Alexander Mihalkovich: My Granny from Mars

Yevpatoria, Crimea, Ukraine, occupied by Russia since 2014. A song from the film about the city:

“Here the sea gives me so much tenderness and love and health for years to come. Gardens and wonderful colors are all around, the joy of life is here to stay…”

And the film shows you, how attractive Yevpatoria is at the seaside, where the granny Zina lives, Ukrainian she is, being visited by Sasha, the director of the film, 30 years old – and by her children and grandchildren as well as neighbours and her sister, who all come to join the celebration of her 80th birthday.

Zina with her beautiful face, combing her hair… some fine sequences in what I

find the strongest conveyed layer in a film, that is built as a musical or at least is full of music: the layer with grandchild and granny, the love between them, her worry about his profession, about him not having found a partner in life, about… all the clichées which are not clichées but that´s how grannies are (I am on my way to be the same as a grandfather!), at least the caring and strong ones from the generation, who remembers the second WW and the fight for life afterwards. Zina remembers the airplanes from that war, now there is another war going on, where she as Ukrainian is surrounded by Russian orientated citizens. Isolated, wishing to move away, but “I have moved enough in my life”.

Zina has not been to a restaurant for 30 years, in the film she goes to one near the sea with the family to celebrate, she gets presents from the neighbour, who is in her 90’es, forgotten on that occasion are the discussions about politics. The framing is the musical, as the director calls it, when he takes a photo of granny and her son, who came for the celebration from Israel, where he lives. The daughter comes from Belarus as the director, whose first feature film this is.

Chapeau for the director to have chosen the many songs, several of them song by the old ladies in the film, to be a red thread of the narrative, it gives the film a poetic dimension, where it could have been far too easy and bombastic to go for the Ukrainian/Russian theme the whole way through. For me it is there, it is understandable.

I was, a year ago, at the Sarajevo Film festival part of a jury put together by the Jihlava Film Festival with Current Time TV as the sponsor. We gave (from 10 candidates) a shared main prize to “My Granny…” with this motivation:

“For a choice of charismatic protagonists, treated in a highly cinematic way, and for the sense of absurdity in a difficult and unstable environment.”

Long Live, I hope, a granny like Zina! A universal character.

https://eefb.org/interviews/alexander-mihalkovich-on-my-grannie-from-mars/

Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, 2018, 73 mins.

Photo: Granny to the right, her sister to the left.

IceDocs Iceland Documentary Film Festival/2

From FB I copy who were the winners of the new documentary festival in Iceland:

In our closing screening we didn’t only see a wonderful documentary, The Human Shelter (by Danish director Boris Bertram, ed.), but also gave awards to the winners of the festival. Here are the winners:

Shorts competition: All Inclusive (dir. Corina Schwingruber Ilić)
Mid-length competition: Haunted (dir. Christian Einshøj)
Main competition: Bruce Lee & the Outlaw (dir. Joost Vandebrug)
Mainland Special Mention: Honeyland (dir. Tamara Kotevska & Ljubo Stefanov)

Congratulations to all the winners – your films were simply stunning!

PHOTO from The Human Shelter, colleague Allan Berg reviewed it: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4223/ in Danish.

IceDocs Iceland Documentary Film Festival

This is how the organisers introduce the festival:

Welcome to IceDocs!

“The first ever edition of Iceland Documentary Film Festival takes place in Akranes on 17th-21st of July 2019. Our mission is to introduce quality documentaries to local audience and visitors alike as well as connecting filmmakers and industry people from all over the world. The event will take place in the small and quaint industry town of Akranes, just 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik.”

According to good friend, Italian Claudia Tosi, whose film “I Had a Dream” was in the program, the festival was (from FB) ”an amazing experience”, that ends today with many sections and according to the films being there absolutely ”quality documentaries”.

44 films, at the festival, the following have been reviewed/written about on this site:

Animus Animalis – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4476/

Aquarela – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4408/

Home Games – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4258/

Honeyland – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4449/ (Photo)

How Big is the Galaxy – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4523/

I Had a Dream – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4389/

In Praise of Nothing – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4102/

http://icedocs.is

Artemio Benki: Solo/ 2

Via the FNE (FilmNewEurope) I find a good interview with the director of ”Solo”, the Czech/French director and producer Artemio Benki, who reflects on being a French, yet living in Czech Republic for quite some time, chosing a theme for his film taking place in Argentina. For me I am happy every time I see this great film, premiered in Cannes, being selected for a festival, next one in Prizren, DokuFest. Here is a clip from the interview, read it all, link below, and read the enthusiatic and personal review I made, link also below. And hopefully I will have the chance to meet the protagonist Martin one day… Here is a quote:

How much of the result were you able to predict before you started shooting?
I spent a month with Martin before I brought any cameras. I decided first I need to know him as a person. During this time, I created some expectations about his behavior in different situations. I still can’t read his mind but I can predict his actions to some extent as you might be able to with your lover after six months of living together. For example, when he plays before his first serious audience after long time, I couldn’t predict he would fall off his chair but I knew him enough to be prepared for some kind of a complication – I know him to be a clumsy, anxious person. In this sense, I was often surprised but surprised to a degree I was able to predict.

When you work with people who have mental issues, it brings some moral and ethical dilemmas for you as a filmmaker.
When I was kid, I had my own experience with mental health care so I was drawn to this topic for personal reasons. It’s never been something sensational for me. And I spent enough time with my characters that I saw them as “my people”, they were close to me. So I think I never really was afraid that I would treat them in an ethically questionable way – I trusted my sense of empathy. I mean, documentary filmmakers, in a way, always “use” their protagonists but I knew I wouldn’t cross the line. Of course, I explained to Martin and everyone else what my intentions were and I included them only once they felt comfortable. I also felt a big amount of responsibility because Martin trusted me a lot. Had I wanted to shoot him masturbating, he’d probably have let me. But why would I do that? What would it add to the film? I respect the truth of a character – and I don’t want to muck it up with some gratuitously shocking scenes.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4542/

http://www.filmneweurope.com/news/czech-news/item/118447-fne-idf-docbloc-director-artemio-benki-i-like-strong-personal-stories-that-are-a-bit-extreme

Daniel Dencik: Kaptajnens Skygge

Fand´me godt, siger Jørgen Leth til sin cyklende digterkollega Christopher Juul Jensen i Daniel Denciks kortfilm, som kan ses på TV2 den 22. juli kl. 17.25. Juul Jensen har fået adgang til Jørgen Leth i dennes frokostpause og har læst et af sine digte op. Han skriver digte, den charmerende nu 30-årige rytter, som er hjælperytter, en taber som han siger – den position holder nu ikke filmen ud – og i øvrigt er han glad for at hjælpe og bliver sur hvis kaptajnerne ikke vil modtage hjælpen, reflekterer over det i sine fine samtaler med Dencik og i digtene –

i en film som i modsætning til filmen om Breschel er i balance, har et smukt billed-æstetisk flow, indeholder vidunderlige slow optagelser, nogle af dem fra Israel, hvor feltet bevæger sig langsomt gennem ørkenen, ren magi; der er klip fra familiens arkiv, som behændigt sættes sammen med optagelser fra løb; der er en tone som passer godt til Juul Jensen, som ligger nummer 140 i årets Tour, kørende for Mitchelton-Scott som hjælperytter for Adam Yates, der er på 7nde pladsen i classementet.

Juul Jensen har ikke fortalt sine holdkammerater at han digter, heller ikke at han godt kunne tænke sig at vinde en gang – men hvis man vinder, så kan det kun gå nedad, som han siger, hvorimod man kan altid blive en bedre hjælper. Jeg er lykkelig, siger han, jeg er sammen med verdenseliten i cykelsport. Jeg elsker mit arbejde. En klog fyr, en digter in spe?, lad os høre mere fra og om ham.

Filmen, fand´me godt gået af Dencik og hans hold.

Danmark, 2019, 25 mins.

TV2 den 22. juli kl. 17.25 og TV2Play.

Daniel Dencik: Forsvindingsnummeret

I 2013 anmeldte jeg her på sitet Daniel Denciks ”Moon Rider” om cykelrytteren Rasmus Quaade, som jeg lovpriste for at have  ”en fortællestil, hvor teksten, cykelrytterens refleksioner, som kommer som akkompagnement til billederne, aldrig i form af interview, undertiden opfattes som en slags stream-of-consciousness”. Siden – og før – da har vi fulgt Denciks film, Allan Berg har skrevet om Tal R-filmen og om ”Ekspeditionen til verdens ende”. Ingen tvivl om at redaktionen, Allan Berg og undertegnede, betragter Dencik som en vigtig ny dansk filminstruktør – ”Guldkysten”, spillefilmen, har jeg ikke set. At han også er forfatter og har bragt det litterære med ind i sine film er synligt og hørligt.

Og så har han skrevet vidunderligt i aviser om cykelløb – hans bog ”Sportshjerte” er jeg ikke kommet til endnu.

Alt dette som optakt til en kort tekst om filmen ”Forsvindingsnummeret” om rytteren Matti Breschel, 27 minutter lang, som blev sendt på TV2 i går og er tilgængelig på TV2 Play. Jeg ville godt have haft mere om den karismatiske rytter, som taler godt og interessant, som elsker jazz (der er bestemt noget ”jazzet” over filmen), funderer på Denciks opfordring over det at skulle ”forsvinde” fra det erhverv, som han har haft i næsten tyve år… og andre i filmen karakteriserer ham, inklusiv hans kone, som siger, at han undertiden optræder psykopatisk! Filmen springer rundt i forskellige stilarter, der er interviews, der er arkivoptagelser fra løbene, inklusiv det hvor Breschel brækkede ryggen, der er privatoptagelser fra Breschels bryllup og fra leg med børnene i haven, der er optagelser fra instruktøren og rytterens vandren rundt på den jødiske kirkegård, hvor faren ligger. Læg en sten, siger Dencik, en brosten spørger Breschel (!), som elsker Belgien og de hårde løb på landets landeveje! Småsnakker om eksistentielle spørgsmål. På trods af tv-slottets begrænsninger – en film jeg kunne lide at se, i disse Tour-tider, hvor journalistiske banaliteter florerer på skærmen.

Danmark, 2019, 27 mins.

Baltic Sea Docs 2019 Announces Selected Projects

The Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries (BSD) is the most important documentary training and pitching event in the Baltic countries, taking place in Riga, Latvia, from September 3 to 7 and mostly focusing on the projects from a greater Baltic Sea region as well as EU border countries. This year it will celebrate its 23rd edition. BSD is organised by the National Film Centre of Latvia, with financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Creative Europe Media programme, and Riga City Council.

BSD this year has selected 25 documentary film projects from 20 countries (out of more than 120 submitted), which will be provided with training

possibilities to enhance the project presentations prior to the public pitching sessions. The tutors of the BSD this year will be documentary film consultants Tue Steen Müller and Mikael Opstrup (Denmark), Natalia Arshavskaya, head of selections and acquisitions at Current Time TV (USA), Mandy Chang, commissioning editor of BBC Storyville (UK), film director Anna Eborn (Sweden), Alex Szalat, former head of Documentaries at ARTE France & Head of Docs up Fund, and film editor Phil Jandaly (Sweden).

Among the decision makers there will be representatives from TV channels, sales and distribution companies – BBC (UK), Current Time TV (USA), NHK (Japan), SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), Albanian Television, First Hand Films (Switzerland), Syndicado (Canada), and others.

The selected projects:

72 Hours (Belarus, Belgium, France / Playtime Films, Volia Films, SaNoSi Productions. Producers: Iva Tkalec, Volia Chajkouskaya, Isabel De La Serna, Director: Anna Savchenko)

Art and the Cold War. Esthetic Resistance (Estonia / Maagiline Masin. Producer: Anu Veermäe-Kaldra, Director: Sandra Jõgeva)

Company Of Steel (Ukraine / Directory films LLC. Producer: Igor Savychenko, Director: Yuliia Hontaruk)

The Constitution of the New Era: Man balancer of the Aerial and Aquatic World (Macedonia / OPIUM Film, Bunker Film+. Producers/Directors: Kiril Karakash, Svetislav Podleshanov)

Ever Since I Know Myself (Georgia / FORMO Production. Producer/Director: Maka Gogaladze)

Every Independence Day (Estonia, Belarus / Volia Films, Marx Film. Producers: Volia Chajkouskaya, Max Tuula, Director: Yulia Shatun)

Fragile Memory (Ukraine, the Netherlands / Burlaka Films, DOXY Films. Producers: Mariia Ponomarova, Harmen Jalvingh, Director: Ihor Ivanko)

How to Save Dead Friend (Russia / DOCS VOSTOK. Producer: Ksenia Gapchenko, Director: Marusya Syroechkovskaya)

The Hunt (Lithuania / Studio Nominum. Producer: Arūnas Matelis, Director: Aistė Stonytė)

The Kind Stranger (Finland / Kinocompany Ltd. Producer: Ari Matikainen, Directors: Sini Hormio, Anu Silfverberg)

Mayday Georgia! (Georgia, UK, Uzbekistan / VISION FABRIKA, Nushi Film. Producers: Tekla Machavariani, Rayhan Demytrie, Directors: Robin Forestier-Walker, Rayhan Demytrie)

Masha, out of the Realm of Memory (France, Lithuania / ZED, MOONMAKERS. Producer: Christine Le Goff, Director: Giedrė ickytė)

Men On Boat (Denmark / Final Cut for Real. Producer: Anne Köhncke, Director: Carl Olsson

Missing My Body (Georgia / Lokokina Studio. Producer/Director: Alexander Kvatashidze)

No Elephant in the Room (Poland, Romania / SQUARE film studio ltd, Triba Film. Producer: Magdalena Borowiec, Director: Clara Kleininger)

The Price of Meat (Latvia / Rucka Art Foundation. Producer: Ieva Goba, Director: Kaspars Goba)

Prison Unlocked (Latvia / Ego Media. Producer: Guntis Trekteris, Director: Ivars Zviedris)

Rebbellion (Ukraine, Germany, Poland / Phalanstery Films. Producer: Illia Gladshtein, Director: Keren Chernizon)

Riga Palace (Latvia / SKUBA films. Producer: Sandijs Semjonovs, Director: Armands Začs)

Roma (Ukraine, the Netherlands / Moon Man LLC, Tangerine Tree. Producers: Darya Bassel, Viktoriia Khomenko, Willem Baptist, Nienke Korthof, Director: Olga Zhurba)

Roses. Film – Cabaret (Ukraine / DGTL RLGN. Producers: Oleksandra Kravchenko, Oleg Sosnov, Director: Irena Stetsenko)

Super B (Finland / napafilms oy. Producer: Marianne Mäkelä, Director: Mia Halme)

Tango of Life (Latvia, Italy, Argentina / VFS FILMS, B&B FILM, Nativa Contenidos. Producers: Uldis Cekulis, Raffaele Brunetti, Director: Erica Lifredo, Krista Burāne)

The Transition (Russia, UK / Baikal Cinema, Roast Beef Productions. Producer: Gayane Petrosyan, Mike Lerner, Director: Gayane Petrosyan)

Unpaved (Poland / Salton Sea Films. Producers: Malgorzata Koziol, Mikael Lypinski Director: Mikael Lypinski)

For the first time BSD is introducing awards with an aim to contribute to the successful completion of the projects. One project will be awarded with an online mentoring by editor Phil Jandaly for one year, and another will have an opportunity to use post-production facilities from BBrental.eu (Riga, Latvia) (in the amount of 3000 Euros). Projects will be selected by the tutors and decision makers based on the workshops and pitches.

Even though BSD was established more than 20 years ago in Denmark, it will be the 15th year since it is taking place in Riga, Latvia. From the 2019th edition BSD has a new project manager, film critic and researcher Zane Balčus, who has an extensive experience in management and curatorial areas in different organizations in the field of cinema. Before taking the position at the BSD, Balčus was a managing director of Riga Film Museum, she has been a programmer of the International Film Forum Arsenāls, project coordinator of the National Film Festival. She is a co-author of several books on Latvian cinema, a freelance film critic writing on cinema for various publications in Latvia, as well as a correspondent to Film New Europe.

During the week of the BSD, a film programme of the latest documentaries will be presented at cinema K.Suns in Riga, and several regional towns.

More information about the event: http://balticseadocs.lv/industry/

More information:

Zane Balčus

Project Manager of the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries

Phone + 371 67358858

E-mail: balticforum@nkc.gov.lv

Yamagata

… in Japan hosts a bi-annual documentary film festival of high quality. I have previously – see http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1684/ – praised the festival for its modest pr activity and seriousness. Old-fashioned some might say, I would say refreshing that in the middle of festivals with colourful promotion and many times repeat of ”we are the best” or ”we want to be the best”, there is a festival that stands out by taking a different low-key way, check for yourself, click the website below.

In the selection for the festival taking place October 10-17, you wil find films by Wang Bing, Frederick Wiseman and Anand Patwardhan, all big names but it warms my heart to see that the festival has fallen for “Cachada – The Opportunity”, the film by Marlén Viñayo from El Salvador, her first film, that won an award at DocsBarcelona and has earned many positive words from critics, including the one, who writes these words, link below.

The same goes for Anna Eborn’s “Transnistra”, also a young female director, who now takes big steps on the international scene. The film, shot on 16mm film, is a true auteur film, if you like, click below and read words that include the name Truffaut.

https://www.yidff.jp/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4540/ (Cachada)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4475/ (Transnistra)

DokuFest Announces Its Program

”More than 100 wonderful documentary films as well as a great array of short fictions and experimental cinema representing 40 countries, is what characterizes the film competition…”, are words from the press release sent out a couple of days ago by the festival in Prizren Kosovo, that takes place August 2-10. The artistic director of the festival, Veton Nurkollari, is a happy man:

“Bold and innovative, timely and important, is how I’d identify many of the films from this year’s competitions. “DokuFest continues its mission to bringing the best and the brightest in contemporary filmmaking to Kosovo and we are thrilled to welcome a number of first-time directors as well as many returning ones to the festival.”

There are no less than six competition sections: Balkan Dox, Intl. Dox and Feature & Shorts, Intl. Shorts, Human Rights Dox, Green Dox, National Competition.

Several of the films have been highlighted on this site, let me mention five of them:

Artemio Benki: Solo – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4542/

Reetta Huhtanen: Gods of Molenbeek – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4454/

Rachel Leah Jones & Philippe Bellaiche : Advocate http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4553/

Dina Naser: Tiny Souls – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4543/

Viktor Kossakovsky: Aquarela – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4408/

As usual, the festival in Prizren offers high quality – and I can add that the festival atmosphere is friendly and relaxed with much time to digest and discuss what you have seen.

https://dokufest.com/2019/

Ksenia Okhapkina: Immortal

This film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary Festival that ends tomorrow, July 6. It has had three screenings, and let me start this review of a film, that will conclude with the highest marks on this site by quoting the catalogue text of the festival:

” How do the mechanisms of political power directly influence the lives of a country’s inhabitants? In seeking an answer to this difficult question, this cinematic essay looks at everyday life in a small Russian industrial city, uncovering along the way how dangerous and furtive an all-permeating ideology can be.”

… saying that there is nothing wrong in the text, it is also about indoctrination and building up patriotism, but not about everyday life, the text is a simplification that makes you think that here comes another social documentary from Russia, one of the many that fills festival programs all over. No, this is Cinema far away from information and much closer to interpretation of human life through sound and image and editing and point of view. It is seldom that I see a film that so precisely invites you into a world conveyed via symbols and sequences that has a flow of scary beauty that hits your eyes. Russian Sergey Dvortsevoy once said that for him every image, every sequence must have energy – in Ksenia Okhapkina’s film this is the case. The film is a composition, you are linked to the film with your eyes and ears, it is brilliant.

It takes place in the area, where there used to be Gulag camps and where there now live people, where coal is transported in containers attached to trains in an Arctic landscape, where the ice is burnt away from the pavement and where kids are trained to use rifles, girls are doing ballet and march – 1,2,3,4 – and where a golden tree stands with appartment buildings in the background. Where pilot training is talked about in a museum of heroes, who died for the Fatherland. You have a focus on kids listening and watching a propaganda film, where we the audience hear the sentence “the path to immortality”. Hence the title. Where people are filmed like shadows from behind, they are anonymous individuals, who have given up… no let me refrain from my interpretations to avoid simplifications… in a film that has the total ambition to let the images and the sound speak for what you take from it. Don’t say it, show it! And yet the lonely snow-covered dog barking represents of course, what the director and her excellent crew of camerapersons and editors and sound people and composers want to tell the audience, bringing with extraordinary cinematic skills a tone and a point of view the film to a thematically existential level. As did Pirjo Honkasalo years ago with her “Three Rooms of Melancholy”. It’s in that category, wrote the overwhelmed Danish reviewer.

Estonia/Latvia, 2019, 60 mins.