Mari Gulbiani: Before Father Gets Back

DOCS & TALKS 2019 / CINEMATEKET

 

RADIKALISERING

Jeg forstår på foromtalerne at Mari Gulbianis film handler om radikalisering og dette for tiden sært indforstået præcise begreb vender og drejer jeg nu jeg har set Gulbianis værk og slet ikke oplever det som filmens egentlige indhold. Jeg mærker måske en radikaliserings virkninger i en lille landsby uden unge og voksne mænd – forstår at alle disse mænd er ved fronten. De gamle mænd og kvinderne og børnene er tilbage i husene og på vejene og på stederne hvor man altid i små grupper fortsat i al landsbyens tid samles og snakker med hinanden. Vi har alle set og frydet os over disse utallige film som tilsammen er en dokumentarfilmens globale landsby. Her i denne, i en georgisk bjergegn er situationen at de våbenføre mænd har meldt sig til en krig langt borte for en idé, for en samfundsforståelse de tror på, og jeg forstår at det i denne dal er det IS de tjener, men kommer i tvivl, for det kan da ikke gælde alle? Formodentlig hovedpersonen Imans far, men vel ikke den anden hovedperson Evas far? De ses på fotografiet prøve et tørklædes virkning for udseendet, Iman til venstre i vestligt mærkevaretøj naturligt i hendes familie, Eva til højre i sin egns traditionelle klædning med tørklæde, en selvfølge i hendes familie. Kyndig lærer hun Iman hvordan tørklædet skal bindes korrekt.

Som jeg ser og hører det er det krigen som sådan, ikke radikaliseringen af krigerne, ikke terroren og krigsforbrydelserne, som de tilbageblevne voksne og børnene ser tv om, taler om, det er ikke ideologiernes sammenstød. Det her må Mari Gulbiani og Maja Greenwood under samtalen efter filmen finde ud af og forklare for en som mig, der helt ærligt ikke ved hvad radikalisering egentlig er, som en religiøs omvendelse, som et politisk valg, som en pludselig eller blot voksende indsigt i og overtagelse en tilværelsesforståelse, en omverdenstolning, en livsanskuelse hed det i min ungdoms indre missionske Nørre Nissum, hvor der i øvrigt også levede grundtvigianere og sekulære socialister.

STED

Hos Flaherty blev det et ubetinget princip, at historien skulle hentes på stedet selv, og at det skulle være (hvad han anser for) stedets egentlige historie. Hans drama er derfor et drama af dage og nætter, af årstidernes gang, med de kampe, der er nødvendige for at opretholde eller for at leve i et samfund eller for at bygge stammens værdighed op. (John Grierson)

Filmen skildrer som jeg ser den netop sådan helt klassisk en landsby i dens evighed og dens nuværende mennesker i en ganske særlig situation. Alle unge og yngre mænd er fraværende, kun kvinderne og børnene og de gamle herrer er hjemme og medvirker i stedets drama, kampe og diskussion af den rette æstetik og moral, dannelsens kultur. Den ældste dokumentarfilm jeg erindrer at have set, Robert Flahertys Nanook the North, 1922 og den yngste jeg til nu har set, denne Before Father Gets Back, 2018, som Mai Gulbiani præsenterer her på Docs &Talks, minder for mig at se ganske enkelt om hinanden med hensyn til stedets historie, drama og kampe. Det er styrken, roen og skønheden hen over en sund traditionens bue på ti årtier.

PERSONER

Det er en vidunderlig film, det er vidunderlige medvirkende, pigerne Eva og Iman, en med tørklæde og en uden. Det er en central scene, et nervøst moment, hvor Eva binder tørklæde på Iman, legende viser hende hvordan man gør. Legende, bare det… Eva fra en konservativ familie, Iman fra en emanciperet, liberal, frigjort familie. Pigerne leger muntert alvorlige, og handlingen her falder ind som noget naturligt. Sådan er der her ikke noget forkert eller opsigtsvækkende ved det.

Det er to dejlige piger. Eva er ikke radikaliseret, hun er bare velopdragen med en gammel kultur i sig. Iman er ikke emanciperet, hun er bare velopdragen med har en nyere kultur i sig. De klæder sig i tøj i kaukasisk stil og i amerikansk stil. De lever med hinanden om halsen og modsætningerne mellem dem jeg udenfor stående ser skyldes tænker måske også generationsforskelle, måske har Eva gamle forældre, Iman unge.

ANTROPOLOGI

Jeg ser Docs & Talks programmet som en smuk kvalitetsbåret, håndplukket buket af dokumentarer, af visuel antropologi, jeg kan godt lide udtrykket, det er fag, det er præcision, men også afgrænsende. Så jeg begynder forsigtigt at flytte det til dokumentarfilm af flere slags og jeg finder tre eksempler på denne festival: der er videnskabelig visuel antropologi som en meget vigtig del af thyfilmene, der er journalistisk visuel antropologi som hele metoden i Antones ark og der er cinematografisk visuel antropologi som en samlet digterisk undersøgelse øen i krabberne. Det er det sidste filmlæreren underviser Iman og Eva og de andre børn i, cinematografi.

CINEMATOGRAFI

For der er en filmlærer i Before Father Gets Back. Det er Mari Gulbiani både foran kameraet og bag. Det er måske hvad vignetten med den cirkelrunde beskæring betyder se still billedet Eva med kamera. Og der er atter en central scene med en diskussion om genrer og æstetik. Kan du lide dette billede, denne optagelse spørger læreren eleven, hun viser hende en lydefri total af et parti i landsbyen klassisk i dokumentarfilmens historie med forbillede i malerkunstens naturalisme, nej faktisk ikke, svarer eleven, hun foretrækker Chaplin, som de også arbejder med, foretrækker spillefilm for dokumentar. Deres Chaplin parafrase viser deres egen nye fascination af filmkunsten – cinematografisk (mimisk) drama, og så laver filmlæreren børnenes dokumentarfilm selv i et fornemt samarbejde med dem. Det er den film jeg ser, en voksen fabulerende og aldeles nutidig essayistik over en fascination af landsbymotivet, som jeg oplever i klippets parallelle skildringer af de to karakterers udvikling og landsbyens statiske liv gennem dage, uger, måneder. Så jeg ser dens mennesker, læser hvordan de to piger er bundet i dette steds egentlige historie, det er – cinematografisk (poetisk) antropologi. Og jeg får på den måde et ungdommeligt kunstværk inden i et voksent kunstværk – de to æstetiske holdninger respekterende hinanden – en spillefilm og en dokumentarfilm.

Hvad får mon forskeren og filminstruktøren i samtalen, i arrangementets eventdel ud af det de, nøjagtigt som børnene på skolens kalkede væg nu har set på Cinematekets lærred? Det er jeg virkelig spændt på…

Sanam mama dabrundeba / Before Father Gets Back / Mari Gulbiani, Georgien/Frankrig/Tyskland , 2018 / Eng. subtitles / 80 min. / 140 min. incl. debate /

SYNOPSIS

In a darkened classroom, the white cracked walls serve as a movie screen. We are in a remote mountain village of Georgia. The light from the projector breaks the darkness: the kids’ first cinematic experience is about to begin. Among them are Iman and Eva, two Muslim girls for whom the experience becomes a turning point and inspires them to take the camera and start filming their daily lives. The girls are growing up in a valley infested by radicalism, where most people are living in a constant fear of their relatives sacrificing their lives in the name of God.

The Pankisi Valley in Georgia is notorious for being the breeding ground of a large number of radicalized Islamic State foreign fighters. In ‘Before Father Gets Back’, the camera is turned towards the society they departed from, giving us a rare insight into the life of the families left behind. The film is a touching coming-of-age story about the two young friends Iman and Eve whose lives are filled with so much more than the absence of their fathers. WP Sheffield 2018, Sarajevo FF. DK premiere! (Docs & Talks, ed.)

EVENT

Meet the director of the film, Mari Gulbiani, who has worked with adolescents of the region through various projects, and Maja Greenwood, who recently finished her PhD on foreign fighters. Together they will shed light on why men and women choose to go to war on behalf of Islamic groups in the Middle East and the consequences for the families they leave behind. The debate is in English.

https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/docs-talks-2019 (program og billetter)

LITTERATUR

John Grierson: First Principles of documentary, 1946, da.: Dokumentarismens grundprincipper, i Ib Monty og Morten Piil, red.: Se – det er Film 1, 1964.

Dušan Makavejev 13.10.1932 – 25.01.2019

Andrijana Stojkovic: I remember when in July 2007 two great film artist – Bergman and Antonioni – “left” during one night… It seemed that the (film) world will never be the same again. And it isn’t. But these last days it gotten even sadder – while the (film) world is reminding of the significance and wonderfully honest art of Jonas Mekas, on Friday we have lost maybe the most free and imaginative film director that ever lived – Dušan Makavejev.

It’s not easy to explain who Makavejev was. His exploration of film art moves through many forms and genres. He’s best known for his fiction films, which included documentary footage, doku-drama, some very unusual work with actors… He played and played and played. Never taking himself too seriously but always provoking us – the audience – and showing us the unexpected.

I travel a lot to film festivals and film markets and listen to film projects in development. Also read many synopses and director’s intentions. In today’s (film) world there is this need to use words like “unusual”, “new”, “original”. We, directors, use it a lot. What I do when I hear this adjectives in someone’s presentation I roll out all Makavejev’s films in my head and it turns out that Makavejev has already used these “unusual”, “new”, “original” approaches in his film(s) maybe 40, 50 or even 60 years ago.

In 2011 I was finishing my debut fiction film and since its script was transformed into a novel, I was invited to a book fair in Pula (Croatia) where I was to show 15 minutes of my still unfinished film. Dušan Makavejev with his wife and long-time collaborator Bojana, were the star guests of the fair. I have invited them to the screening of my film-to-become and they cordially excepted and came. I was so honored and somehow proud to have them in the audience. Especially since my film plays with fiction and documentary forms and uses them in “original” way. And then, during the screening, scenes from Makavejev’s “W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism” and “Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator” came to my mind. He’s already done it! – I thought.

Although, inactive in making films in the recent years, he was tutoring and advising other filmmakers. Joshua Oppenheimer never misses a chance to mention Makavejev’s influence on his films. For us, here in Serbia, Makavejev is the beacon, which reminds us of the way to freedom of expression and importance of artistic freedom.

Dušan Makavejev will be greatly missed.

Andrijana Stojkovic

Jonas Mekas 1922-2019

Audrius Stonys: Jonas left us. With the same lightness as he used to live. Silently and gently as if he didn’t want to disturb the image of life. We first met in 1990, when he invited us, 10 young filmmakers from Lithuania to his Film Anthology Archive in New York.

The first day he told us a fairy tale about a clear and beautiful image of Paradise. One day this image was destroyed by the devil. It broke in to zillion peaces that scattered all around the world. The filmmakers, he said, are the ones who are looking for those tiny pieces of Paradise trying to put the image back together. The Paradise is not lost, he said. And we believed him. And since then we are collecting those pieces of Paradise.

I always wondered how images of his films could be filled with incredible joy and at the same time deepest existential sadness, indescribable lightness and philosophical depth.

When I asked him that question, he said: I lost too much in my life. And added: Don’t take everything too seriously. He lost his homeland, his landscapes, faces of his loved ones, sound of Lithuanian songs, images of the first snow, that falls on his village. He didn’t want to lose nothing more in his life, not a single second, so he started to film every second of his life.

He never was making films. He was standing in the Desert counting the Seconds of his Life. When Jonas Mekas friend George Maciunas, founder and soul of Fluxus, was dying from cancer in 1978, he said: I am not afraid to die. When I die, I will have a possibility to listen to all seven lost operas of Monteverdi. I am sure, that now, when the count of seconds of life is over, Jonas is standing in front of the complete image of Paradise.

Film Masterpiece found under Daughter´s Bed!

This afternoon an important mail reached me – attached with the photo you see above. It came from Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis and film director Kristine Briede, who took the photo. It went like this :

« Dear Tue and Audrius (Stonys), Great news from Riga!

The missing director’s cut of « 235.000.000 » is found in very good condition under the bed at one of Uldis Brauns daughters flat!

Kristine took this legendary picture of Uldis Brauns widow Dainuvite, Latvian Film archive director Dace in the middle and archive techno man. (Unnamed, sorry, as the dog is, ed.).

We have been searching it for years, even last year in Riga at Uldis flat, but last week finally the mystery was resolved.

Will let you know about restoration and digitalisation – it will be done soon, as everyone is bloody enthusiastic, it will be done, we all will get that file! »

Yes, it had been looked for, the cut of Uldis Brauns film, his cut of the film which was

commissioned by Kreml to celebrate the 50 years of the revolution in 1967.

Thanks to Kristine Briede and Uldis Cekulis I had the luck to visit Uldis Brauns in 2014. We watched the film on his television set, in his bedroom, he was not happy with what he saw, it is censored, he said. Later we got the story as he (and others) remembered it :  

… we communicated with translation help of Kristine Briede, who has been visiting Brauns many times and has his confidence. We talked about ”235.000.000”, and I got the story about the film (working title USSR 1966) that was first rejected on a project basis, when Brauns and his colleagues turned up in Moscow with a very precise budget, but on the way out from the meeting, they were called back and had an ”ok, go ahead”. Which they did to make the film that was shown in Leipzig. With consequences. Brauns was called to Moscow and was told that he should cut from the moment, where the GDR high representatives left the cinema (!), no further explanation, plus some other moments including a scene from the official welcoming of de Gaulle to Moscow. Brauns was not in Leipzig, he did not know that the film would be shown there! The film exists in three versions, 70 minutes, 110 minutes and 140 minutes…

And it was on the floor… of a daughter’s flat!

For me ”235.000.000” is one of the masterpieces in world documentary history, a feature duration documentary with no words, an homage to Life and to the joyful co-existence of people from the many republics of USSR. But the Kremlin people could not see that, they only saw that their leaders were not praised enough…The reason for putting aside the film can only be found in the advanced poetic storytelling and the focus on ordinary people and their lives in grief and happiness…

(this is from a blog text I wrote after the meeting with Uldis Brauns).

Now we – and Uldis Brauns from his heaven – can look forward to enjoy the director’s cut. As can dcumentary lovers all over. It comes at the right time, where Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys together with producers Uldis Cekulis, Arunas Matelis and Riho Västrik have made „Bridges of Time“ that travels the world with a focus on the poetic tradition in Baltic documentary cinema. In this film there are amazing clips from „235.000.000“. Now the whole film, in its right version, will be available.

Emir Kusturica: El Pepe, Una Vida Suprema

They are sitting outside the house of the former president of Uruguay José Pepe Mujica. Pepe and Kusturica. The film director lights his cohiba cigar, Pepe is preparing his mate, spitting out the first tasting, too strong it always is. No words are said, they look at each other, they take their time, smiles are on their faces – an excellent start of a film, where the film director expresses his admiration for the modest man, who after being one of the leaders of the Tuparamos guerilla group that robbed Banks, performed kidnapping and later also went into violence, including killings, was caught and kept 13 years in prison. After his release – after the fall of the military dictatorship – he went into politics and became president of the country 2010-2015. A very popular one as demonstrates the film. Kusturica followed the President on his last day on duty with huge crowds celebrating him – and after the change, in his active retirement where he initiates housing projects and gives money from his own salary to help poverty decrease.

The years in prison were good for me, it made me think, he says in the film,

that is built around Kusturica and Pepe in conversation, with archive material of his travelling the world as the president and clips from Costa-Gavras film “State of Siege”, the fiction serves as documentary archive material in this context.

Pepe is a charismatic old man with a warm heart. He talks about changing the culture, fighting capitalism, he is in love with nature, he cultivates flowers, he cooks and talks about his dog Manuela, and he rides his blue old VW Beatle. He loves life and connects this love to his “deep solitude” in jail that made him reflect on the values of life.

Not to forget the most important, his life with Lucía Topolansky, also an ex-tupamaro. The film end with a collage of photos of the two, sitting in a café listening and singing quietly along one of the many beautiful pieces of tango music that goes with the main character(s). Topolansky is now vice-president in the new government.

Kusturica is not interested in giving the audience a solid background in terms of what happened in Uruguay during the dictatorship, it comes in bits and pieces and through interviews with two of Pepe’s companeros,

Mauricio Rosencof and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, the latter also analysing current international politics with no good words to Putin and his involvement in Ukraine.

Contrary to the film he made on Maradona, Kusturica lets Pepe come to the viewer without too mush focus on himself, just sitting there with a cigar trying to look like Che Guevara. It’s all right and he deserves credit for this sketchy homage to a man you can only love.

The film had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival 2018.

Uruguay, Serbia, 2018, 74 mins.

 

 

Matthieu Rytz: Anote’s Ark

DOCS & TALKS 2019 / CINEMATEKET / FRE 01/02 16:45

… Men løsningen er alligevel så let at en femårig kan forstå det. Vi må stoppe udslippene. Det er sort-hvidt. For enten sætter vi gang i en kædereaktion som udløser hændelser, som udløser hændelser, som er ude af menneskets kontrol, eller også gør vi det ikke. (Greta Thunberg i SVT 18. jan. 2019)

 

GEOGRAFI

Det første jeg overvældet forstår når jeg ser Matthieu Rytz ’ film er staten Kiribatis’, dette øriges skrøbelighed. De indledende optagelser fra højt oppe viser mig det, en spinkel ørække i en lang sekvens. Udsagnet i disse billeder er filmens indhold, som helt enkelt former sig som en uddybning af dette indtryksfulde overblik. Matthieu Rytz vil med det samme gøre klart, hvad den her dokumentar handler om. Skrøbelig og usikker skønhed. Den lille spinkle udriggerbåd på det store hav, det blå sejl og det blå vand og den tynde langstrakte øgruppe to meter over havets overflade på toppen af undersøiske vulkankrateres kanter.

Our whole nation is only two metres above sea level, and the report shows that the difference between 1.5°C and 2°C of warming is several centimetres of sea level rise. Given that we are already feeling the impacts of rising water, every millimetre counts. (Anote Tong, The Guardian, 10 Oct 2018)

KLIMA

Det er en ellers meget lidt drømmende, men derimod yderst realistisk skildring af dette land, dette første offer for klimakatastrofen – sådan vil det komme til at se ud når denne smukke i sig selv afsides hvilende nation går til grunde. Det vil være endnu flere vilde storme der river alt i stykker og vældige vandmasser i gader og huse. Og her i det lave land er der ikke højder og bjerge at flygte til, lige på den anden side er vandet også, lagunens vandstand stiger også. Klimakatastrofen er ikke noget som kommer engang, klimakatastrofen er noget som er nu. Stormene og havstigningerne er der – men måske vil en begyndelse for nogle af os i biografen ikke mærkes, før hændelserne snart vokser endnu mere i antal og styrke. I dokumentarprogrammets redegørelse og i vores virkelighed uden for biografen.

FISKERI

To fiskere, en mand og en kvinde røgter deres garn ude i havet. De står som de altid gør, som de al tid gjorde, i vand til brystet. Det er varmt nok, det er tropisk klima, det er på breddegraden 0. Vejret er det samme hver dag, solen bager, havet er azurblåt som spejl af himlen. Manden samler fangsten i en sin kurv mens han løsner dem af garnet. Kvinden tager mens hun tømmer sin del af nettet en af dem i munden og en i hver hånd og så vader hun hen til ham og lægger dem i kurven. De driller hinanden, de pjasker vand på hinden, de er glade. Som var de badegæster. Men de er på arbejde, de er fiskere, de hedder Sermary og Ato og er medvirkende i et visuelt antropologisk værk, og de står ude i havet som er en vældig del af deres land, en forudsætning for livet i deres lokale samfund, en af Kiribatis 35 øer som ligger lavt i havet fordelt i en række hen over Ækvator.

I en følgende scene sidder de to ved siden af hinanden på land og renser fiskene, det her er deres erhverv, så derefter kommer vel transporten til markedet og den fine lille udriggerbåd med det blå sejl er inde i billedet i dag som den har været det i måske hundrede år eller meget mere tænker jeg.

LANDBRUG

De er også landmænd, i en følgende scene klatres der i pakmer, der flækkes kokosnødder, der produceres kokosmel og kokosmælk men, forstår jeg, mindre og mindre…

Sea level rise is turning our freshwater resources salty, rendering the land unable to grow staple crops such as coconut and taro, and eating away our shoreline. (Anote Tong, ibid)

KULTUR

Jeg kigger på boligerne, på den ærværdigt sikre og beskedne arkitektur, denne selvfølgelige respekt for æstetikbogens kapitel 1 Om Stedets Ånd, som jeg læser i de fotografiske optagelser, som således også må være Matthieu Rytz’ udgangspunkt for sin politisk moralske pamflet: de er ved at miste deres venligt lave land, de smukke havhuse, de dejlige fiskerbåde med farvede segl…

We are being told that we may have to abandon our islands, the places where our ancestors have been buried, where our children have a home and an identity. (Anote Tong, ibid.)

PRÆSIDENTEN

Fiskeren i en senere scene er Anote, han står i havet som jo er en vældig del af hans land, hvis præsident han var. Nu dykker han ned og fanger fisk med de bare hænder, nu er han både fisker i t-shirt og shorts og international klimaaktivist i jakkesæt, hvid skjorte og slips. Han tabte seneste præsidentvalg og han fisker igen og vold mod havet. Han fascinerer mig med det samme for det er flot og prægnant hvad han siger, det ser jeg også i hans skriftsprog som fortsat statsmand og aktivist i en artikel han har skrevet i The Guardian, som jeg så lige nu og her bringer citater fra…

If this disastrous outcome comes to pass, my people will need a place of safety to move to. Rather than be regarded as “climate refugees” – a term that has no definition or status in the international legal system – I seek migration with dignity for my people. (Anote Tong, ibid.)

SYNOPSIS

What happens when your nation is swallowed by the sea? With the harsh realities of climate change looming, the low-lying Pacific nation Kiribati must find a new solution for the survival of its people. With sweeping cinematography, Anote’s Ark interweaves two poignant stories. Anote Tong, endearing president of the island, races to find options—advocating in international climate negotiations and even investigating building underwater cities. At the same time, warm and sharp-witted Sermary, a young mother of six, tackles every struggle with humour. She must decide whether to leave the only culture she knows on the island and migrate to a new life in New Zealand.

First-time filmmaker Matthieu Rytz sharply captures the next evolution in the shifting dynamics of climate change—one where borders, technology, and global treaties are urgent and can change daily life as we know it. This portrait of the Kiribati people exudes strength of character and grace as they confront the inevitable change they are facing head-on. (Docs & Talks, ed.)

Matthieu Rytz, 2018 / eng. tekst / 77 min. / 140 min. inkl. debate

EVENT

How do we mitigate the consequences of the climate changes that we will have to live with and adapt to? This will be discussed by PhD Lily Lindegaard, who has researched climate adaptation and climate mobility in Vietnam, and former Emergency Managing Director of the UN in the Pacific, Sune Gudnitz. The debate is in English.

LINKS

https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/docs-talks-2019(Program og billetter)

www.theguardian.com (Anote Tong)

SVT Skavlan talk show (Greta Thunberg)

https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/360980/kiribati-criticism-of-anote-s-ark-political-film-director (Matthieu Rytz)

www.kristeligt-dagblad/debatindlæg (Jens Morten Hansen)

Nicolas Philibert

Filmkommentaren has written much about Nicolas Philibert, French master of documentaries. (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1931/)

I missed his new film at IDFA, but I will catch up asap with a review. In the meantime I have enjoyed reading an interview with the director that came out today in Variety, link below. He talks about documentaries en general, cinema-documentaries and tv-documentaries in connection with his new film, “Each and Every Moment”. The headline of the interview, made by Ben Croll, is „A Director Driven to make a statement can not make Cinema“.

Here is a quote from the interview:

Do you feel like your filmmaking approach has changed over the years?

I’d like to say yes and no. Yes, because each film required a new approach and a method tailored to the world I was exploring. No, because my methods still have a few invariables. I try not to prepare or research much before I start shooting. I need to save my appetite and curiosity for the actual shoot. If I knew too much going in, I wouldn’t want to make the film. Shooting is a process of learning and discovery, of confronting an unknown world. And so I don’t make films from a perch of knowledge, but rather one of ignorance. I don’t try to tell my audience how to think or how to feel, because I don’t know much more than they do. And that’s never changed…

Variety, link

DocsBarcelona The War Room

Well, it was quite friendly but of course there were – and should be – discussions about which films should be taken for the DocsBarcelona 2019 edition in May. On the photo you see the selection group except for the man, who took the photo, Joan Gonzalez, Director of the festival and CEO and founder of Parallel 40. At the end of the table me, Head of Programming, from left Daniel Jariod, filmmaker and teacher, Martina Rogers, visual artist and involved in DocsBarcelona for many years, as is Pol Roig Turró, filmmaker and the most important person for this meeting having coordinated the process, giving the 3 days a good flow, and Diego Mas Trelles, Head of Industry, producer and director.

The process? All members of the group had watched films in beforehand and made their priorities. During the three days 15 films had to be selected for the Panorama section, 8 for the Latitud and 5 for the What the Doc, that is for more daring and innovative documentaries. All of them in competitive sections. On top of that some films were put for special screenings, often with a debate attached. In the coming weeks the staff of DocsBarcelona will contact those whose films have been taken.

A lot more about DocsBarcelona is to be found on

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/

Nikolaus Geyrhalter: The Border Fence

This review is written by Georg Zeller, film director & cameraman, Bolzano Italy.

I start my review with a spoiler, the last scene of Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s newest documentary: A group of policemen opens a container full of rolls of wire fence. One of them steps in, everything ok. The officer smiles and says: „This is the famous border fence, we have to inspect it but we hope it will continue to lie here forever.“

In the end, the fence hasn’t been built.  And even policemen appreciate. Maybe because the numbers of people wanting to cross this border on their way to Germany or Sweden were much lower than expected. Maybe because even the politicians planning it, understood that a fence in this very point of Europe would be a strange, if not dangerous sign.

The film examines the atmosphere and reactions when in 2016/17 the idea of building a new fence along

the border of the Brenner came up, a mountain pass and important road and train connection between Austria and Italy, nowadays mainly a site of a huge outlet center attracting shoppers from both sides. This border is dividing also two parts of the region of Tyrol. The southern part of it was gained by Italy in the first World War. After that, a troubled history in the middle of two fascist states signed the first decades of this division until the idea of a united Europe losened it again since the 1990’s.

I had just finished film school in those years when I was sent as a cameraman for ORF to film the poles of the Brenner’s barriers been sawn off.  Heads of government of both countries and of both Tyrols applauded and spoke enthusiastically about their common future. As an inhabitant of this place – but with roots elsewhere – what I had regularly lived before that date, had finally become official: being a citizen of Europe.

These historical backgrounds may be the main reason why the people Geyrhalter talks to are very sceptical about a new „constructional measure“ (as the original title „Die bauliche Massnahme“ calls the fence in officialese), even those who are fearing those people walking with just a plastic bag along the freeway.

But the interviews (mostly in slow wide images and cuts on black as we are used from this author, but this time not hiding his leading of the talks) are also full of surprises. A lady who characterizes herself as being proud of her tiny mountain valley and its traditions, and after having expressed her fear that foreigners may completely undermine the religious identity of the place, is cooking lunch for the construction workers who are digging holes for a tunnel just outside her house. They are all of Senegalese origin… „We talk with hands and feet and respect each other“.

This is probably the main and important message of the film: When you personally meet the people („Let’s stop to call them migrants“ as one interviewee puts it), your fear may vanish. „Why should we fear someone who had to flee from war?“ says the organic farmer and tells the story of how he helped out a lost Ukrainian truck driver who was first treated badly by local police, but when he had the chance to tell his life story became a person treated with at least some respect.

In the film, only who has no direct contact to people passing through their valley, remains in the fear until the end, sometimes expressing absurd opinions („the people I see here are rich and healthy, they could have also survived in war.“). Thankfully, politicians are heard only through televisions hanging in the bars of the place – the filmmaker repeatedly cuts them away in the middle of their repetitive speeches – whereas we never see any migrants in the film, not even in the mountain meadow where the border is simply signed by a road sign.

The „crisis“ proposed as such by politicians remains thus in fact a phantasma and luckily does so also their „solution“ of a new fence. Let’s hope that also elsewhere in the world border fences will stay in their containers forever.

Austria, 2018, 112 mins.