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From our special correspondent in Cannes ā Russiaās invasion of Ukraine has effectively knocked out the countryās film industry, resulting in a starkly diminished presence at the Cannes Film Festival this year ā though the war is still very much part of the Cannes conversation. Maciek Hamelaās documentary āIn the Rearviewā, about the evacuation of Ukrainian refugees, has ensured that Ukraine’s plight is represented on the big screen too. FRANCE 24 spoke to the Polish director about filming in a warzone and giving a voice to those displaced by war. Ā
The war still raging in eastern Europe made a starkĀ reappearanceĀ at the worldās premier film festival late on Sunday, when a woman dressed in the blue and yellow coloursĀ of the Ukraine flagĀ covered herself in fake blood on the red carpet ahead of a gala premiere, before being spirited away. The protest echoedĀ a red-carpetĀ incident last yearĀ thatĀ saw an activist strip off her clothes to reveal the words āStop raping usā written across her torso, next to a flag of Ukraine.Ā
Russiaās invasion of Ukraine has been a distinctly less prominent topic in Cannes compared toĀ last year, when President Volodymyr Zelensky opened the festival with a video-link address urging filmmakers to challenge Russia like Charlie Chaplinās āThe Great Dictatorā took on Adolf Hitler.Ā Films by and about Ukrainians featured prominently in the 2022Ā line-up, includingĀ āMariupol 2ā by Lithuaniaās Mantas Kvedaravicius, who paid with his own life for his efforts to document the cityās destruction at the hands of Russian forces.
With the countryās film industry now virtually at a standstill, the lack of Ukrainian films at Cannes is no surprise. But Ukraine hasnāt vanished altogether.Ā Last weekās opening ceremony saw French film icon Catherine Deneuve, who graces the festival poster this year, recite a poem by Ukraineās LessiaĀ Oukrainka, declaring, āI no longer have either happiness or freedom, only one hope remains to me: to return one day to my beautifulĀ Ukraine.āĀ
Deep in theĀ Palais des festivals, the festivalās main venue, the sprawling Cannes Film Market has hosted a series of events in support of Ukraineās film industry. Panels touched on such topics as filming through the war and fighting Russian state-sponsored video piracy.Ā Film projects in development also enjoyed plenty of attention,Ā including a feature titled āBuchaā, based on the true story of a Kazakh refugee who helped save dozens of civilian lives in the martyred town north of Kyiv.
Polish filmmakers have taken a leading role in portraying the conflict at their doorstep, reflecting their countryās front-line role in dealing with the fallout from Russiaās invasion. Among them is Lukasz Karwowski, whose āTwo SistersāĀ follows a duo of Polish half-sisters who journey through war-torn Ukraine looking for their father.Ā
Escape from UkraineĀ
Hamelaās āIn the RearviewāĀ chronicles a different type of journey, documenting the massive exodus of civilians triggered by the war in Ukraine. Shot over a period of six months, it followsĀ the directorāsĀ van across the war-torn country as he collects hundreds of refugees stranded by the conflict and drives them to safety.Ā
As the filmās title suggests, Hamelaās on-board camera is mostly turned towards the passengers at the back of the van,Ā capturing their distress after harrowing experiencesĀ as they drive away from the fighting, leaving behind their sons, husbands and homes. Some passengers sit quietly, dumbstruck. Others recount tales of destruction, torture and death. There are light-heartedĀ moments, too,Ā when they open upĀ to shareĀ their hopes and aspirations for the day the war ends.
Sometimes the camera looks ahead, revealing burnt-out vehicles, checkpoints and ominous dangers ā mines across the road, a bridge gutted by shelling ā in a landscape of desolation.Ā
The Polish-French-Ukrainian production screened atĀ Cannesā ACID sidebar, a parallel segment dedicated to independent cinema. FRANCE 24 spoke toĀ HamelaĀ about the experience of filming in a war zone and the Polish response to EuropeāsĀ worst refugee crisis since World War II.
FRANCE 24: Can you talk us through the first days of the war and what led you to cross the border into Ukraine?Ā
The moment the war began I started raising money for the Ukrainian army in Warsaw. Very few people believed Ukraine could survive the war. There was a mass exodus of refugees that landed all of a sudden at the border. It was freezing cold and there was no preparation from the Polish government. So on the third day of the war I bought a van and went to the border.Ā
When I arrived I realised I was not the only one. There were hundreds of people who had the same idea. I picked up random people and took them to my apartment and those of friends. This is how it was possible to avoid a scenario where people would be held in refugee camps.Ā
After a few days we got organised on [the messaging app] Signal, to find apartments, humanitarian aid,Ā transport, etc.Ā I was fluent in Russian, so I went across the border. From there it snowballed. My phone number appeared somewhere on Telegram and people started calling from all sorts of countries, asking me to go pick up their relatives stranded in Ukraine. I went closer to the front line and started doing shorter evacuations from villages to larger cities and evacuation trains.Ā
How did you find your way around Ukraine?Ā
The beginning of the war was very tricky. There was no information, no maps, no journalists; we did not know where the Russians were. You could drive 200 kilometres and find a bridge had been destroyed and then you had to drive all the way back to find another route. I relied on the people I met along the way for information about the roads, the checkpoints and the Russiansā whereabouts. Ā
When and why did you decide to start filming your evacuations?Ā
By the end of March, I decided I couldnāt keep going alone for much longer. It was wearing me down, especially the night driving. So I asked a close friend ā who happens to be a director of photography and a goodĀ driver, tooĀ ā to help me out and we decided to take a camera. Ā
We didnāt know it was going to become a film. But I knew that what was being said in the car was a unique testimony to what these people are going through and to what the process of becoming a refugee looks like. Is it the moment you cross theĀ border, orĀ the last time you see your house? Itās in this moment of travel that you start realising ā and this process is reflected in the conversations.
How did people respond to the camera?Ā
I was very surprised by how the camera motivated some of these people to really tell their story. Some had been exposed night and day to Russian propaganda, particularly in the occupied territories. They had this urge to speak to the world and the camera was the world. Ā
There is a crescendo of danger in the film as the proximity of war becomes increasingly apparent. Just how frightening was it to be driving in a warzone?Ā
There was a big question of how we could maintain the tension for the length of the film while being almost entirely in the car. So thatās why we built this crescendo, both in the structure and in the stories of the passengers. Of course there were many terrifyingĀ moments, butĀ we decided to leave out the most dramatic. This is not a film about the dangers of driving through war-torn territories. I donāt wish to compare my experience to that of soldiers in a warzone. Ā
There is no special brotherhood between Poles and Ukrainians, we have had a sometimes difficult past. But we also have a commonĀ experience: for centuries,Ā we lived in the shadow of a hungry neighbour, of an imminent danger that hangs over your head. It made us understand that this war is ours as well.
This story originally appeared on France24