I managed to watch yesterday, two films that are in the festival’s DocFilmMusic competitive section, I have been humming Sakamoto’s music from the David Bowie film “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” and the ballet music for “Romeo and Juliet” by Prokofiev, that plays a strong part in the film with Maksymiuk.

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing… 

Over the Limit

In November last year I wrote this on filmkommentaren.dk about Marta Prus “Over the Limit”: An (almost) perfect film. Plays with the classical dramaturgical rules in terms of characters and rythm – positive mood and development, crisis, winning, losing, crisis as a gymnast, crisis because of her father’s illness, music that fits, brilliant camerawork, it’s like an opera or a ballet, great pleasure to look at this film with its universal appeal: Trust yourself, find yourself, the tough and direct coach is (maybe) right in much of what she is saying… Another masterly done Polish documentary!

The festival referred to above was IDFA in Amsterdam and now – after numerous festivals – the film has its national premiere! As an invited journalist I am giving it top points as you can see on the rating scheme. I do so after having recently seen the film two times more, in Tbilisi Georgia and in Barcelona. I have put parenthesis around the word almost as I have no objections to the film, none at all. It fills so well the big screen. And happy to say that the audience at both festivals reacted with enthusiasm.

Apart from that let me express a lot of admiration for Marta Prus after three

times Q&A (Question and Answer) sessions with her at the mentioned festivals. Thank you for watching my films, she always said… well, it might sound like a natural thing to say so, but I have met quite a lot of arrogance and irritation from filmmakers, who did not appreciate to meet the audience and answer all quite of questions. She told how she got the permission to shoot after having followed the gymnasts and the coaches for a couple of years, how she shot the film for one year, how she was editing for a year and how she took part in different training and pitching sessions. There were of course several questions regarding how the Russian gymnast Rita and the two coaches Amina and Irina reacted to the final result! Especially Irina comes out as quite a controversial character with her constant scolding the gymnast, whereas Amina is more a mother/big sister to Rita.

The answer to that from Marta Prus, who learned Russian before the shooting, was that she showed the film to them before it was released and there were no comments. If there was something they did not like, I would have taken it out, she said. “It’s true, the film”, said Irina, according to Prus, who invited the trio to the screening at IDFA.

I was a gymnast myself, Marta Prus said, but not on this level. Which brings me to the impossible labelling of the film. Is it a film on the tough reality of being a sportswoman on the top? Is it a film about the love/hate relationship between three women – with a fourth one on the side, the director, who at the Q&A sessions said that she often felt a bit lonely on the set, “they did not notice me”, good you can say now, it gives the film a truthfulness. Or is it a film about Russia as a Latvian friend suggested, and not a very favourable one. Maybe all, for sure much more. Curious to see the reaction in Poland!

To Be in a Jury/ To be Awarded

My countryman Lars von Trier’s last film “The House that Jack Built” was not in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In an interview he was asked, if he was sorry about that. No, he said, I don’t believe in competition within art – words to that effect. Well, of course he is right, how to compare an apple with a pear, on the other hand I am sure that he was not sorry to receive all the awards he had for previous films before he became a “persona non grata” at the festival! Who does not appreciate that your film is evaluated as price-worthy? “For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?” to quote W.H. Auden’s poem written for the classic British documentary “Night Mail”.

Here in Krakow there are many awards. I have seen all films in the main competition and let’s see whether the critics points match those of the jury! It’s not always the case, luckily.

Does it mean anything for the filmmakers to be awarded? Of course – Apart

from the appreciation there is often money attached to the award, which can be important for the filmmaker. Let me give you a piece of memory:

20 years ago I was in the jury of IDFA in Amsterdam and we had three very strong films in the final round, and we had two awards to hand out – the main award and a special jury award. The films were “Pavel and Lyala” by Viktor Kossakovski, “Fotoamator” by Dariusz Jablonski and “Bread Day” by Sergey Dvortsevoy. We decided to give the Jury award to Kossakovski and the main award to Jablonski – and nothing to Dvortsevoy. Ahhh, he was actually the one, who needed the money most as he had done “Bread Day” without any funding. He had made the film from the award he got from his first film “Happiness”: rolls of negative film material for shooting. I knew that but it is not what a juror should be influenced by. But I still remember the disappointment I could read in his eyes.

The same goes for the arguments I have experienced in other juries: No, this film has already had so many awards so it does not need one more… The answer to this: It can only be the best film that can win…

But how do you find the best film? Is it the cinematic qualities you put highest on your evaluation list? The camera work, the editing, the storytelling, the sound? The director’s personal touch, style, “handwriting”. Or is it the theme, the importance and the relevance of the subject, the visual treatment, the nationality of the director, a young talent to be honored? And how much does your personal taste influence the decision?

The answer to this is Yes… it is most often a mix of all these elements, isn’t it?

I see with pleasure that here in Krakow most awards go to directors – and not to producers/ production companies. It is the directors, who have had the film in their heads for years, it is the directors who have the final say in a film, it is an appreciation of the “auteur” tradition. And if money awards are involved, they land in a dry place, as the directors are often those who suffer most when a film goes over time, and the budget is spent.

May the great films be awarded!  

Magnificent7 Festival Moves to New Venue

The Belgrade festival that screens 7 films, one per night, from June 8 till June 14 is moving from the Sava Centre to central Belgrade, to Kombank Dvorana.

I asked the festival directors to give me words about the new venue that opened after a total renovation a month ago. Here they come:

Dear Tue. it’s hard to put in two lines the history of the very first elite concert hall, festival hall and congress hall in socialistic Yugoslavia. Also the place of many different events that were attractive for big audiences and for media, sometimes European, sometimes from all over the world.Legendary kings of jazz (Luis Armstrong, Miles Davies, Oscar Peterson, B.B.King among the others) were there on the stage during sixties and seventies. Film stars at the biggest film festival FEST – Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Richard Burton, Elisabeth Taylor. Concerts of the most popular singers, groups, but also of some high class musicians like Artur Rubinstein.

Here is a small history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_Sindikata

You should pay attention to the new name of the place KOMBANK DVORANA (where KOMBANK is the name of the bank giving the money for overtaking the name) and DVORANA that means hall.

Varme hilsener (Danish for Warmest) Svetlana and Zoran Popovic

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.php

Andreas Dalsgaard: Fædre & Sønner

Jeg reagerede ved visningen under CPH:DOX 2017 spontant efter filmoplevelsen ved at skrive en mail til kollegerne: ”Så, Tue og Sara, har netop set filmen om Henning Haslund-Christensen og hans to sønner og om Torgut folket og om ekspeditioner og indsamlinger og kulturdrab og tabet af hukommelse. Den er vidunderlig og Michael i den er så ægte charmerende som ude i virkeligheden. Nu vil jeg gøre hvad jeg kan for at skrive om Dalsgaards store filmiske fortælling.”

Sådan, nu havde jeg lovet det, røbet min samlede vurdering, som kun kan blive alle vore 6 penne, røbet en disposition for min tøvende, langsomme kommentar, som skal begrunde vurderingen, og jeg har det igen som Peter Plys når Grislingen siger ”Det var ikke særlig klogt sagt” og Peter Plys forklarer: ”Det var klogt, da det var inde i mit hoved, men så skete der noget på vejen ud”.

1

Den ældste af titlens fædre er berømt, jeg ved det jo godt. Det er Henning Haslund-Christensen, og Werner Jacobsen fortalte mig for mange år siden meget om ham. Det var dengang, jeg færdedes i museumsverdenen.

Jeg finder hans bog Asiatiske akkorder frem. Den er oprindelig fra 1965, min udgave er fra 1991. Werner Jacobsen har et afsnit om sine rejser i Mongoliet. Haslund, som han kalder ham, var der i forvejen, Jacobsen præsenterer ham sådan:

”Blandt danske forskningsrejsende i vor tid er der to, hvis navne overstråler alle andre: Knud Rasmussen og Henning Haslund Christensen. På mange måder var de forskellige, og de arbejdede på to vidt forskellige steder på kloden, men der var også slående lighedspunkter. Begge arbejdede de under det handicap ikke at have modtaget en formel uddannelse inden for det arbejdsfelt de valgte, men begge skabte de gennem deres virke en uvurderlig skat af kulturmateriale, som står til disposition for generationer af fremtidens forskere. En sjældent svigtende intuition førte dem til problemer, hvis løsning var af betydning. Begge var de i besiddelse af en næsten drenget begejstring for ny oplevelse og en lysende optimisme, som måtte inspirere selv den trægeste. Det føltes som om de hentede deres glade styrke fra selve livets urkilde.”

Der er mange spejlinger og gentagelser på færde, som fædre, så sønner. Werner Jacobsen var selv ramt, han indså det, kaldte sin bog Asiatiske akkorder, Haslunds fra 1945 hedder Asiatiske Strejftog, sådan er det nogen gange med sønner og fædre, elever og lærere.

“Livet på stepperne og i ørkenen er farligt”, skriver Haslund et sted, Lennart Edelberg husker i sin biografi, “farligt, fordi man først for sent opdager, at tilværelsen inden for den civiliserede verden – selv når den er smukkest – kun kan gøre det ud for det næstbedste.” Altså livets urkilde.

Det er selvfølgelig det, Andreas Dalsgaard skildrer, måske med mere afdæmpede udtryk, men lige så intenst, kompetent, ja, fyldt med visdom i Fædre & sønner, en film, som generøst rummer, tror jeg efter første gennemsyn, mindst fire fortællelag, hver for sig så rige, at de alle kunne være en afrundet film. Det må jeg se i øjnene, efterhånden som jeg i eftertanken forsigtigt trænger ned i det vældige filmværk og dets videnskabshistoriske, filmiske og litterære sammenhænge.

2

Etnografen Henning Haslund-Christensen står på fotografiet midt på højslettens vældige tomme flade med bjergene i dis langt, langt borte. Fotografiet er fra en af hans mange rejser i Mongoliet.

Filmen begynder imidlertid ikke med ham, dens tid er ikke hans tid. Den begynder med Søren Haslund-Christensen og Michael Haslund-Christensen, hans søn og sønnesøn. I den allerførste scene er de i gang med et af deres talrige projekter, i filmens nutid at finde arkivstof til dens realisering. Søren står op ad en dørkarm i hjemmet: ”Skulle du ikke på loftet?” Kort pause. ”Det bliver måske først i morgen?” Den lille ironi er så velkendt, at den næsten overhøres, i klippet peger den direkte ind i familiehistorien, det første af filmens fortællelag. Michaels lette charme er svaret, han fortsætter leende med sit, der er ligevægt mellem de to, som charmen er en del af dem begge, den er en arv fra Henning, ligesom Sørens ironiske kommandotone vel måtte findes hos Henning dengang, han havde ledelsesfunktioner, og nu hos Michael som travl filmproducent. Hans beundring for faderen må underdrives til gang på gang at fremhæve, at faderen kan bevæge ørerne. Her på et still fra filmen er de på netop den mongolske steppe, hvor Henning var på sine ekspeditioner dengang. Snart vil de få brug for tricket at vippe med ørerne.

Deres rejse til Mongoliet i fortællingens nutid er en filmekspedition, som skal være rammen i Andreas Dalsgaards film, et fortællelag, som med udgangspunkt i familiehistorien linker til Henning Haslunds ekspeditionshistorie, til en historie om kulturtab og til en særligt bevægende skildring af et hukommelsestab i vente. I alt er der således fire, fem fortællelag, måske et par stykker mere, sindrigt elegant vævet til et billedtæppe med dialog, lyd og forunderligt nærværende musik, et filmessay over et århundredes ekspeditionsvidenskabelighed og mytologi.

Familiehistorien er ligesom helt Dalsgaards egen fortælling, jeg oplever den fra hans fortrolige position. Han bygger den på et stort og rigt familiearkiv af fotos og smalfilm og så på sit observerende kameras fortælling i filmens nutid. Her er fortællepositionen også, når der interviewes med andet kamera og i anden kamerastil. Optagelserne af samvær og interviews, altså begge slags er på helt samme måde intense og nærværende. Dertil er interviewene er klogt udførte i en diskret, men dyb empati.

3

Da jeg så filmen, var jeg i første omgang selv mest oplagt til det ekspeditionsmytologiske essay. Jeg kom lige fra arbejdet med Per Kirkebys film, hans rejser, hans forståelse af ekspeditionens væsen. Kirkeby fortæller, at han nu, han er i gang med den her film (Ekspeditionen, 1988) må erklære, at han har mistet lysten til det filmiske, at han vil fortælle om denne personligt skelsættende begivenhed, ekspeditionen i sit liv, som i hans sind vokser som drøm og forestilling og gennemtænkning til hele mytologien om ekspeditionerne i dette grønlandske landskab, hvor døden får sin ikke fortrængte plads, så livet bliver til fylde. Det vil han fortælle om i en lysbilledserie.

Og jeg forstår, at Teit Jørgensen er sat til at filme lysbillederne, mens Kirkeby viser dem med sit lysbilledapparat på lærredet og ind imellem med sin finger peger på en bestemt linje i det viste landskab, noget, han vil pointere, som han derefter i sit store værk, akvarellerne og malerierne atter og atter har pointeret. Film er for den rejsende Kirkeby først og sidst billeder.

Sådanne mytologiske billeddannelser var tidligere i mit liv tekster af Lennart Edelberg (Nuristan) og Klaus Ferdinand (Afghanistan) og Geoffrey Bibby og P.V. Glob (Bahrain) og Werner Jacobsen (Mongoliet) og af mine egne kolleger Torkil Funder (Ceylon, Oman) og Jens Vellev (Oman) og Bo Madsen (Israel og Irak). De fortalte og fortalte om etnografiske, arkæologiske og geografiske feltarbejder på arabiske og endnu fjernere asiatiske destinationer.

Selv har jeg aldrig rejst, kun i bøgernes digt, i Rider Haggards Afrika og i andre bøgers farverige nøgternhed som alle de polarrejsendes. Sidst var der for mig i mit sind denne oplistning af navne og deres associationer ved at opleve Daniel Dencics rejse ind den kortvarigt isfrie nordgrønlandske fjord i hans film Ekspeditionen til verdens ende, 2013, som Michael Haslund skrev sammen med ham og producerede og som må være blandt forudsætningerne for Haslunds og Dalsgaards arbejde med Fædre & sønner, for en vigtig del af fremstillingen, nemlig den digteriske behandling af ekspeditionsmyten. Jeg bemærkede dengang jeg så Dencics film et sted ikke langt inde, at døden i en stor rejses sammenhæng er trådt ud af sin fortrængte plads. En kortfattet kvindestemme, Katrine Warsaaes høres med en pludselig og løsreven bemærkning med venlig og beskedent tilbageholdt pondus af viden om arters massedød tidligere i Jordens historie, men faktisk meget sjældent, med årmillioner imellem. Nu sker det måske igen, siger hun, en art er ved at uddø, denne gang ved at destruere sig selv, vi er måske midt i det.

Haslund og Dencik havde lavet en ung og opsætsig film med deres helte på rejse i et sejlskib frem mod verdens ende. Nu er navnene Jonas Bergsøe, Minik Rosing, Per Bak Jensen, Jeppe Møhl, Jens Fog Jensen, Tal R, Morten Rasch, Bo Elberling, Katrine Worsaae og Daniel Richter. De er om bord på skibet, de er ekspeditionens medlemmer, og de er filmens medvirkende, og små bidder af det, de siger til hinanden foran det observerende kamera, bliver efterhånden til filmens essayistiske udsagn.

Sådan forberedt ser jeg, at i Fædre & sønner etableres den videnskabeligt / kunstneriske / eventyrlige oplevelse i første omgang en del enklere ved at introducere en smuk empire kommode og dens indhold af hemmelighed og ved at give afgørende plads til blot to medvirkende vidner og researchere af fascinerende kvalitet, en dansk antropolog og en britisk historiker. Deres vildt spændende små bidder af viden og fortolkning vokser i et centralt detektivisk forløb til en regulær thriller om spionage og kontraspionage og våbensalg og våbentransport.

Og med det er filmen slet ikke færdig! Der er jo flere handlingstråde, som skal færdiggøres og knyttes. Man kan glæde sig: Der er TV premiere i morgen, 9. juni 2019 på TV2

Danmark 2018, 87 min. Instruktion: Andreas Dalsgaard, fotografi: Valdemar C.V. Leisner og Andreas Dalsgaard, klip: Denniz Göl Bertelsen, produktion: Haslund Film, producer: Michael Haslund-Christensen. Filmkommentarens vurdering: 6 kongepenne af 6 mulige. Distribution: TV2 

LITTERATUR

https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/faedre-og-sonner-0 (synopsis og creditliste)

http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/interview/the-great-games-creators-on-letting-the-past-define-the-present (interview med Andreas Dalsgaard og Michael Haslund-Christensen)

Werner Jacobsen: Asiatiske akkorder, 1965/ mindeudgave 1970 og 1991. Lennart Edelberg: Henning Haslund-Christensen i Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 3. udg., Gyldendal 1979-84. Hentet 27. maj 2018 fra http://denstoredanske.dk/index.php?sideId=290871

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3358/ (om Per Kirkebys film)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2282/(anmeldelse af Daniel Dencic: Ekspeditionen til verdens ende)

SYNOPSIS

The Great Game (dansk titel: Fædre & sønner) is an epic adventure and family chronicle across three generations about extraordinary men and destinies: film producer Michael Haslund, his father, the former Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Danish family Søren Haslund-Christensen, and his grandfather, explorer/anthropologist Henning Haslund-Christensen. The Danish explorer, who died in Kabul in 1948 under mysterious circumstances, made his mark in Central Asia in the early 20th century but he was also rumoured to be a gunrunner and British agent.

As Søren’s health starts to deteriorate due to Alzheimer and with time is running out Michael takes his father out of the nursing home and on a journey in his grandfather’s footsteps. They travel across China and meet chiefs and ancestors who reveal that Henning was a true Lawrence of the East, a man who fought to unite the Mongol tribes and defend them against the Russians. (Nordisk Film- og TV-fond)

Magnificent7 Belgrade 2018

There he stands, the Prince Waszyński, in his palazzo, smoking a cigarette. An elegant man. Like a character in a film by Luchino Visconti. Did they ever meet the two in Rome, where the Prince passed his last years? After the more than turbulent life he had lived. His story is what Polish Elvira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski unfolds in “The Prince and the Dybbuk”, that is the opening film for the 14th edition of the festival in its new venue, the Kombank Hall in central Belgrade.

And this is for sure, like all 7 films, a film that deserves the big screen. It is Cinema to be enjoyed because of its elegant narrative structure, its use of archive, the editing, the music, the dignity with which the directors treat the Prince.

Do we go for themes, when the selection for the festival takes place? No, we go for the Cinematic quality and originality, that our audience expect – and I say it again, the best audience in Europe is the one in Belgrade. Nevertheless, having done the selection this year, we discover that three of the films put the focus on children.

Oh, I would hope that teachers all over could see and learn from “Miss Kiet’s Children”, with the

amazing Kiet Engels, whose way of taking care of the refugee children is an example to follow. She has a teacher’s skills and she cares. Which is obvious in the superb piece of observational humanistic Cinema performed by Petra and Peter Lataster.

Likewise with “The Distant Barking of Dogs” by Simon Lereng Wilmont, who in several films has shown his ability to get close to and get the best out of children. In this case 10 year old Oleg and his cousin Yarik. It is a film with many layers from a war-torn area in Ukraine, and it has to be said with grandmother Alexandra in the centre of the story. A film about Childhood, about Fear, about Survival, about Love. Made with love. And cinematic skills on how to build a story, compose the images and put them together with a soundtrack that stresses the atmosphere of the scenes, without killing them.

Children play likewise a role in the Swedish “Giants and the Morning After”, where the lovely mayor of the small community Ydre welcome the newborn children with a gift to the parents, hoping they will stay and make more babies. Malla Grapengiesser, Per Bifrost and Alexander Rynéus stand behind the film with an old friend of the festival Finnish Mervi Junkkonen as the editor. It has a tone of humour, it has a universal theme (the depopulation of rural communities) and a cinematic language that adds mysterious connections to the surrounding nature.

Can we live without art? Of course not. The festival’s ambition is to be a tribute to the art of documentary Cinema and to bring in tributes to other art forms. We are very happy to have the latest film of Thomas Riedelsheimer in the program. His “Leaning into the Wind” with the extraordinary Andy Goldsworthy is about nature and how to explore and interpret it as Goldsworthy does, and as Riedelsheimer does so well including the artists he used for the “Touch the Sound”, the percussionist Evelyn Glennie and the composer Fred Frith.

Staying with landscapes depicted as paintings put together in a totally different way that we are used to is “Sleep has her House” by Scott Barley, who himself characterizes the film like this “through long static takes, the film develops a contemplative, hypnotic experience, akin to paintings that move, mixing live action and still photography (shot on iPhone) and hand-drawn images”. Wow, looking forward to see it on a big screen!

The closing film is “Entrepreneur” by Virpi Suutari, film director and professor of art. It is funny, it is about Love, it has magnificent music composed by Sanna Salmenkallio. It is like her previous M7 film, “Garden Lovers” about ordinary people, with an extraordinary Cinematic language.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DocsBarcelona: The Winners

I received the English language press release from DocsBarcelona. Here it comes in a slightly edited version:

DocsBarcelona 2018 ends consolidating the growth that began in the 20th edition of the festival, with an increase of days and audience. The 21st edition of the International Documentary Film Festival of Barcelona has hosted 66 sessions and one month of online screenings reaching more than 20,000 spectators, with an average of 133 people per session.

Also, the activities dedicated to the industry and professionals have had an extensive follow-up, with 1,800 attendees.

The main winner of DocsBarcelona 2018 was The Distant Barking of Dogs, whom the jury chaired by Paco Poch joined by Jessica Murray, Xavi García Puerto and Montse Armengou awarded the DocsBarcelona TV3 Award for Best Documentary. Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont, this film portrays the life of Oleg, a Ukrainian boy, and his grandmother, in a border area where they often live with anti-aircraft fire and missile attacks. The Jury said this is a “film that takes care of photography with a detailed and delicate observation. A look that allows us to listen to the most vulnerable”.

Also, the jury gave a Special Mention to Miss Kiet’s Children, by Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster, about a Dutch teacher who welcomes

and teaches refugee children “because beyond a careful style that puts the focus on children as protagonists, it reveals to us a teacher who is a model example of how to be solidary, peaceful and positive.”

The New Talent Award, awarded to debut filmmakers, was given to the Argentinian directors of El Espanto, Martín Benchimol and Pablo Aparo, “because it from a peculiar theme through a great staging and time control, half-distance and humour, gives us a very human movie that speaks very well about the future of these young directors. ”

The Official Section Latitud, sponsored by Antaviana Films, the Jury formed by Sumpta Ayuso, Anna Rebés and Oriol Font awarded the Chilean film Robar a Rodin, by Cristóbal Valenzuela, which “definitely surpasses the fiction, and takes us through a journey with increasing curiosity and a narration full of surprises”.

The What the Doc! Jury awarded The Prince and the Dybbuk, by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, “to turn the history of cinema into an existential dilemma through a set of sensations that confronts fantasy and reality, cinema and life “.

The Amnistia Internacional Catalunya Award, awarded by a Jury of members of the organization, was given to The Congo Tribunal, by Milo Rau.  

DocsBarcelona 2018 Awards

DocsBarcelona of the Month Award: Angry Inuk

www.docsbarcelona.com

DocsBarcelona: Talal Derki

The Syrian director was not at the closing ceremony of DocsBarcelona Sunday night so I did not have the chance to thank him for three meetings we had during the festival: Two times talks with him and the audience after the screening of his masterpiece ”Of Fathers and Sons” and a 90 minutes seminar, where he had chosen 7 clips from the film to make us get closer into what he experienced, when that scene was shot, what choices he had to take during the 300 days he spent with the father and his children, first of all Osama and Ayman.

There were standing ovations after one of the two screenings of the film and after both I had to – as moderator – to raise my hand for “stop” to have time for the questions. I admire filmmakers like Talal Derki, who with respect for the audience take their time, festival after festival, to give an insight to – in this case – what it means to be filming in a war zone. The 7 clips were carefully chosen and there was a lot to talk about at each one. Film talk.

It makes you proud as a programmer, when you feel that the choice of a film is appreciated as well as having the filmmaker present to meet the audience. This was the case with Talal Derki again four years after he was in Barcelona with “Return to Homs”. He did not win this time, but he won the respect of the audience and he took us “behind the scenes” to a place we can not and do not want to go.

“I am a storyteller”, he said to me. Indeed, and a brave one. Many scenes will stay in my mind – like the one where the father talks warmly about his son Osama at the same time as he, as a sniper, is shooting to kill, while the director sitting next to him looks exhausted and frustrated at the whole situation.

The film and it’s director is now at the Krakow Film Festival, I have changed position to be a journalist for this site, and have given it highest points as you can see at the link below.

www.docsbarcelona.com

http://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/58th-kff/festival-newspaper/

DocsBarcelona: Children

Sunday morning I took a walk in the Eixample of Barcelona, where my home has been since the beginning of the festival. Lots of parents were in the street with their kids. Happy moments for boys and girls to be out in the good weather to play, have an ice cream, have fun, make friends…

In the cinemas of DocsBarcelona the reality was different for the children. I will never forget the two boys from “Of Fathers and Sons” by Talal Derki, Osama (Photo) and Ayman, the first one to be sent to a sharia camp by his father, the latter staying at home to take care of the smaller siblings and the father, who had lost his foot at a mine explosion, and who is the one, who decides on the future of Osama to be a jihadist warrior. It’s pretty hard to watch Osama, this soft boy, having his childhood spoilt by religious fanatism.

Another child who lives in a war zone is Oleg in “The Distant Barking of Dogs” by Simon Lereng Wilmont, a film that takes place in the Eastern part of Ukraine. Oleg lives there with his grandmother, a relationship that is described with sensitivity. How to live in the neighborhood of bombs exploding, how to cope with the scars it gives a child when he grows older?

And what about Syrian Zeid, who lives with his father and brothers in Spain in the fine film “Hayati” by Liliana Torres and Sofi Escudé. In a materialistic way, he does not suffer, but his mother stays in Turkey and he communicates with her via skype…

Other children are very much present in “Miss Kiet’s Children” by Petra and Peter Lasaster, where Miss Kiet is teaching refugee children language and how to adapt to live in the Netherlands. My hero here is the little Haya, who struggles with her new situation in a way that you get tears in your eyes.

www.docsbarcelona.com