outside (d. olha zhurba)

The Trieste Film Festival is dedicated in large part to Ukrainian filmmakers and stories this year. This makes sense. Trieste is on the Adriatic, right next to Slovenia and Croatia, a city that pivots between East and West. The war is geographically closer here, and it is a festival that posits itself, perhaps, as the westernmost point of east Europe.

I caught two films during my brief stay. Home Games is a fairly traditional documentary about a female Ukrainian footballer and her struggles to bring up her two younger siblings, the other side of the beautiful game.

Outside felt more unusual. Great docs sometimes emerge out of chance and persistence. Capturing the Friedman’s being one example. In this case, the director, Olha Zhurba, started filming the thirteen year old Roma, who had fled from his orphanage to join the Maidan protest camp, and was subsequently kicked out. Roma is a chirpy natural in front of the camera.  Over the years, Zhurba returns to catch up with him, finding him wherever he might be, sometimes in Kiev, sometimes in his rural hometown. Roma’s life has not run smoothly. He becomes an addict, and then gets into serious trouble in his hometown when he is accused of stealing. The film knits moments from Roma’s life together, skipping backwards and forwards in time, gradually building up a portrait of his tough life. It’s a slow burn, but carries a growing power as the film unfolds, a story from the edge of the European dream.

Both of these films were shot before the war. Underpinning the watching of them is the great uncertainty about what might have become of these characters now. It also brings into question the whole functioning of the documentary industry. I type this sitting in the lobby of the Savoie hotel, with industry people from across Europe networking over white wine. Ideas are being pitched and deals, perhaps, are being made. The tension between the art and the industry in the context of war is palpable.