It is our great pleasure to announce that we have four films screening at the HotDocs film festival, all of which will be part of the Nordic Bridges programme. These include: “A House Made of Splinters” directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont; “The Killing of a Journalist” directed by Matt Sarnecki; “Our Memory Belongs to Us” directed by Rami Farah; and “Outside” directed by Olha Zhurba. You can read more about each of them, including tickets and streaming info, below:
‘A House Made of Splinters,’ directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont and produced by Monica Hellström, follows three children at a temporary shelter, as war-torn Ukraine leaves devastating and enduring marks on the population. Through the eyes of kids, the film depicts a personal, tender, and simultaneously tragic and hopeful story about lives in limbo. Gorgeous, patient camerawork respects the children's vulnerability but expertly detects the unmistakable normalisation of violence in their desperate play, temporary friendships and fragile family connections.
‘The Killing of a Journalist’, directed by Matt Sarnecki and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen, explores the brutal murder of the Slovakian investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírova. Their deaths inspire the biggest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism. When prosecution efforts turn up honey-pot schemes, paid assassins and dubious political appointees instead of delivering justice, democracy itself may not survive in one of the European Union's most jaw-dropping corruption scandals
“Our Memory Belongs to Us” directed by Syrian filmmaker Rami Farah and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen, Liana Saleh and Anne Köhncke, reunites citizen journalists Yadan, Odai and Rani in an empty theatre to watch smuggled footage on the big screen nearly 10 years after the beginning of the Syrian revolution. Together, they revisit the events, people and places that changed the trajectory of their lives. How does one survive - by forgetting or by remembering? Building to a shattering crescendo, this collective memory exercise provides a corrective history and chronology for the revolution that was reframed as a civil war by a dictator who preferred to displace over six million people rather than be deposed — and is confirmation that people must tell their own stories.
“Outside” directed by Olha Zhurba, produced by Darya Bassell and Viktoria Khomenko for Moon Man and co-produced by Anne Köhncke and Monica Hellström for Final Cut for Real, follows 13-year old Roma, an abandoned street kid adopted by random soldiers in Kyiv’s Independence Square during Ukraine’s Maidan Uprising. But when the media and military encampments cleared out, he was again discarded, this time to an orphanage. At 18, with just a knife and a lighter in his pocket, can he possibly take control of his life? Security footage, heartbreaking phone calls and chance meetings populate this expertly layered study of a lost soul who belongs to no one and has nowhere to go.
The Nordic Bridges programme is a year-long initiative led by Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre fostering cultural exchange between the Nordic Region and Canada. Working with partners across Canada, Nordic Bridges presents multidisciplinary contemporary art, culture and ideas throughout the year.
To read more about the HotDocs film festival, online streaming or how to secure a ticket, click here.