Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made of Splinters
“Visions du Réel is joining the international movement of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their freedom. We express our support for Ukrainian artists and filmmakers, and for all those whose lives are threatened and upended by the war. We strongly condemn the ongoing Russian invasion,” the festival says in a statement released March 8.
“At the same time, the Festival wishes to convey its support for the Russian artists and citizens who are currently expressing their resistance,” the statement continues.
The 2022 official selection includes Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made of Splinters, presented in the Grand Angle Competition, a film about the fractures caused by the war in Eastern Ukraine. The line-up will feature three other films directed and/or produced in Ukraine; these titles will be announced during the official press conference on March 15.
Grand Angle Competition and Latitudes section (out of competition)
The Grand Angle and Latitudes selections of the 53rd edition of Visions du Réel feature “films that will mark the cinematographic year and reveal the landscape of contemporary non-fiction filmmaking,” says the festival. It Includes 23 films in total, 9 of which will be presented as world or international premieres.
In 2022, the Grand Angle Competition includes two world premieres: the Italian film ll posto – A Steady Job, by Gianluca Matarrese and Mattia Colombo, which portrays a certain contemporary Italy; and Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits by Jan Šimánek and Petr Záruba, a portrait of the legendary Czech climber. Other highlights include the Swiss premieres of Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, opening film) and A House Made of Splinters, both of which world-premiered at Sundance.
Eleven films are selected for the non-competitive Latitudes section. “There is a stunning variety of forms, colours and mises en scène; filmmakers inventing unique ways to convey reality, and at times a personal urgency to tell a story,” notes Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Visions du Réel.
Latitudes includes two respectively German-Polish and Franco-Bangladeshi works presented in world premiere: Silent Love by Marek Kozakiewicz and Things I Could Never Tell My Mother by Humaira Bilkis, two intimate films dealing with the complexity of relationships in disparate parts of the world.
The full programme of the 53rd edition of Visions du Réel will be unveiled on 15 March 2022 during the press conference.
Grand Angle Competition: 12 feature docs, including 2 world and 5 international premieres are presented in the Grand Angle competition, showcasing works that have already impressed audiences at other festivals or that will mark the coming year. The award is voted by the public.
- Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits by Jan Šimanek and Petr Záruba, Czech Republic, Italy, 2022, 77’ World Premiere. Adam Ondra is the best. Born in 1993, the Czech climber has broken a series of records and is widely recognised as the most accomplished in his discipline. No mountain or wall can resist him. But who is this young man who knows no fear, and doesn’t seem to encounter failed attempts? Jan Šimanek and Petr Záruba deliver an intimate portrait, beyond the usual sensationalism of sports headlines.
- A German Party by Simon Brückner, Germany, 2022, 110’. International Premiere. Since 2013, the AfD has become the main party of the German populist right. Centred on its leaders, the film observes the political intrigues and strategies implemented to expand its electoral base, especially during the health crisis and up to the 2021 general elections. A disquieting dive into the heart of a Germanic extreme right that is regaining ground.
- A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, 2022, 76’. Swiss Premiere. War is raging in eastern Ukraine and the children’s home in Lyssychansk receives a steady stream of new residents. Over the course of a few months, the centre’s workers, armed with endless dedication, try to heal the hearts of these children whose families have been shattered by the conflict, and offer them some glimmers of hope.
- A Marble Travelogue by Sean Wang, Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR China, France, Greece, 2021, 99’. Swiss Premiere. A Marble Travelogue recounts the odyssey of the marble route between Greece and China. The filmmaker casts a humorous look over an absurd economic circuit, from the mining of raw materials to manufacturing and retail, in which the search for authenticity and tradition are but a distant memory.
- Children of the Mist by Diem Ha Le, Vietnam, 2021, 90’. Swiss Premiere. Di is 12 years old and lives in the mountains of Northern Vietnam. With her family, she awaits the festivities of the Lunar New Year, during which Hmong men kidnap young girls so they can marry them. In attempting to understand this ritual from another time, the filmmaker Diem Ha Le is torn between respect for a culture and the violence of a tradition.
- Daughters by Jennifer Malqvist, Sweden, Denmark, 2022, 90’. International Premiere. Sofia, Hedvig and Maja have grown up with bereavement; they were only eight, ten and sixteen years old when their mother took her own life. In this sensitive and graceful film whose images unfold over ten years, Jenifer Malmqvist carefully accompanies them, thus putting their loss into words, and capturing joy, sadness, and the passing of time.
- Fire of Love by Sara Dosa, United States, Canada, 2022, 93’. Swiss Premiere / Opening film. Intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft loved each other as much as they loved volcanoes. Composed of spectacular images captured by the couple as they endeavor to comprehend the mystery of volcanoes and narrated by the American filmmaker and artist Miranda July, Fire of Love is an adventure film about time, the unknown, and the meaning of human existence.
- Il posto – A Steady Job by Gianluca Matarrese, Mattia Colombo, Italy, France, 2022, 75’. World Premiere. Every month, hundreds of unemployed nurses travel from the south to the north of Italy in search of work. Two of them organise the trips by overnight buses; a long journey of hope that often leads to nothing at all. Shot as a road movie, the two filmmakers paint a pitiless portrait of modern Italy before, during and after the health crisis.
- Into the Ice by Lars Osterfeld, Denmark, Germany, 2022, 85’. International Premiere. On the frozen borders of Greenland, three daring and committed glaciologists explore the ice core to answer one of the most pressing questions of our times: how fast is the ice sheet melting? Into the Ice is an enlightening adventure, a scientific film about one of the greatest challenges of the not-so distant future: the inevitable rise in sea levels.
- Karaoke Paradise by Einari Paakkanen, Finland, 2022, 75’. Swiss Premiere. Places. People. Songs sung like a liberation, fragments of happiness, memories that are sometimes funny, sometimes painful. These moments of life are captured on camera during karaoke performances throughout the Finnish landscape. Joy and melancholy merge in this film’s friendly approach, which will leave a lasting impression on its audience.
- The Herd by Monika Kotecka, Karolina Poryzała, Poland, 2021, 80’. International Premiere. Karolina Poryzała and Monika Kotecka follow the rise of a women’s amateur equestrian vaulting club, led by the energetic Natalia, who dreams of turning it into a professional national team. The camera fluidly captures the relationships between the riders, in a non-fiction melodrama that reveals the strength of the bonds that this adventure forges between these passionately anachronistic teenagers.
- Tolyatti Adrift. Laura Sistero, Spain, France, 2022, 70’. International Premiere. A portrait of the disenchanted youth of the city of Tolyatti, once a symbol of Soviet progress and the automobile, now devastated by economic decline. Laura Sistero encounters an aimless young generation, who express their dreams of escape through crazy races in old patched-up Ladas. A cinematic object is propelled by spectacular skids to the rhythm of an electro-rock soundtrack.
Latitudes (out of competition): 11 feature films, including 2 world premieres, are presented in this non-competitive section opening up a panorama of current practices in non-fiction filmmaking.
- Atlantide by Yuri Ancarani, Italy, France, 2021, 100’. Swiss Premiere. Daniele, a young man from Sant’Erasmo, an island on the Venice Lagoon, dreams of a record breaking “barchino” (motorboat). In this beautiful and cinematic piece, Yuri Ancarani transports us to a musical and choreographic universe and succeeds in portraying a rootless generation, seen from the timeless perspective of the Venetian landscape.
- A vendredi Robinson by Mitra Farahani, France, Switzerland, Lebanon, Ireland, 2022, 96’. Swiss Premiere. Not being able to bring them together, Mitra Farahani instigates a visual, sound and written correspondence between two artists: the writer and filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan, a key figure in Iranian culture, and Jean-Luc Godard, the legendary filmmaker who lives in Rolle. Every Friday for 29 weeks, they film themselves, with humour and clear-sightedness.
- Camouflage by Jonathan Perel, Argentina, 2022, 93’. Swiss Premiere. Felix Bruzzone is a writer who lives and regularly runs around Campo de Mayo, the biggest military base in Argentina, which served as a detention and torture camp during the country’s former dictatorship. Through encounters with different characters and clever cinematic ideas, the singular links Bruzzone has with this particular place are revealed.
- Malintzin 17 by Mara Polgovsky, Eugenio Polgovsky, Mexico, Switzerland, 2022, 64’. Swiss Premiere. For seven days, Eugenio Polgovsky and his five-year-old daughter observe a dove that broods, whatever the weather, over her nest built on a jumble of electric wires. Malintzin 17, a posthumous work by the Mexican filmmaker, compares two displays of parental affection and devotion, gracefully composing an intimate visual experience of lockdown.
- Mutzenbacher by Ruth Beckermann, Austria, 2022, 100’. Swiss Premiere. Josephine Mutzenbacher or The Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself is an erotic account written in 1906. Staging a casting for a fictitious adaptation of the book, Ruth Beckermann, acclaimed documentary filmmaker asks men of all ages to read extracts of this scandalous book. The result is a witty, thought-provoking glimpse into how society shapes our eroticism.
- No Place for You in Our Town by Nikolay Stefanov, Bulgaria, 2022, 81’. Swiss Premiere. With a sharp eye and by letting the protagonists speak for themselves, Nikolay Stefanov takes us to Pernik, a once flourishing mining center in Bulgaria, now the home of the FC Minyor soccer team. The film closely follows the lives of three hooligans: Tsetso, a skinhead and single father, the gang leader Dado, and Mimeto, the only woman in the group.
- Republic of Silence by Diana El Jeroudi, Germany, France, Syria, Qatar, Italy, 2021, 183’. Swiss Premiere. Does it begin with the camera she received aged seven, or when life collapses in Damas, splintered by dictatorship, war and international political corruption? Republic of Silence is like a fresco that encompasses more than a decade, interweaving the daily life of a humdrum existence in Berlin—lulled by solidarity and love—with the memories of a lost time.
- Silent Love by Marek Kozakiewicz, Poland, Germany, 2022, 72’. World Premiere. At the death of her mother, Aga decides to leave her life in Germany with her partner Maja, to look after her younger brother in Poland. To do this, she has to hide her love for another woman from the authorities. Closely following its protagonists, Silent Love delicately narrates their discreet struggle against a prying and viscerally homophobic society.
- Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish by Lei LEI, United States, Netherlands, 2022, 101’. Swiss Premiere. Through interviews with his father and his grandfather, Lei Lei looks back at a tragic family past marked by the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its ensuing violence. In this animation film fuelled by pop art and propaganda images, the director sets out to construct and deconstruct the archives of his own memory, taken directly from his own gaze as a child.
- Taamaden by Seydou Cissé, South Africa, France, Belgium, Cameroon, 2021, 90’. Swiss Premiere. After crossing the Mediterranean, three West African men are protected remotely by their marabouts. In Mali, Bakary performs the same rituals in order to reach the European “paradise”. Taamaden reveals the unexpected role of the smartphone, a veritable modern gris-gris, which connects the protagonists in exile with their African spiritual roots.
- Things I Could Never Tell My Mother by Humaira Bilkis, Bangladesh, France, 2022, 84’. World Premiere. Humaira Bilkis has a problem: after a pilgrimage to Mecca, her mother, who was previously an emancipated poet, has now become devout. The filmmaker must fight to get her to accept the camera, since her religion forbids images, while hiding her relationship with a Hindu man from Calcutta. Her film takes the appearance of a romantic comedy.
