Arts venue FACT in Liverpool city centre is hosting an independent film called ‘Another Summer’ which captures the refugee experience across Europe.
The film saw a group of 20 students with little to no filming experience go across various countries in Europe to carry out filming and interviews.
Co-director Alžběta Kovandová-Bartoníčková said: “We ended up with 20 students 6 from Ukraine 7 from Afghan 7 from the US. We started in Geneva where we spent a week of training.”
“They were all students but none of them were actually studying film, they were all doing subjects like biology, maths, and many different topics.
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“We divided them into teams of three people, most of the students were women and we sent them to seven different countries in Europe, it was always one Ukrainian student, one Afghan student and one American student.
She added: “We gave them 2 weeks and we didn’t give them any rules, just go and film with other Ukrainian and Afghan refugees and try to capture their experience.”
The film came about after other co-director David Edwards’ students had fled Afghanistan.
Alalžběta explained: “When the Taliban came again to power and took over Kabul, most of David’s students actually had to leave the country and were spread all over Europe and the US.
“He decided it would be great to do some summer project to help them process what happened to them, but also to capture what it means to be a refugee, what it means to leave ones home country.
“So he started planning the project and then the war in Ukraine started in February 2022 and he decided to connect the Afghan students with Ukrainian students.”
For Alžběta the film being made by refugees themselves was an important factor: ‘It wasn’t us with refugee experience it was students, who unfortunately have the same experience as the refugees they were filming with.’
She added: “It helped that they spoke the same languages, so the Ukrainians would complete the interviews with other Ukrainians in Ukrainian or Russian and the Afghans were leading their interviews in Dari or Pashto in the Afghan languages.
“The American student would be taking care of the camera and the filming process. It was a huge advantage all students spoke the same language and they could connect way better than I or David would be able to.”
Alžběta paid credit to the students: “I’m trying to always emphasise it is a film that I and David made, but it was all thanks to the footage our amazing students were able to film. There would be no film without them and there would be no film without the trust of those other people and refugees and all the stories they allowed us to use.”
The film touches on various themes, Alžběta said: “I guess really the main message for me is it doesn’t really matter where you’re from, that the refugee experience is don’t want to say it’s the same but, we are all trying to make home somewhere and whether we are displaced, whether we are forced to leave the place where we were born its extremely difficult.
“This experience is similar or the same whether you’re from Ukraine or Afghanistan or any other country. The Afghans were actually saying wow its so similar to what the Ukrainians are going through and the Ukrainians are saying the same thing and how all these people were connected by the loss of home and displacement.”
Alžběta had previously lived in Liverpool which is what led to the film being hosted at arts venue FACT on Wood Street.
She said: “When planning this I thought well Liverpool is my favourite city and its still my other home which is why i decided to screen it at FACT as well because it’s one of my most favourite venues and I have lots memories and friends in Liverpool so there was very personal reasons.”
She also noted about Liverpool’s art scene: “I see Liverpool as a very cultural place I see how much it’s tied with arts and culture and how many culturalisations there are. When I lived there I used to film a lot and I know how many events are there and it’s also very international.
“When I was inviting people I actually found lots of NGOs and people working with refugees. I hope the combination that it’s a very international city and its huge arts scene will hopefully help the film do well.”
The film was heavily supported by a number of institutions mostly across Europe, including Williams College, AUAF, Graduate Institute Geneva, Central European University and Institute of Ethnology at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The film is set to screen on this Tuesday evening at FACT with and will have a Q&A with Alžběta afterwards , for more information go to https://www.fact.co.uk/film/another-summer.
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Featured image (c) Another Summer
