“THE DOMINO EFFECT” – INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKERS

Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski talk about their latest feature documentary - “The Domino Effect” presented at 54th Krakow Film Festival.

 Daniel Stopa: We do not know much about Abkhazia here in Poland. The reason may lay in the fact that its contemporary history was put in the shade by conflict in former Yugoslavia. Where does the idea to go there with camera come from?

Elwira Niewiera: After the war in Georgia in 2008, I read an article about Abkhazia and I started to think how the life looks in the country which is not acknowledged by the majority of countries with the exception of Russia and several other countries. Then I reached for “The Empire” written by Ryszard Kapuściński and I found there such a sentence about Abkhazia: There is a place on earth which could be a paradise, but there are more mines than people. This paradoxical statement affected us so much that we decided to go to Abkhazia and see with our own eyes how it looks like.

D.S.: In a book entitled „Abkhazia” Wojciech Górecki writes that the the Domino Championships, held in Suchumi in 2011, was the starting point. Were you thinking about reporting this event and at the same time - a portrayal of the residents?

E.N.: From the beginning we knew that we want to make a documentary, and firstly we focused only on the Championships. We recorded the preparations and the process. Through this event, we wanted to tell about this country and its residents, but after the year of intense observation, we realized, that such a fragmented story only makes the Abkhazian people look ridiculous, that we have to look deeper, to bring out the tragedy that the people have to struggle with. We met Natasza at the last day of the Championships and we were leaving with the belief that we have just found protagonist for our film, despite the fact that virtually we had the whole material to the editing. So we were starting almost from the beginning.

Piotr Rosołowski: Championships were like a magnet for us. We found it interesting that this little country through this strange event tries to achieve something at the international arena. But this subject had no profundity alone. It was when we juxtaposed it with the intimate story of Natasza and Rafael, that a lot of issues got sharpened. The combination of these two threads turned out to be pivotal for us.

D.S.: Moving the attention to the private sphere made the Abkhazia more readable and closer to the spectators’ emotions…

P.R.: On the one hand, we wanted to tell about this country, but without getting into “great” politics, names and history. On the other hand, the story of Natasza and Rafael became important for us. How to put both into a film? At one point we noticed that we can talk about Abkhazia, about people who are living there, the climate, problems through our characters. We do not have to explain political context of the country, certain facts and information appear in the situation concerning film characters anyway.

D.S. There is no typical map in the film, but the camera does not leave Suchumi even when Natasza goes to Russia. Spectator is still in Abkhazia, similarly to Rafael.

E.N: At certain moment, we made a decision that we want to tell about Abkhazia only from the internal perspective of this country.

P.R.: Probably this decision caused that Rafael was described in more detailed way than Natasza. He represents Abkhazia in some way - he serves as a peculiar metaphor of this country. Inevitably then, there is more Rafael in the film. Of course it is not fiction, in which the narration model can be precisely constructed. Maybe, if we had made a fiction film, Natasza would be the main character. However, the desire to touch the truth about Abkhazia led us to Rafael.

D.S.: We cannot however underestimate Natasza’s role, who somehow reveals Rafael’s character…

E.N.: We met Rafael during our first journey to Abkhazia. The preparations to the Domino Championships were on and we quickly found ourselves in the ministry of sport cabinet. From the beginning we had a great contact with him, but alone, he seemed to be inanimate, sentimental, melancholic and sad. We did not expect, that he can bear the whole history. Only in connection with Natasza, we noticed how interesting and emotional story is grunted within them. The truth is, that this relationship reflects an important conflict in a politically unacknowledged republic, which is slowly absorbed by the great Russia.

D.S. While watching „The Domino Effect”, one gets the impression that you got really close to the characters. There are intimate scenes which show both good and bad moments of Natasza’s and Rafael’s relationship.

P.R. We would not have made this film with a regular crew. The film extorted from us becoming a part of the characters reality, part of the family. Often there were days, when camera was not got out of the bag at all.

E.N. We have bonded with them. I am even a Godmother of their child. We experienced their fortune, we were and we are still supporting them. Thanks to camera presence, Rafael and Natasza could keep the distance and talk with each other. But they were not the only ones, also Rafael’s family started to talk openly about the past, about relations between characters and relations with Russia.

P.R: It was a very interesting experience. On the one hand, our camera was recording private and intimate situations. On the other hand, the fact that we are foreigners, people from outside, let us become neutral arbiters of their conflict. They were hoping that, with the camera, we can look at their situation objectively. That is why we could register a lot of emotional and private scenes. When the atmosphere was getting tense, we were always trying to talk with them, to explain everything. We got close and we were trying to help them.

D.S.: Piotr once said, that the story of Natasza and Rafael - looking from the side - is a tragedy script. Weren’t you afraid, that one of the arguments can end their relationship and at the same time - your film?

E.N: There was such a risk all the time. There was a moment, after the birth of their daughter, when Natasza did not want to go back to Rafael and she did not want to be still filmed , and we were worried that we did not finish project on which we had spent three years. Luckily - just like in the film - after half a year, the situation turned upside down. We recorded the final scene when Natasza with her daughter, who was seven months old then, comes back to Rafael, to Abkhazia.

P.R.: It is difficult to end the story about Abkhazia optimistically. This country slowly rolls down into Russia’s arms. Is there any hope? I think, that if it exists, it stays in people. This accent was important for us and we wanted to finish the film with it. Of course, the ending is open, because we cannot be sure of how the future of Natasza’s and Rafael’s relationship will look like, but we believe, that despite the high waves, they will continue being together.

D.S. Elwira has mentioned, that you spent three years on making the film. How this time looked from the producer’s point of view?

P.R.: We could not find a source of financing for a very long time. The problem laid in the fact that not many people were interested in the story of Abkhazia and even less – in the private story of two of its residents. But we were travelling there stubbornly. Seven times altogether. Maybe the fact that there were no money at the beginning caused that we went there so many times. Probably no producer would let us travel like this. When I look now at our finished film, I notice shots from each and every stay. A breaking moment for us was meeting - thanks to our producer Ania Wydra - a big production company from Berlin, who liked the originality of the project. After that, PIFsupport came together with support of RBB and Arte televisions. Thanks to it we could finish the film in the regular conditions.

D.S. How is the film received, concerning present conflict in Ukraine? At last, can it be related to the history of Abkhazia?

E.N.: Many people raise this problem after watching the film. However, there is a certain difference. Abkhazia will not be absorbed by Russia as fast as Crimea was. Abkhazian people themselves will not declare at Russia’s side in any kind of referendum. Donetsk however, which is splitting from Ukraine, can become a para-state, unacknowledged by the world, and, this way, it will share the fate of today’s Abkhazia.

P.R.: We got used to the fact, that Eastern Europe countries are often lumped, treated unfairly. Political situation, which is interlinked, culture, conflicts have different shades in these countries. But I am sure, that in Crimea and in Donetsk there are such mixed couples, who have similar problems as Natasza and Rafael and have to face the dilemma, how to save their relationship, when “the great” politics leaves its marks on them.

D.S.: At last I will ask about the next project. What are you working on right now?

P.R: We are working on the remarkable case of Mosze Waks that is Michał Waszczynski. It is quite a complicated project which rises from the Polish culture and grow in the whole Europe. It will be a film about a human, who was constantly changing his identity, falsified his biography and at the same time he was making films reflecting his state of mind. Formally, it will be referring to the „The art of disappearing” because film will be based mainly on the archive materials.

D.S.: Thank you very much.

E.N. and P.R.: Thank you