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15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



In the Rearview

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Maciek HAMELA

  • Poland, France, Ukraine
  • 2023
  • 84min
  • 12 +
  • DCP
  • color

Asian premiere

Synopsis

A Polish van travels the roads of Ukraine. On board, the driver-director and evacuated people, following the Russian invasion. The vehicle becomes a fragile and temporary refuge, a zone of confidences of exiles who have only one objective left, to escape the war. 

Review

 The camera captures people fleeing from Ukraine to Poland inside a car. The audience is allowed to see only a limited view except for the last scene. The audience sees the refugees and listens to their stories through a rearview mirror that mainly reflects the back seat. The camera sometimes turns to Ukraine outside the car window. The full face of densely seated people and the view of Ukraine over a car window are the testimony of risky times in Ukraine and the only view allowed to the refugees who do not have a place to stay. The director was one of the driving volunteers and he was surprised by the fact that there is no refugee camp at the border area. <i>In the Rearview</i> shows the only space allowed to the Ukrainian refugees, outdoor places that are not allowed for them, and living spaces that do not exist for them. The audiences are forced to ride in a suffocating and risky space and time. In the last scene of the film, the refugees eventually get outside the car and meet their family, and the audience feels relieved too. However, the ending credit sets on an empty back seat and implies that the journey of refugees is not over and that outside, where refugees can meet their families, is allowed only temporarily. What would be a way to arrange a place where refugees can stay continuously and safely?

Director

  • Maciek HAMELA

    Born in Warsaw, Poland, he received a master's degree from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in French literature and graduated from EICAR. A co-creator and a producer of a documentary short film Bless You, for which he received a Doc Alliance Award (Cannes 2021), the short was also presented at Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF. He produced many awarded documentaries such as Convictions at DOK Leipzig 2016. Being a director and a producer of various radio works he has received the Silver Melchior Radio Award in the Polish Radio Reporters National Competition.

Credit