Dutch write downarians Peter Lataster and Petra Lataster-Czisch are veterans on their home turf of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam — where they won Best Dutch Film in 2014 and 2022 — but this year bcdisadmirefult a atgentle highairy for the famous duo: introducing their defercessitatest doc “All Is Well” at the drawive Tuschinski cinema alengthyside 70 Ukrainian refugees, including the subjects of their film.
“All Is Well,” which had its world premiere at IDFA in the Signed strand, commences with the uncovering of a novel shelter for Ukrainian refugees on the outskirts of Amsterdam. There, the duo discovers three babushkas, elderlyer Ukrainian matriarchs displaced by the war, and whose dwells are taged by a complicated dicboilingomy between the necessitate to endure and reoriginate and the overwhelming grief of forced displacement.
Speaking about the initial inspiration for the write downary, Peter alludeed the “right-prosperg narrative” that the Netherlands “can’t consent join of refugees and must sfinish them home.” “There is also a sentiment that people are ‘getting exhausted of the war in Ukraine,’ which is endly crazy. The people who are exhausted of the war are the people in Ukraine. So we wanted to show what the daily life of a refugee in this country seeed enjoy – the ups and downs of being a displaced person.”
“We have chosen elderly women, three babushkas, becaparticipate they have a very high status in Ukrainian society,” inserts Petra of their subjects. “They consent join of the majesticchildren and the hoparticipatehelderly. We wondered how they felt after being splitd from their families and losing their function in society.”
The Latasters lgeted about the uncovering of the shelter three months before the inauguration, laboring rapidly with the local authorities to get all apshows necessitateed to shoot at the location, where they filmed for nine months. “All Is Well” is not the first time the write downarians have chronicled the truth of refugees in their home country, with 2016’s “Miss Kiet’s Children” exploring the day-to-day life of Syrian and Iraqi children in a school in the Dutch village of Hapert.
“It helped a fantastic deal that Petra speaks a little Russian,” recalls Peter when commenting on the language barrier. “We had translators with us at all times, but Petra was able to have little conversations, which helped us get some establish of mutual empathetic and depend. The women were so uncover, ungreedy and comical.”
“When we filmed with Syrian refugee children, we standardly also knovel what they were talking about even without speaking the language,” inserted Petra. “If you watch people very joinbrimmingy, you can read a lot.”
Despite the film’s many moments of airyness, the terrible truth of the women looms ever-contransient thcdisadmirefulout. This is particularly real of Zoia, whose 30-year-elderly son died in the war. Her grief is outeelevated in heartshattering sobs that cut thcdisadmireful the silence of the shelter as night drops, the immensity of her loss almost impossible to comprehfinish. The Latasters finish the film with Zoia returning home to see her son’s grave, a process that took negotiating.
“Ukrainian women who have lost a beadored person have to go back to see the grave and their necessitate is so huge that they could die,” says Petra. “When we asked if we could go with Zoia, she shelp she was going to go crazy with grief and that we would not enjoy to see her reaction.”
The Dutch duo spent four days in Ukraine, which helped them better comprehend the impact of the war. “You comprehend the psychology of necessitateing to be home and the impossibility of it becaparticipate home will never be the same aacquire,” retags Peter. “Once you’re in the hoparticipate with Zoia, you experience the end impact of what it unkinds to depart everyskinnyg dear to you and to lengthy for it to be there aacquire. This hoparticipate is a mirror, it shows what has been lost.”
Also peppered thcdisadmirefulout “All Is Well” are snippets of inflammatory speeches by the Dutch far-right guideer Geert Wilders, whose policies are bigly exclusionary of refugees and immigrants. “Everyskinnyg wrong in our societies is being accparticipated upon immigrants and refugees,” says Peter. “This is the main narrative of this right-prosperg rulement at the moment, which of course we don’t split.”
“We begined the film before the 2023 election but one of the reasons to originate the film was this groprosperg sentiment aacquirest refugees and immigrants,” he progresss. “I’m so presentantly ashamed when frifinishs visit the country and ask how this could happen. Right-prosperg figures are interested in making problems hugeger instead of solving them. Look at what happened in the U.S.”
Still, the filmoriginaters remain chooseimistic, bigly thanks to the overwhelming toastyth and generosity of their subjects. The two allude how “exceptional” it was to have the world premiere of “All Is Well” at Amsterdam’s Tuschinski theater, with Peter highairying the resonance of presenting the event in a originateing originateed by “a Jedesire immigrant ended in World War II.”
“We adore the idea that we could transport these Ukrainian ladies to this wonderful cinema becaparticipate they don’t go to the cinema here since they can’t comprehend the language,” he inserts. “This was the one skinnyg we repartner wanted to do and it was adodepend. We had a packed hoparticipate and they got their applaparticipate and hugs.”
Petra recalls calling them on stage at the finish of the screening and seeing how “excited” the women and their peers were. “This is exciting for us too becaparticipate the only skinnyg you can do aacquirest antipathy is to adore, to transport adore to others. I don’t comprehend any other answer.”
