“Vakha and Magomed”, dir­ec­ted by Marta Prus,will be screened at the most import­ant doc­u­ment­ary fest­ival in Ams­ter­dam (IDFA). In an inter­view with Bolesław Racięski, the dir­ector talks about the prot­ag­on­ists and the dif­fi­cult situ­ation they are in.

Vakha is the father, Magomed – his son. Both Chechens live in a Centre for For­eign­ers in Warsaw’s dis­trict, Bielany, where the rhythm of their peace­ful lives is determ­ined by shared meals, kick­box­ing train­ings, and play­ing com­puter games. In her film, Marta Prus observes the rela­tion­ship between the prot­ag­on­ists, and at the same time she watches the pro­cess of cre­at­ing a sub­sti­tute of home in the Centre. How­ever, the title char­ac­ters are burdened with the curse of war, which calls into ques­tion the pos­sib­il­ity of restor­ing the former equi­lib­rium.


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How did you first hear about Vakha and Magomen? What made you decide to share their story?

Marta Prus: I’ve spent three weeks in the Centre for For­eign­ers Warszawa-​Bielany look­ing for the right prot­ag­on­ist. Every day I was meet­ing many people and listen­ing to their stor­ies. One of the volun­teers told me about Vakha and Magomed. When I have met them per­son­ally and seen this spe­cial rela­tion­ship between father and son, I knew this could be an inter­est­ing way to present the situ­ation of refugees. To make a film about love and dig­nity of people liv­ing in dif­fi­cult con­di­tions.


How did they react to the idea of shoot­ing their every­day life, marked with a per­sonal and very deep tragedy?

M. P.: We estab­lished a very good rela­tion­ship based on trust. That’s why they were frank. At the begin­ning, they asked a lot of ques­tions, they said their life is bor­ing, that noth­ing ever happened. They didn’t under­stand why I want to focus on them. I explained everything in detail.


Dur­ing the shoot­ing, you had to spend a lot of time in the Centre. What were your impres­sions?

M. P.:This centre doesn’t exist any­more, but there are oth­ers, unfor­tu­nately. Well, it’s impossible to get a pos­it­ive impres­sion of such a place…

Adults don’t want to assim­il­ate, they spend their days in cramped rooms. Only the chil­dren are more lively, I’ve seen them play­ing in their own com­pany. It was a place full of dis­or­i­ented and miser­able people liv­ing in a limbo. It’s very dif­fi­cult to help them in any way.


The film was pro­duced last year. Do you know what happened with the prot­ag­on­ists?

M. P.: We are and will remain close; we meet in Warsaw, to the extent pos­sible. There haven’t been major changes in their lives. They moved near Warsaw, Vakha some­times works, Magomed goes to a Pol­ish school and trains kick­box­ing. They’re wait­ing for the time when they will be able to return to Chechnya.


Are you work­ing on a new film?

M. P.: Con­stantly :) (17.10.2011)