Nachrichten

  Seit dem erfolgreichen Debut bei der Berlinale wird der Dokumentarfilm von dem litauischen Regisseur Mantas Kvederavičius „Barzakh“ in den größten Filmfestivals Europas weiter gezeigt. Am 19. Oktober wird er beim Zagreb Film Festival und am 29. und 30. Oktober  beim Filmfestival „Viennale“ präsentiert.

Location and screening schedule in Zagreb:

EUROPA CINEMA, Wednesday, October 19th at 9.00

TUŠKANAC CINEMA, Wednesday, October 19th at 16.30

DOCUCINEMA CROATIA, Wednesday, October 19th at 21.00

Location and screening schedule in Vienna:

KÜNSTLERHAUS: Saturday, October  29th at 13.30

KÜNSTLERHAUS: Sunday, October 30th at 16.00.

BARZAKH

Directed by: Mantas Kvedaravičius

Script: Mantas Kvedaravičius

Producer: Aki Kaurismäki, Mantas Kvedaravičius

Production company: Sputnik Oy, Extimacy Films

Cinematography: Mantas Kvedaravičius

Editing: Mantas Kvedaravičius

Format: video

Running time: 59'

Synopsis
To live among the gazes of the tortured and the rumours about those gone missing is even more devastating than overt violence. 'Barzakh', Mantas Kvedaravicius directorial debut, follows the families of missing Chechens. They don’t know where their loved ones are, or whether they are even alive. Shot in 2007−2009, the film shows us the marks that war and violence leave on people’s everyday lives. It lingers on in harvesting, in construction work, in celebrations, and in play. We follow a man tending to his garden. He also shows us the grim space where he was tortured. After experiences like these, how do people remain humane? The title of the film translates as the land between life and death. A mother of a missing man says: ‘I do not have my son either in life or in death.’ ‘To me, this is barzakh, neither life nor death. It is a void, an absence,’ the director clarifies.

Awards and Festivals

Berlin International Film Festival 2011 - Amnesty International Film Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention

Directors Biography

Mantas Kvedaravicius was born in Birzai, Lithuania in 1976. He holds a Master’s Degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford and is currently completing his PhD dissertation and a book manuscript on the effects of pain at the university of Cambridge. Kvedaravicius has taught university courses on religion, law, and political theory in New York, and since 2006 he has been conducting research on torture and disappearances in the North Caucasus. Barzakh is his debut film.