A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
… like many other festivals have done holding up a sign saying ”Free Oleg Sentsov”, the Ukrainian filmmaker who was arrested by the Russian authorities in March 2014 in Crimea and sentenced to 20 years in jail on suspicion of “plotting terrorist acts”.
The Belarussian media did not want to publish the photo showing the protest, this is how it looked like – www.filmkommentaren.dk
Photo of a happy man, Lithuanian Arunas Matelis, on stage in Minsk at the Listapad Minsk International Film Festival. As I wrote some days ago the selection for the main documentary competition was very strong – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4077/ – so also from that perspective it is a true appreciation of the work by Arunas Matelis that he received not only an award as the best documentary film but also the audience award for the best documentary. The film ”Wonderful Losers: A Different World” (with coproducers from Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Latvia, UK, Ireland, Spain!) has now participated in two festivals (first one in Warsaw) and won 3 awards! Matelis is – by the way – used to receive awards. His previous film ”Before Flying Back to the Earth” got the main awards at DOK Leipzig and at IDFA.
The Georgian ”City of the Sun” by Rati Oneli (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3995/) received the Special Jury award and there was a diploma for the Polish masterpiece ”The Prince and the Dybbuk” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4052/ by Elvira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski.
Both of these films are screened at the upcoming IDFA but not the film by Arunas Matelis, why not? However, it is available at the festival’s Docs for Sale.
Also to be mentioned: there were a couple of special prizes for the wonderful ”The Last Waltz” by Russian Yulia Bobkova (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3984/ and one for the fine ”Country of Women” by Aliaksei Paluyan (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4071/)
None of them are at IDFA.
Read more on the website, link below.
Photo taken by Lithuanian film critic and festival programmer Edvinas Pukšta. Thanks.
PS. The jury for the documentaries – Andrei Zagdansky, Dmitri Makhomet, Zanete Ašcuka, Anna Zamecka and Gennady Kofman – advocated at the festival for ”Free Oleg Sentsov”. Respect! http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3943/
Wednesday IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, starts. And I am going there for five nights. Due to being part of the IDFA Academy, this great initiative of the festival, where young filmmakers get the chance to meet each other, share their ideas and projects and get inspiration from cameraperson Kirsten Johnson and directors like Kim Longinotto and Frederick Wiseman to mention the most famous ones. Together with Cecilia Lidin, with whom I worked at the EDN way back in time, I will be available for meetings in the afternoon.
The last couple of days I have been preparing my stay in hopefully not too foggy Amsterdam. The festival is overwhelming with talks, masterclasses, industry screenings (very good as many take place in the mornings) and good friends invite you to premieres of their films. Happy that there is a Docs for Sale, got to find films for a couple of festivals and for writing on this blog.
Let me mention two which are scheduled in my agenda:
Lithuanian Mindaugas Survila’s new work – it’s in the First Appearance Competition – ”The Ancient Woods” is a film that I know will be visually magnificent. The director has been filming nature for years and has invented extraordinary ways of getting close to his protagonists – see the photo. I know him and his first film very well, ”Field of Magic”, as he, 8 years ago, took me and Audrius Stonys on a tour to the forest where we were met with warmth and generosity by the 7 men and women, who lived there – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/768/ – You can see that film on the website of the director, link below.
The other film is ”Time Trial” by Scottish Finlay Pretsell, who has been following the former British road racing cyclist David Millar during his last cycling season. I am very happy for Pretsell that his film made it to the Main International Competition. I have seen some clips from the film in beforehand, and the trailer on the IDFA website – Millar has charisma, I have high expectations loving this sport highly, very much because of ”our” Danish hero in that field, Jørgen Leth.
These words come from the website of the film about Meciar, link below. The film that has the subtitle ”Lust for Power”, was the opening film at the Jihlava festival recently, understandable as it deals with a politician known, hated and loved in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
I met Tereza Nvotová in March in Prague this year, where she
presented some clips from the film and took me by surprise that she, less than 30 years old, could get access to a man, who otherwise has left public life and does not want to give interviews. Why did he allow Nvotová to film him? Because she is young and does not pretend to be a journalist?
Anyway, young Tereza Nvotová has made a good film. She manages to give an overview of the life of Meciar through asking several people, who worked with or for him, she keeps a personal first-person narration with herself in the picture here and there. And she brings wonderful private archive material to the screen, from when she 10 years old in 1998 ”plays” a journalist interviewing tha father of the country. Lots of archive is used.
The film is light in tone, it has the journalistic approach /where, when, where) when it unveals the life of a dictator, who in his seventies looks like a grandfather, alone maybe in his ”castle” as the director says, when she comes to visit.
Honestly, it is difficult to follow the complicated Slovakian political game, that Meciar was a part of or was setting up. For someone from outside the two countries. I would have loved to have more of him in his retired life and less facts, but maybe there is not so much more to pick from. When Nvotová asks about the kidnapping event of the President Kovac’s son, he says that he knows much more about the role of Kovac but he does not want ro say what now.
On the other hand I think I know a bit more about why Czekoslovakia was divided in 1993 with two political animals as the main players: Vaclav Klaus and Vladimir Meciar. The film goes well in the cinemas in its own country, more than 10.000 tickets sold in the first weekend.
I was there a couple of times, in Minsk Belarus for the film festival, that has a well chosen documentary program with Irina Demyanova as the responsible. 12 films are competing in the documentary section. I am happy I am not in the jury. Let me point at four films of high quality, written about on this site:
1. Julia Bobkova: The Last Waltz: ”… fascinating film about Oleg Karavaichuk, composer and piano player from St. Petersburg,”
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3984/
2. Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosolowski: The Prince and the Dybbuk ”…for me “The Prince and the Dybbuk” is a strong candidate to be my Documentary of the Year.”
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3993/
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4052/
3. Miroslav Janek: Normal Autistic Film
”… dynamic and playful documentary, the work of one of the most important European authors when it comes to children, especially children who don’t blend in and who are different from the majority.”
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3816/
4. Arunas Matelis: Wonderful Losers: A Different World
”…deserves to travel the world because of its cinematic qualities”
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4048/
http://listapad.com/en/programm/osnovnoy-konkurs-dokumentalnogo-kino/
The jury for the long, international documentaries at DOK Leipzig chose Ana Dumitrescu’s ”Licu-a Romanian Story” as the winner of the 60th edition of the festival. I did not watch the film in Leipzig but did so tonight on a computer and I can only nod YES to the decision taken by musician and writer Anne Clark, master documentarian Heddy Honigmann and former arte commissioner Luciano Rigolini. I copy paste their motivation:
“In a humble house, there is a very old man sitting and telling us not only his story but the story of 2 centuries. To make this possible in a film is a very difficult task which requires love for your character and an exceptional cinematic eye. In these days when the only thing that counts is viewing figures a filmmaker with almost no budget dares to say I will do it in another way. This way goes directly to our hearts, creating a filmic journey which lasts only 86 minutes but for us it is a life lesson.”
And a copy paste as well of the fine DOK Leipzig catalogue text by Sirkka Möller:
”At the age of 92, Liviu Canţer, called Licu, has lived through the extremes of the 20th century in his home country of Romania – as an alert eye witness of the World War, expulsions, Ceauşescu’s industrialisation and surveillance, the revolution of 1989 and the corrupt post-communism at the margins of the EU, he has a lot of stories to tell. But being one of the last survivors of his generation he lacks contemporaries with whom he can share his experiences. Director Ana Dumitrescu takes time for him and his recollections. She keeps visiting Licu with her camera over the seasons. She films him in his house, where the family history is always present. Slowly the two develop a relationship – in the course of the film she turns from invisible observer to a visitor for whom Licu cooks and whom he offers homemade schnapps. He displays his photo archive. The happy and sad days are fairly balanced, but a certain resignation is obvious. Dumitrescu, who grew up as a Romanian in France, creates an epic space for the history of her native country, at the centre of which we find Licu: a personal fate representing the tide of history. The black and white images, shot with minimum equipment, reveal her sensitivity as a photo journalist, which enables us to immerse ourselves in this man’s world.”
And finally a quote from the website of the film, link below:
“ ‘Licu’, my latest feature documentary, happens to be my first Romanian movie and the first film I have made with my film-production company ‘Jules et Films’.
I am French of Romanian origin and I have never lived in Romania beforehand, with the exception of a two-year photographic interlude I spent there since 2007 to 2009. I used to enjoy listening to my grandmother telling me those old-time stories. The Romania I have known is, in fact, the Romania I have learnt about from my father’s and grandmother’s memories. In a way, this movie is a reflection of my own memories as a child when I was listening to those stories about a world I had never known. A movie made of memories. It is about a world depicted from my personal perspective through the eyes of those who had lived it in their own way. I have always enjoyed listening to the others telling me their stories and browsing through old-epoch photos. For me, this film is somehow like Proust’s Madeleine.”
Romania, 2017, 86 mins.
Antra Gaile from Mistrus Media in Riga asked me if I wanted to see and eventually comment on an almost final cut of the new film by Latvian master of documentary Ivars Seleckis, whose work I know so well and have appreciated since I started to visit the country around 25 years ago. The film, the first one about children from the hands of the director, will have its national premiere in the beginning of next year as part of the celebration of 100 years of Latvia. Of course I said yes and wrote this letter to the director:
Dear Ivars, dear friend, dear master.
I have seen your film. I love it. As FILM and as one who has the age of a grandfather and very often are blessed with visits from
kids at the same age as those in your film: 2 are 6 years old and have just started in school, 2 are 4 years old.
Children are children, wherever they are and I could recognise
so many ways of behaviour, so many reactions, facial expressions, clever reflections and thoughts about the world we live in. As you say in the beginning of the film: May they live in peaceful times…
And I could see that the Latvian school system is different from
the Danish. More classical, more based on marks and competition.
BUT the great thing – one of them – is that you succeed to bring out
the personalities of the kids: Karlis is a real Boy, Gleb revolts to
his parents, indeed he does, Zane is a darling, so is Anette whose
mother works abroad (good you have that aspect in the film!) and Anastasia is the star, the one who stands out for me (and you, Ivars) with her phantasy, her living in the countryside with horses helping mum. Antra sent me the photo for this article.
Yes, the countryside, it comes as no surprise to me that the countryside is so present in the film, I know your love to your country and its beautiful sceneries. I am still grateful to you that you many years ago took me and my wife on a tour to places you were proud to show to us. We ended up in the Crosroad Street that you made three films about. To enjoy horseraddish, herring and dark Latvian bread.
The film IS full of love and warmth, and I think the editing works fine, considering how difficult it is to have 5 main characters.
I could have loved one or two more of the scenes, where YOU ask questions to the kids. The ones with Anastasia are sooo good as is the one with Karlis (was it him?) and one of the girls who wants to become a cosmetologist.
Congratulations! I wish you and Mistrus Media all the best with this wonderful hommage to your country and the kids, who are to grow up and hopefully have a decent life.
… took place at Westbad, a former venue for the citizens to go to swim. Now turned into one big room for concerts, conferences and the prize ceremony of the 60 year old festival. Tables were put up with wine and snacks, very nice, as was the performance of the conferencier, former MDR commissioning editor Claudia Schreiner. Not an easy job – seven Golden Doves and an overall total of 21 awards, comprising €73.500 – and it was not her fault that the ceremony took almost three hours.
One who contributed to the overtime was the spokesperson for the Interreligious Jury. She talked and talked and came up with a harsh criticism of the festival for its selection and lack of political films. Schreiner, as conferencier, opposed her on stage and the producer of ”The Congo Tribunal”, Arne Birkenstock, used his thank you speech for an honorary mention to the film to make a pretty tough attack on the jury spokesperson for saying – in German that many in the audience do not understand – that 11 films out of the 12 in the main competition were bad. His speech was warmly welcomed. Also festival director Leena Pasanen felt that she had to make the comment that the festival does not look for films that directly point to what the filmmaker wants the audience to think. Of course not.
No reason to hide that this incident – a jury member that makes a strong critique of the selection, a jury member from the Interreligious jury! – did take away some of the good atmosphere of the ceremony, especially because we non-fluent-in-German-language did not get what was going on.
Having said so, it was great to have competent filmmakers and –
lovers on the stage to make professional motivations for their choices. Heddy Honigmann giving an honorary mention to Aliona vand der Horst for ”Love is Potatoes”, the master to her pupil, Rod Stoneman reminding us about the strength of the short film, and Jay Rosenblatt, who was the one-man-jury for the Next Masters section, honouring three films, ”The Strange Sound of Happiness” by Italian Diego Pascal Panarello, ”Delta” by Ukrainian Oleksandr Techinskyi and South Korean director Boram Kim for “Baek-gu”. Four South Korean young women were on stage to receive the award. Thank you speech in their own language…
You can read about all the awards on the site of the festival. Here is a quote from the press release mentioning the three main winners:
The Romanian-born filmmaker Ana Dumitrescu has won the prestigious Golden Dove in the International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, granted by the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR). In “Licu, a Romanian Story” (PHOTO) (“Licu, o poveste românească”), the former photojournalist films Liviu Canţer, aka Licu, as he shares his memories of the 20th century and all its extremes. In an intimate atmosphere, the 92-year-old talks of the war, expulsions and the post-communist era. During the course of the film, the director becomes more of a visitor than an observer and a relationship based on trust develops between her and her protagonist. The jury praised her approach: “This way goes directly to our hearts, creating a filmic journey which lasts only 86 minutes but for us it is a life lesson.”
Two of Dumitrescu’s other documentaries have already been released in French cinemas.
The Golden Dove in the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film was awarded to the Israeli-German coproduction “Muhi – Generally Temporary” by Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman. Muhi, a six-year-old boy was born in the Gaza Strip. He has an auto-immune disease and has spent most of his life in an Israeli hospital, accompanied by his grandfather. Even when his hands and feet are amputated, he demonstrates strength and optimism.
The film was co-produced by the Leipzig-based production company “Neue Celluloid Fabrik”.
The South Korean director Boram Kim won the Golden Dove in the Next Masters Competition for “Baek-gu” („Gae-ui-yeok-sa“). With the help of an old limping dog, the filmmaker becomes acquainted with the inhabitants of a calm district of Seoul, who all seem to live in separate worlds. The prize, which is donated by the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, provides financial support to kickstart another film project. The 20-year-old Norwegian filmmaker Maja Arnekleiv won the Golden Dove for the best animated documentary film for her debut “Mum’s Hair” (“Mammas hår”). She captured the physical transformation of her mother – diagnosed with cancer – over two years. She then compiled over 2000 images to create a playful and personal montage of positive memories.
The introduction of a ”Next Masters Competition” at DOKLeipzig is an excellent idea. I have seen some of the choices for this year and so far one stands out, the Ukrainian ”Delta” by Oleksandr Techynski. It lives up to the reasons I give when asked why I often praise Eastern European documentaries:
It is multilayered, it has a clear aesthetic choice with a skilled camerawork that suits the theme or rather the location, it’s a Film: the delta of the Danube, a kind of Klondyke, where people live under harsh chaotic conditions and where men with worn faces struggle their way through the reed that they harvest to sheaf, to bring in to be sold. They work in all kind of weather – ice cold winters, and under milky foggy skies. Most often on a boat as you can see on the photo, where a man lies dead drunk next to wood that has been cut down to stump. But it is also a place where the transport of a dead body demands quite an effort. There are some moments, where the film takes the viewer inside a house, where a grown-up son has his hair cut by his mother and there are many scenes with vodka being drunk. Lots of focus on faces.
Stylistically there is a move on the film, a flow that is carried by painting-like images superbly composed, no music (thank you for that!). No message, it seems to me that the director wants to say: this is what I saw, he keeps a distance, he interprets with his images, he is not from there, he observes.
I have not (yet) been able to watch all films in the international competition for long documentaries – there are 12 – but I want to highlight two, which could deserve an award tonight:
Experienced Aliona van der Horst has made a wonderful film, ”Love is Potatoes” (Netherlands, 2017, 90 mins.) that takes place in the countryside in Russia, where her mother grew up before she as a grown-up married a Dutchman and moved with him. Her mother had five sisters. Van der Horst goes to the small house (PHOTO), meets up with cousins as she is inheriting 6 square meters of the house! It’s a film, where she wants to find out what kind of life her mother had in Stalinist Soviet Union. She looks at photos, she talks to cousin Tanya, to aunt Liza, who does not remember any big problems, ”all was normal”, but it was NOT, she slowly finds out – women were dying in the corn fields, 1933, the deadly famine… Van der Horst uses (brilliant) animation by Italian Simone Massi and what is so unique about the film showing the safe hand of the director: the quiet, non-dramatic tone of the film and some unforgettable scenes like the one, where she puts all the shoes on the floor, lots of shoes… why, the male cousin asks, because they did not have shoes, so after the famine… The film has touching scenes: the mother, still alive but not able to talk, to react to the daughter’s questions. The daughter/director looking at photos of her mother as young. Yes, I can identify. Great film.
”The Congo Tribunal” by Milo Rau is an amazing achievement by the film&theatre director. He set it all up, two tribunals, he found his characters to come to one tribunal in Congo, one in Berlin, he shot a lot of material in the country, he has witnesses to the many massacres talk, he has so-called experts analyse the mining industry and its international players. A fictional tribunal, a documentary theatre, but one that brings forward the human atrocities of a country that seldom is on the front pages of the media. It is full of strong moments and characters. After this film I want to know more, to understand better what has happened and what is happening in the tormented country forgotten by the EU and and the UN.