14/03/2024 - The seasoned Polish documentarian provides insights into the creative process behind her latest feature, about a family that secretly helps refugees and deeply sympathises with their plight

(© Zuzanna Zachara Hassairi)

On the occasion of the world premiere of her documentary Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lidia Duda
film profile] at the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, we asked Lidia Duda about her approach to the characters – and especially to the children – as well as the reaction she expects to the controversy that her film gives rise to.

Cineuropa: How did you learn about this family, and how did you get close to them?
Lidia Duda: To make a film, I need a human perspective, a protagonist who will guide me through their world and allow me to understand it. This lack of a directorial thesis allows me to be open and search for answers. So, my cinematographer, Zuzanna Zachara-Hassairi, and I went to look for our protagonists in the forest – a Polish family with children living close to the Belarusian border. It took a while until we met Asia, Marek and their three children through a complicated chain of connections. My first impressions were of a family whose members are very close to each other, and then I saw the sadness on Asia's face. They knew that they had failed to protect the carefree world of their own children. Politics had already invaded their home.

How much time did you spend with them in order to gather the necessary material to develop the screenplay?
It was difficult for my protagonists to let us touch their “painful wounds”, especially those of the children. Each of our arrivals automatically refreshed their traumas. I tried to be tactful, but it didn't ease my discomfort. I am grateful to all of them for sticking with us for two-and-a-half years. In the meantime, the children have grown up a bit, but the crisis at the border continues. The editing took many months, as my co-editor and I wanted to strike a balance between the worlds of family, nature and refugees.

In your previous film Fledglings [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lidia Duda
film profile], you also worked with children. What is your approach to them in order to get them to behave so naturally in front of the camera?
I approach my characters as an individual, not as a director. If they accept me as a person, we make a film together. I willingly follow them, as I assume this is their story while my main task is to help them tell it. I try not to disturb their world or change the rules in it. This gives the child protagonists a sense of control. I am willing to accept their suggestions because I know it proves their commitment. The moment when the child protagonists start “directing” a film with me is a breakthrough. Later on, it only gets better because we are now a team. This “partnership” approach is the most comfortable one for me.

Forest contains thriller elements. Weren’t you concerned that by “flirting” with a fiction genre, you risked shaking the viewer's trust in the authenticity of what they see on screen?
I always try to ensure that the formal idea for a film is consistent with the world portrayed. The thriller elements embody my fears that I brought out of the forest, images that stayed in my memory. I remember the night when I felt scared in the forest for the first time. I didn't know where I was or how to get back; I just listened to the sounds of the forest. Absolute darkness all around. Then I thought about the refugees – “people on the road” who are waiting for help somewhere in this darkness, who have been wandering around for days and cannot find a way out. Nights are their big chance because no one helps them during the day – the risk is too great. Only darkness can bring them salvation, and I stuck to this.

How do you think the film will be received in Poland, considering the fact that it not only criticises policies towards refugees, but also local people’s attitudes?
I did what I had to do by portraying reality here and now. Cinema, like any other art, should ask important questions. Whether we like it or not, politics “lives” in our homes. It's hard to escape from it, but I don't like shifting the consequences of political decisions onto the citizens. The residents of border areas were put in a difficult situation – should they obey the law or save people? It is demoralising for the state to put us in such a situation and to expect that, in certain circumstances, we can, with the blessing of politicians, simply not react to human suffering. I do not consent to this. Morality being dependent on circumstances is terrible. Historically speaking, such an approach has always failed, and the losses were always greater than the immediate gains.

Coming back to the inhabitants of the border areas, some helped, while others did not. It was similar with the border guards – some took extra sandwiches and a thermos out on patrol, while others took sleeping bags from the refugees. Every human is a story. The state has allowed such crucial choices to be made, and it’s a sin.