Polish filmmaker holds master class at Iranian Cinema Vérité

Polish filmmaker Hanna Polak held a virtual master class on the third day of the 14th edition of the Cinema Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for documentary films.

She discussed the topic “making a documentary in a crisis” at the master class.  

"I must say that most of my work has been filmed with a few exceptions in critical situations. Because I choose topics that are very difficult," she said.

The 53-year-old Polak, as director of photography, who was nominated for an Oscar for her documentary “The Children of Leningradsky” in 2005, said, "My motivation is to show people who have no voice in society and have been marginalized. People who are invisible and victims of different situations. For example, I am currently working on a film about people who are victims of war and genocide. I filmed this film, which is almost finished, in Iraq."

She graduated from the cinematography department of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. She has also established a foundation that helps homeless children in Russia.

Thanks to the children of Leningradsky station, she met the protagonists of her next film, “Something Better to Come”, which was the most awarded Polish film of 2015. 

She tells the story of the inhabitants of the biggest rubbish dump in Europe.

Polak’s “Something Better to Come” was screened at the 9th Cinema Vérité in 2015.

MH