Conference participants from the programme “New Europe – New Names” included director Alantė Kavaitė and cinematographer Dominique Colin, creators of “The Summer of Sangaile“; actress Yana Novikova from “The Tribe”; actress Margita Gosheva from “The Lesson”; and director of “Calling” Marcin Dudziak.
Presenting their films from the “Baltic Gaze” programme were Joshua Oppenheimer, director of “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence”; Aleksey Fedorchenko, director of “Angels of Revolution”; Agnieszka Zwiefka, director of “The Queen of Silence”; and Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää, director of “They Have Escaped”.
American director Joshua Oppenheimer, who created two documentaries about the genocide in Indonesia, talked about dealing with such difficult subject-matter. “The two films are part of one work. There is a scene in “The Look of Silence”, which is really the origin of both films, where two death-squad members take me to a river and take turns playing victim and perpetrator, gleefully demonstrating how they killed. I had filmed many perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, but that was the first time I saw that they were even more boastful with each other than they were with me, and I realised that the boasting was systemic, they were reading from a shared script. This was a huge story about present-day impunity, and the corruption, and fear that that generates. So I knew that I would make one film about escapism, fantasy and guilt, about the stories and lies the perpetrators tell so they can live with themselves, so they can justify their actions, and the effects of those lies imposed on the whole society. That is “The Act of Killing”, this kind of flamboyant fever-dream of a film. And I knew the second part would be a poetic, contemplative, but very tense film about what it does to human beings to have to live for fifty years in fear and silence – that is “The Look of Silence”. “The Act of Killing” helped catalyse a fundamental transformation in how the media and the public in Indonesia talk about the past, and “The Look of Silence” has shown ordinary Indonesians how torn the social fabric is, how urgently needed truth, reconciliation and some form of justice are.”
Alantė Kavaitė, director of the long-awaited film “The Summer of Sangaile”, which premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, talked about what her directing award at Sundance means to Lithuanian cinema and why she chose to tell her story the way she did. “Directing is what I want to do and what I live for, so I was really happy and honoured. I hope this award and the journey my film just started will make Lithuania a little more famous and Lithuanian cinema more interesting, well-known in other countries. From the beginning, writing and the idea, I knew that I wanted to make a film about sensations, more so than about the story. The spirit of life, the adolescence, is very much linked to first times, a lot of first feelings, so I wanted a very simple story, with the focus on sensations,” said Kavaitė during the meeting.
French cinematographer Dominique Colin shared some behind-the-scenes details about shooting the film. “It was a real challenge to film some scenes, because we didn’t have a big budget. We tried a lot of things, different types of cameras. In the plane, we used a little photocamera, which the actress held herself. So we were very inventive when creating the image Alantė had in her mind. She was very precise, her ideas were easy to understand, but not easy to achieve.”
Representing the shocking drama “The Tribe”, about a Ukrainian boarding school for deaf students, where all the actors interact only in sign language, was actress Yana Novikova. She shared her experience about living in silence and its portrayal in the film. “I believed in the success of the film, but I didn’t expect it to become so well-known, shocking and strong. The film took many risks, we put in a lot of work and patience to achieve the result. The drama has no subtitles, but they are not needed, it’s the facial expressions and body language that are most important,” said the young actress, who communicated with the audience with the help of the Lithuanian Association of Sign Language Interpreters.
Documentary “The Queen of Silence” tells the story of another deaf girl. Director Agnieszka Zwiefka: “First, I wanted to make a film about [the Roma] community. For the first year, I did not film anything useful, because they were playing, and they’re marvellous actors. When Denisa came to the illegal camp, she made it clear that the film is either about her, or there’s no film at all. Denisa doesn’t speak, she has never attended school, and she doesn’t know sign language. The only thing she has is dance and my camera. These were her means of communicating with the outside world. I don’t think it’s easy to change the Polish people’s views about the Roma community, but I know this film changed a lot in Denisa’s life. There is a musical theatre in Poland that wants to make a musical version of the film, with Denisa playing herself. So I hope her dream of being a Poliwood, not Bollywood, star comes true.”
“This film is based on a short story, which I first heard about on a radio programme about books. There was something in the description of the story that made me want to read it right away, and after reading it I said to myself that this will be my film. It touched something in me that I found really true,” Marcin Dudziak, director of “Calling”, described how he got the idea for his film, which focuses on the relationship between father and son.
Russian director Aleksey Fedorchenko, who presented “Angels of Revolution”, a film mocking the country’s regime, shared his views on the situation of the arts in modern-day Russia. “This film portrays the clash between two civilisations, so the subject-matter is universal, and doesn’t apply only to Russia. Currently, the situation in my country is becoming worse, with ever more censorship being used. A few days ago, together with my artist colleagues, we signed a letter demanding the Russian minister of culture to resign, because he has been interfering too much in the art world – the theatre repertoires and the content of films.”
Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää, the Finnish director and screenwriter of “They Have Escaped”, revealed why his characters are so complicated. “I wanted to make a film about outsiders, set in contemporary Finland. I was looking for the subject, and due to parliament elections there was a lot of talk about this generation of young adults who are unemployed and have no education post secondary school, what is their future going to be like. I caught myself thinking how easy it was for me to see their future, and could there be a different ending. At the same time, I was reading the Grimm brothers fairytales to my children. Those stories have very unusual narrative structures, the character goals could take a 180 degree turn, so I used that in the film,” said Valkeapää.
Bulgarian actress Margita Gosheva, who starred in “The Lesson”, shared the origin of the film’s plot. “This film was inspired by a newspaper title, about a teacher robbing a bank. This really happened in Bulgaria five years ago. I watched an interview with this woman, and that was my only contact with her. We talked a lot with both directors about the kind of movie we want to make based on the story. They gave me the freedom to explore this character in the process of making the film. We wanted to portray her not as a victim of the social problems in Bulgaria, but as being responsible for making her choice. It was made with no support from the National Film Center, so we filmed it with 11 000 euros in 19 days,” said the actress who portrayed the memorable character.
In Vilnius, an international jury of film professionals is evaluating the participants included in the competition programmes. After many hours spent in the movie theatre they will announce their decisions this Thursday, April 2nd, during the festive closing ceremony at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic.
About the festival:
The 20th Vilnius International Film Festival “Kino Pavasaris” will take place March 19th – April 2nd. It is the largest cinema event in Lithuania, and one of the most prominent film festivals in Eastern Europe, having attracted almost 100 thousand people last year. This year, “Kino Pavasaris” will screen around 250 films, which representatives of the festival selected by visiting more than 30 international film festivals throughout the year. For more information visit www.kinopavasaris.lt
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