All the kids had it.
I can fairly say that more than half of the Polish society got involved in the war.
Tens and tens of thousands of people got involved very heavily in volunteer work.
A Ukrainian child holds a paper with vital data in case she is found in rubble.Courtesy of Maciek Hamela/Film Movement
So, Im by far not an exception, he tells Deadline.
The first day [of the war] I started raising funds.
Third day I bought a van…
Director Maciek Hamela at the Cannes Film Festival, May 25, 2023Matthew Carey
I let go of everything I was doing, and I started driving.
One woman clings to a cat that peeks, terrified, out of a basket.
Hamela anchored a camera between the two front seats, facing toward the passengers in the rear seats.
Perhaps not surprisingly, many of them wanted to talk, to share something of what they had endured.
Everything we own, we left it all, a man reports.
We set the dogs free.
What could we do?
On Thursday, the films debuts in International Competition at the prestigious Sheffield DocFest in the north of England.
Were very glad were there, Hamela says.
I think its going to find its own audience there.
We spoke with Hamela near the Croisette in Cannes, amid the bustle of the glamorous festival.
The director drew a distinction between Cannes and what he expected to find at Sheffield DocFest.
And we have to fight our way through, which is fine, which is also great.
Wherever viewers see the film, Hamela hopes they will identify with the people they encounter on screen.
I want the audience to see that these people have exactly the same lives as we do.
Its their ordinary lives.
They have pets, they have cows, they quarrel with their wives.
They have kids who want to go for vacation to the sea.
We cant take it anymore.
And this is what I wanted to avoid.
Its really about the deliberately small details, and about how the war is reflected in these details.
And through that this film can stay with people for many hours and days after they see it.
