As the boundaries in cinema become more fluid, emerging filmmakers whose films have been selected at the Cannes Film Festival discuss their journey from documentary to fiction at the Cannes Docs market sidebar.
Sponsored by the documentary Assn. In Europe, the committee on Sunday brought together Ukrainian director Maxim Nakonchini, director of Un Certain Regard titled “Butterfly Vision”, and Erige Sehiri (“Railroad Men”), Tunisian director of “Under the Fig Leaves”, which had its world premiere in Two-week sidebar for directors.
The titles are the first fiction novels by Nakunichi and Al-Suhairi, both experienced documentary filmmakers.
Inspired by the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region since 2014, “Butterfly Vision” tells the story of a young Ukrainian soldier who returns home after being held captive for months and discovers she is pregnant after being raped by her Russian guard.
Nakonichny, whose credits include the famous document Alina Gorlova “This Rain Will Never Stop” as writer and producer, she co-wrote the script with documentary director Irina Celik (“The Earth is Blue as Orange”). “Butterfly Vision” was produced by Tabor, the company he founded with a group from the United KingdomRain Filmmakers in 2015.
“When we started making films, we weren’t sure if we had to make feature films or documents,” he explained. “It was 2015 and events in our country began to develop, and we bumped into these stories that had to be told and presented. The only principle in both the novel and the document is that they both begin with a story that you feel you ought to tell.”
While Nakonichni formally trained at film school, Al-Suhairi’s path in filmmaking was a different one: she started as a journalist, experimented with cameras during the Tunisian revolution in 2011 and moved naturally to documentaries. She appealed to the Palestinian director Raed Andoni (“Ghosthunters”, “Fix Me”), who became her mentor. But she said, desire to mGreat fantasy movies were never far away.
“I had always dreamed of doing fiction, right from the start. When I started working on documentary, it was much more accessible: all you needed was a camera and yourself. Making documentaries was important to build my vision and train my vision [of filmmaking]She said.
“Under the Fig Tree” may be her first feature film, but the boundaries between fiction and documentaries are blurring. The tale of young fruit-pickers working in the summer harvest in rural Tunisia, filmed with an unprofessional crew for what El Suhairi describes as a documentary budget.
“I was worried [the low budget] It will be visible. I thought my film probably wouldn’t go to the big festivals because it would look like a documentary.
Her response has been to seek as much professional advice and support as possible.
“Early in the process, I showed the photos to a sales agent — I had never done that before: it’s about communicating with people in the industry. The sales agent at Luxbox liked it. Then we made a rough cut, and cut the deal with the sales agent and co-producers: it helps that no be alone.”
During the post-production process, film festivals also gave Seheri the help and vision she needed, including a Final Cut event at the Venice Film Festival where she received eight post-production awards in 2021.
The supportive environment that developed in documentary filmmaking also helped Nakunichi launch his first fictional film: “I met all the film producers involved in Eurodoc. [a training program for producers with documentary projects in the development stage]. I knew they would be interested in the project, requests were made by a Croatian team, mastering the Swedes, and I just knew there would be a good showing of the film,” he said.
Cannes Docs operates as part of the Cannes Film Market until 25 May.
Can Doc painting
Credit: Liz Pedersen
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