Karlovy Vary – and EU Budget Cuts

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival started a couple of days ago and the documentary has a good position with an international competititon and a panorama. In the latter section you find ”Stories We Tell” by Sara Polley, ”Father’s Garden – The Love of My Parents” (photo) by Peter Liechti and ”The Expedition to the End of the World” by Danish Daniel Dencik, who also has his bicycle film ”Moon Rider” in the Czech festival, in the competition category. Here you also find Wiktoria Szymanska’s ”The Man who Made Angels Fly”.

During the festival there is of course a so-called industry section and alarming news came out of a meeeting with the EU Parliament member Silvia Costa. According to an article in FilmNewEurope (link below, written by Cathy Mells, there are ” proposed draconian cuts to the cultural budget. “Culture and creativity are really very endangered,” she said.”

“The MEDIA Programme will come under the umbrella of the seven year Creative Europe (starting from 2014, ed.), which Costa said will make it more connected with other aspects of the programme”, but as the overall budget for all programmes will face cuts of only 4%, the European Commission has suggested a cut from 1,8b € to 1,3b€. Costa said at the meeting that she will fight for (she is “rapporteur” for the Creative Europe (what a stupid name, by the way/ed.)) a 1,5b€ budget that would be closer to a 15% cut.

Costa reassured that the much talked about “cultural exception” in the EU will continue – film professionals had argued that the Americans would take over the European film industry if this exception was not kept.

About Creative Europe it was mentioned that “Creative Europe will see more support for non-profit activities, and will be more open to the inclusion of non-member countries and potential EU candidates such as Serbia, along with an emphasis on transnational projects and activities that connect the private and public sectors. Goals of the programme include greater movement of workers and works of art, strengthening cooperation, supporting film coproductions and distribution in cinemas, dubbing and subtitling of films, audience building (through film education), digitalisation, new models of distribution of a transnational nature, and marketing activities through presence on international markets and innovative sales strategies.”

http://www.filmneweurope.com/news/czech/105804-creative-europe-fights-eu-budget-cuts/menu-id-150

http://www.kviff.com/en/news/

Pawel Lozinski Wins in Moscow

Last night the Moscow International Film Festival 2013 ended with the usual grandiosity attached to the festival, led by director Nikita Mikhalkov. The competitive documentary section, set up by Sergey Miroshnichenko and Grigory Libergal, including 7 films, had Pawel Lozinski’s ”Father and Son” as the winner, awarded by a jury headed by Sergey Dvortsevoy.

The film directed and produced by Pawel Lozinski was written about by this blogger, when he met PL in Barcelona a couple of years ago – this is quote from the post published at that time when the film was still a project:

”My father and I get into an old camper and head for Paris where, 23 years ago, he dispersed his mother’s ashes in the Luxembourg Garden. Our trip will take two weeks. We’re both documentary filmmakers so we’ve decided to make a film recording the journey. We stop at camper parks or gas stations for the night. We each have a camera to keep the conditions fair and so we’re both the directors and protagonists at the same time. My father is 70, I am 44. We discuss various things – family history, difficult past, my father’s divorces. Any question is allowed. The journey is a pretext to get to know each other a little better. A cinematic-psychological experiment about the father-son relationship. Once in the editing room, will we be able to create a single version that would be acceptable to both?”

The answer to the question raised became NO, and now there is the film by Pawel, ”Father and Son” and also one by Marcel Lozinski, ”Father and Son on a Journey”. The two films, that will be reviewed on this blog very soon, shared the Silver Horn Direction Prize at the Krakow Film Festival late May/beginning of June. The Jury motivation went like this:

“Is sharing the same profession between a father and a son a curse or a blessing? And can a film be used to reconcile this and other family matters? Two famous filmmakers, a father and a son, embark on a journey in search of answers to these and other questions: their filmmaking skills, the tool in their hands and the road in front of them, a source of inspiration. The result is a unique cinematic experiment and a testament to their mutual love, despite the complexity of their relationship.”

Father-Son: Curse or Blessing?

http://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/news/359

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/news/?id=410

Nicolas Philibert: Every Little Thing

Here, the first right is the right to roam. Nicolas Philibert, the acclaimed French documentary filmmaker, largely known for capturing the trivia of the closed worlds (i.e. In the Land of the Deaf, Animals – see MoMA series on his films: “Nicolas Philibert: The Extraordinary Ordinary”), this time pushed the gate of the progressive psychiatric clinic La Borde. Nestled in the vicinity of the sunlit Loire Valley, the film, succintly dubbed as Every Little Thing, portrays the every day life at La Borde, its trivial goings-on, loneliness and feebleness. Yet, there is room for moments of joy and laughter. Set over the summer of 1995, Every Little Thing follows the residents and staff of the La Borde psychiatric clinic as they set out to stage, what has now become a tradition, a fête production of a theatrical play. This year, they mount Witold Gombrowicz’s absurdist classic ‘Operette’.

The film opens with the scene of a woman, alone in a wide shot, singing a piece from the opera ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, “Mortal silence. Vain hope. What a torment. […] I succumb to my suffering,” she sings apropos as if Christoph Gluck himself had composed it for her. This immediate, somewhat disorienting immersion into the world of La Borde, takes place without an introduction or a context. The slow pacing seems especially fitting for this milieu. Its natural-lit outdoor cinematography appears idyllic and even a tad utopian.

In the following scene, we see a series of alienated body plans wandering in the green space. As we watch them roam, we are suspended in a state of unease and discomfort. Captives of their own bodies, their movements are rowdy and uncoordinated – they are unbridled misfits, displaced, repressed of drive, and rendered to vacillating and haphazard convulsions. Master at finding the right balance between sound and silence in all of his films, in Every Little Thing Philibert too deftly employs silence to signal the storytelling tone. Given the environment, the long silent takes now seem to be rather disturbing than peaceful. Agitated by the wind and trees, the life of its own nature seems to have found a

relief to the agony of the troubled souls. Yet, they do not stagnate, they grow freely, at their own pace and in all directions.

“[…] Scattered, lost. […] But who can tell? Who can tell what? […] Bizarre forms, demented shapes. I don’t know, I don’t understand, I don’t comprehend. Motionless, dazed, confused. […]” As the patients recite the lines from the ‘Operette’ with vigor and anxiety, this Polish absurdist comedy from the mid-60s and its distortive dreamwork seem ideal for La Borde. Caught in the nervous tics and disrupted diction, Michel, one of the long-term patients who regularly stays at the clinic since 1969, alike his fellows, chooses the temporary safety of the art world. He feels protected by the narrow confines of the fictional world of the ‘Operette’, where “the totally illogical lines comfort him.” Embraced by the tranquil woods of the Loire Valley, the La Borde asylum alleges art as a sanctuary and repose, serving both as an act of catharsis and that of defiance.

Above and beyond the theater, Philibert pursues no spectacular shots bestowing the folklore of madness. Neither does he try to encrust the film with new twists and turns. In fact, the film is constructed within a rather basic narrative pattern that eschews an adherence to any complexity of a latent plot or drama. Nevertheless, the timeline tracing the preparation for the play, the final performance, and the aftermath lends itself a narrative cohesion. Obstinately true to his style, the legato unhurried pace gives time to be attentive to the protagonists and their everyday doings. Once we embrace the slow rhythm and gradually get comfortable with it, we find ourselves immersed in these micro-moments that otherwise would have gotten lost in the momentum of the every day life. As the simple atcs unfold in a non-narrated manner, we see people reveal themselves in unpredictable ways. The scattered mosaic of moments is poetically undercut in a complexity of patches – all rendered with a lucent beauty. Yet, when that beauty slips in, it is almost always broken.

Be it, in the garden of La Borde, where a haggard patient strives to walk up to a shrub, rubbing his forehead as if to mollify the unbearable thought that hit his head; or at the art club, where a patient tries to draw the face of another patient, pauses in a moment of panic with words, “I am afraid to miss…” but finally cedes into a grin, overwhelming her suffering – behind these small moments, there is a lot at stake. It is riveting how little can say a lot about people: a stare, a gesture, a sigh, even a smile. Such moments of intimacy resonates with the viewer eminently. It uncovers something essential and profound about the human existence. Yet, what exactly it uncovers is up to the viewer. The film does not contain much commentary, laying itself wide open to the reading. Philibert’s ambition of being “a bit of an anti-Michael Moore” shows its vestiges here as he avoids to give any answers or to “think for the viewer”. Instead, he gives the viewer something to think about.

True to his style, Philibert is not voyeuristic in approaching his subjects. He says, “this film is not about people, but with and because of them.” Throughout the film, it becomes evident that the protagonists are well aware of being filmed. It can be seen through their verbal interventions or gazes directed to the camera. But these scenes don’t end up on the floor of the cutting room. Philibert says, “It doesn’t bother me that they look directly toward the camera. I don’t try to make them forget my presence. It is a matter of making myself accepted, not forgotten.”

As Philibert makes himself accepted in the La Bodre asylum, so do we. Indeed, as we voluntarily immerse ourselves in their world, we become almost as them – mad, too. By gradually taking us into the impenetrable madness, this cinematic vigil makes us re-work our view on madness and extend the degree of ambivalence toward the notion of normality. The film is very shrewd in bringing to focus the fluidity and dynamics of the borderline between madness and sanity. In Every Little Thing, anxiety and fragility are never far behind the laughter, spontaneity, and liveliness. “You are laughing at the rubbish I say. Aren’t you? You are totally crazy,” one of the patients utters. Different expressions race back and forth over his face. His smiles come in succession like waves breaking on the surface of a little lake. “You are nuts, you are completely nuts! […] That poor nurse is crazy. The staff need care. That could happen, you know. […] True, if we get care, no one will look after you.”

Indeed, as all visible differences between the patients and the care-givers are removed and patients are liberated to actively participate in running the facility, it seems hard to distinguish between those who need care. The care-givers do not wear white coats and doors have handles on both sides. Who manages the switchboard, who answers the phone calls, who prepares the meals – each one, notwithstanding their mental status, is a member of the La Borde little community, a microcosm of the society riven by differences and tension. All are in the same boat. Within this closed community, Philibert manages to create intense feelings of both community energy and extreme solitude. He observes the patients both when they are collaborating and when they are alone, estranged and off in their own universe.

As we hear tragic arias, soul-baring confessions, and moving recollections, the film without a condescending pity or soaring valorization, brings an illuminating account of a world that is outside of most of our daily experiences. Philibert approaches his subjects with a deep but unforced empathy that does not exoticize or disown them. In this radical otherness, we see our pallid reflection, we find part of ourselves. The film does not offer an antiodite for our fear of otherness, the otherness would still keep leaking into our psyche. Profoundly disturbing and intensely personal, the last sentence of the long-term patient Michel both moves and terrifies us, “We are here among ourselves. And you are among us, too, now.”

France, 1997, 105 mins.

Adam Ol´ha: New Life of a Family Album

It is a bit difficult for me to verbalise precisely, what this film is about. It goes in many directions and I have to confess that I sometimes lackd a focus while watching. However, the reason you stay with the film is the tone and the footage available for the male director, family archive footage shot by his father over a period of almost 20 years. I write male as the director is the only male in the family with mother, grandmother and 5 sisters! The Man with the Moving Camera he calls his father in the beginning of the film, or the father calls himself so, ending up giving himself the same characteristic as the one, who is never really involved, always on a distance, always observing. We dont get to know a lot about the son, the one making the film – and we don’t get to know much about the father, who left the family to marry another woman. Why? He does not talk about it.

On the contrary when it comes to the females in the film, they are open-minded, when they talk. The mother, a famous actress, the grandmother with her photos, talking about her good looking husband, who had many affairs, and the daughters, who grow up looking for their own way of life.

The material is impressive. The father took pictures – he even made an exhibition about the Ol´ha family – and the mother acted. As she says, now with parts as either a mother or a prostitute. We see her in close-ups and we see a lot of photos and the super 8mm footage of a happy family. The sunflower sequence in the beginning of the film is gorgeous. The happy family that was apparently not so happy. Suddenly the father was not there any longer and the son felt he had to ”rewrite history”. The father who, when young in the photos, looked fresh and optimistic is now closed and reluctant to answer the questions from the son. Who never dares to ask the question – why did you leave us, your big family?

A few words about the tone of a film that has many loveable moments, difficult not to fall in love with the little girl – the youngest daughter – who in songs/rappings comment on the new interpretation of a family without a father. Maybe a bit confusing structure but seldom a dull moment.

Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2012, 80 mins.

Dmytro Tiazhlov: Cornered

First a small introduction to a film that I saw in Kiev during the DocuDays festival. It was made by Dmytro Tiazhlov, who asked me to wait with any text review of the film until correct English subtitles had been adjusted. He sent the film to me a couple of months ago and I saw it again with pleasure and duable subtitles. The film is part of an almanach that

… comprises five short stories: Mezhyguirya, Afghan War Veteran, School, House with Chimeras, Cornered. 
The enactment in May 2011 of the Law on Access to Public Information prompted five nationals (documentary protagonists) to put the new piece of legislation to good use in their fight for their own rights. Not knowing each other, residing in different localities and totally different in their values, convictions, educational background and social standing, they nevertheless do have a strong point to share — their proactive approach to life…

“Cornered” is a small human story about Zoya Ivanivna Shulha, who lives in Panasivka in Ukraine, a small village with about 50 inhabitants, most of them old – see photo – and “cornered” they are without a decent transport possibility, no bus has come to the village for years. But the strong Zoya Ivanivna wants to change this situation. She writes to the authorities to get an explanation, refers to a decree from the former president, who promised transport to the most isolated areas of the country, and goes around to get signatures from the villagers to accompany her request. The director, who is also the cinematographer (and who made “I am a Monument to Myself” 4 years ago), follows her in her fight and demonstrates talent for catching and conveying situations among the citizens. Totally in the spirit of John Grierson this is a focus on public service, made with a sense of humour that makes you want to know more about the people of Panasivka. Why not a continuation?

Ukraine, 2013, 25 mins.

Henning Larsen 1925 – 2013

Jytte Rex nåede i tide at portrættere Henning Larsen, og hun binder i kvartetten om kunstnerisk arbejde, hvoraf filmen om ham på alle tænkelige måder er en integreret del, denne kunstnerskildring fuldstændig sammen med de tre forrige: Inger Christensen, Palle Nielsen, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. I greb efter greb. Også Henning Larsen skal op ad en trappe. Tæppebelagt i et hvidmalet trapperum. Op til sin bolig, hvor alt er hvidt, især gulvene, forklarer han nøgtern, i en tilbedelse af lyset, dagslyset, som former rummene, som jo er hans kunsts genstand. Og han siger senere, at et rum kan være tydeligere i tåge, og i Riyadh skulle lyset begrænses. Som det er med musikkens lyd, er det med lyset, det skal formes, derfor er arkitektur som frossen musik, hedder det frapperende. På det mest neddæmpede fører Larsen mig stolt, beslutsomt og bestemt gennem filmens univers af æstetiske problemstillinger, inden for arkitekturen, ja vist, men med reference efter reference til kunstnerisk arbejde i det hele taget. Henning Larsen er spiller i Jytte Rex’ essayistik, hans bygningsværker er locations og landskaber til Jakob Bonfils’ og Steen Møller Rasmussens optagelser, og Grete Møldrups klip placerer ham og hans replikkers fortælling nænsomt og sikkert i en uventet sammenhæng. Uventet for dem, der ikke kender de tre film, som går forud for denne. Filmen med ham bliver med faste og beslutsomme hænder placeret som et stort og herefter uundværligt element, en fuldstændig bygningsfløj i en filmisk arkitektur. Filmen kan ses for sig selv, men den kan kun for alvor læses som et afsnit, det fjerde, men ikke sikkert det sidste, i et stort, dybt integreret og dynamisk filmværk i fortsat udvikling, fra nu en firefløjet tavle med de forunderligste og skønneste billeder. Så godt Henning Larsen er med i dette filmværk, som skildrer hans arkitektarbejde kongenialt, så godt at vide nu, han er død.

Jytte Rex:  Henning Larsen – lyset og rummet, Danmark 2012, 70 min. Manuskript: Jytte Rex, fotografi: Jakob Bonfils, Steen Møller Rasmussen og Jytte Rex, klip: Grete Møldrup, produktion: Christian Braad Thomsen , Kollektiv Film, distribution: Kollektiv Film (salg af DVD herfra). Kan ses på filmstriben.dk nårsomhelst og på DR K tirsdag 25. juni 21:35.

Blogindlæg om Jytte Rex’ fire kunstner film (Inger Christensen, Palle Nielsen, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen):link 

Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis 2013

The German Documentary Award… was given out in the framework of Dokville, a two day event organised by the Haus des Dokumentarfilms. In German a “Branchentreff Dokumentarfilm”, with a fine and inspiring website. For German-reading visitors. A text clip from the SWR site announcing the winner, “Sofia’s Last Ambulance”, with the jury motivation: „Aus spannenden, mitunter rätselhaften Teilaspekten des Erzählten fügt sich der Alltag dieser Ambulanzeinsätze zu einem Ganzen, das die Dramatik des Geschehens nicht voyeuristisch preisgibt und dennoch die Dramen sichtbar macht. Ein neuer Beweis dafür, dass Kino im Kopf des Betrachters stattfindet. (…) Die Reduktion der filmischen Mittel und die dennoch große Nähe zu den Personen machen den Film zu einem besonderen Ereignis.“

The Bulgarian director Ilian Metev, who at the Magnificent7 festival in January also showed his skills as violin player, had tough competition, look at this list of nominated films:

Carte Blanche [mehr]Länge: 91 Min.; Autor/Regie: Heidi Specogna, Sonja Heizmann; Produktion: PS Film/WDR/ARTE/SRF; Schweiz/Deutschland 2011 [mehr] 

Die große Passion [mehr]Länge: 144 Min.; Autor/Regie: Jörg Adolph;Produktion: if Productions/BR; Deutschland 2011 [mehr]

Dragan Wende – West Berlin [mehr]Länge: 87 Min ; Autor/Regie: Dragan von Petrovic, Lena Müller;Produktion: von.müller.film/RBB; Deutschland 2012 [mehr]

El Bulli – Cooking in Progress [mehr]Länge: 113 Min. ; Autor/Regie: Gereon Wetzel;Produktion: if Productions/BR/WDR;Deutschland 2011 [mehr] 

Gerhard Richter Painting[mehr]Länge: 97 Min.; Autor/Regie: Corinna Belz;Produktion: zero one film/ MDR/WDR/ARTE; Deutschland 2011 [mehr]

Oma und Bella [mehr]Länge: 76 Min.; Autor/Regie: Alexa Karolinski;Produktion: Alexa Karolinski/ARTE/RB; Deutschland/USA 2012 [mehr]

Phoenix in der Asche [mehr]Länge: 92 Min; Autor/Regie: Jens Pfeifer;

Produktion: Pech und Schwefel Filmproduktion/WDR; Deutschland 2011 [mehr]

Sofias letzte AmbulanzLänge: 78 Min; Autor/Regie: Ilian Metev;Produktion: Sutor Kolonko Filmproduktion/WDR/ARTE; Deutschland/Bulgarien/Kroatien 2012 [mehr]

Vergiss mein nicht [mehr]Länge: 88 Min; Autor/Regie: David Sieveking;Produktion: Lichtblick Media GmbH/Lichtblick Film- und Fernsehproduktion/BR/ARTE/HR; Deutschland 2012 [mehr]

Wadim [mehr]Länge: 90 Min; Autor/Regie: Carsten Rau, Hauke Wendler; Produktion: PIER 53 Filmproduktion/NDR; Deutschland 2011 [mehr]

Stifter und Preisgelder

Der Deutsche Dokumentarfilmpreis wird alle zwei Jahre verliehen. Preisstifter sind der Südwestrundfunk (SWR), die MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg (MFG) und das Stuttgarter Haus des Dokumentarfilms (HDF). Das Preisgeld beträgt insgesamt 25.000 Euro. Der Deutsche Dokumentarfilmpreis (Hauptpreis von SWR und M F G zu je 50% getragen) ist mit einem Preisgeld von 20.000 Euro für einen Autor oder Regisseur verbunden, das in ein neues Filmprojekt fließen soll. Das Haus des Dokumentarfilms stiftet einen Förderpreis in Höhe von 3.000 Euro, die Stadt Ludwigsburg einen Preis in Höhe von 2.000 Euro.

Previous Blogposts: Sofia’s Last Ambulance  Dragan Wende  Ilian Metev  El Bulli

http://www.swr.de/unternehmen/deutscher-dokumentarfilmpreis-ludwigsbur/-/id=3586/nid=3586/did=8202780/1wk9vu9/

http://www.dokville2013.de/ 

I am Breathing – Global Screening Day

Amazing initiative around the film by Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon, I am Breathing, a film that has been shown at festivals all over, has been praised for its cinematic quality (also here at filmkommentaren.dk where it was on the Top 10 list of documentaries from 2012):

Tomorrow, June 21st, the film is to be shown in 164 places. Read this fine text from the website:

This year, on 21 June, in a wee village in Scotland a small group will get together to watch a film about a man who dies from Motor Neurone Disease (MND), also known internationally as ALS, ELA, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. At the same time, in a cinema in Mexico City, people are arriving from all over to see the the film, I AM BREATHING. In Russia and Romania, in Kosovo and Kenya, in India and Ireland, in Bahrain and Belgium, in the US and the UK – across the world people have volunteered to show the film – in village halls, schools, churches, living rooms, pubs, and theatres.

They have been inspired by the story of Neil Platt, who died aged 34, 14 months after being diagnosed with MND/ALS. He was determined more people should know about the disease.

Within a year, he went from being a healthy young father to becoming completely immobile from the neck down. As his body got weaker, he used his remaining months to communicate about his illness. He collaborated with the filmmakers on I AM BREATHING and wrote a blog, determined to play a part in making MND/ALS history by sharing his story and building a community of people to join the fight…

IMPORTANT: Go to the website below and you will find where and at what time, the film will be shown in a venue near you. For the Danes in Copenhagen:

Friday, June 21, 2013 at 05:00 PM

The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark

A screening made by DOXBIO in collaboration with MUSKELSVINDSFONDEN, THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DENMARK, DFI AND DANISH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION 

http://www.iambreathingfilm.com/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2207/

Sonja Blagojevic: Kosma

This is not a review. I am biased. The film is produced by my dear friends Svetlana and Zoran Popovic from Kvadrat, a (their own words) “film production and education firm, especially focused on production and promotion of documentary films”. For 9 years I have collaborated with them on the Belgrade festival “Magnificent7”, which is one of the most written about documentary events on this blog. On top of that the director Sonja Blagojevic has been a dear colleague in running this unique festival together with the Popovic and several other talented young Serbian filmmakers.

Having said so, I have to express my praise for an honest, well told, informative and emotional documentary and documentation of how it is to be Serbian in Kosovo today. It is my hope that the film will travel because a description with an angle like this has never been done before, and because of its quality as a film.

The best way to introduce the film is by bringing its text from the beginning of the work and to give the voice to the director, see the post below, Kosma 2.

The intro text goes like this: After the NATO bombing of Serbia at the end of the 20th century, the Security Council gave the UN authority over the Kosovo region. In 2008, the Kosovo Albanians unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, which Serbia doesn’t recognize. The final status of Kosovo has not yet been resolved. Over the past decade a large number of Serbs fled from this region. About 120.000 remained and live in ghettoized areas. Their only connection is the sound: a network of five radio stations called KOSMA.

Serbia, 75 mins., 2013.

http://www.kosmafilm.com/

www.kvadrat-film.com

Sonja Blagojevic: Kosma/ 2

The film has a very inviting and informative website that includes all you need to know about the background and motivation for the director to go to Kosovo and find out “What is it like over there”. Here is her personal statement:

While I was shooting my previous film, I eventually ended up in Kosovo. One night 
I slept on the floor and desks of the KIM Radio station in a small village in central Kosovo. At that point, I still couldn’t have guessed that this exact radio station would become one of the main characters in my new documentary film.

A few years later, I started to research and realized that the KIM Radio is part of a larger radio network called “KOSMA”. Five radio stations are scattered in different parts of Kosovo and it is only their signal that connects secluded Serbian communities.

And that is how my journey started: a journey of three years, guided by the sound, and resulting in over 120 hours of footage.
 When I came back from Kosovo for the first time, many people asked me the same question: “What is it like over there?” I wasn’t able to give a precise answer since my stay there was quite short. But I myself couldn’t stop wondering: “What is it really like over there?” And moreover: “What is it like for people who live there?”.

I chose the sound of the radio to be my guide in the search for the answer. I went everywhere where there was sound: to its source (the radio stations and places from which it was broadcast), from one to another, over different regions, over plains and mountains, to the houses where people were listening to the radio.
 I realized that the answer to the question “What is it like over there” is not a simple one. It is for that reason I chose a mosaic structure, with lots of sights and characters, that as a whole can offer a very vivid description of the spirit of a time and its predominant feelings. I hope that the film will at least partially give an answer to this significant question.

http://www.kosmafilm.com