Matej Bobrik Gets Close to Migrant Family From Nepal in Jihlava-Winning ‘Distances’: ‘We Wondered Why They Never Said Stop! to Us’
30.10.2023 - 20:53
/ variety.com
Marta Balaga During the making of his Jihlava Film Festival winning film, “Distances” director Matej Bobrik walked right into the middle of an argument. “Actually, I was standing a bit to the side. It was my cinematographer Filip [Drożdż] who was at the center of it all,” he jokes, recalling heated discussions of his protagonists: a Nepali family who moved to Warsaw in search of a better life.
“It was an intense experience and there were moments when we wondered why they never said ‘stop!’ to us. I think we managed to get so close, because we never forced them to do anything. They knew we were always rooting for them.” Named as the Best Film from the Central and Eastern Europe of Czech fest’s Opus Bonum section, “Distances” was produced by Agnieszka Skalska for Koi Studio and backed by the Polish Film Institute.
“A few years ago, we noticed there were so many immigrants from India and Nepal [in Poland]. They worked as Uber drivers or delivered food and we knew nothing about them,” explains Bobrik. While most of them were single men – “They would work all day and stare at their phones all night” – he decided to look for a family instead.
To his surprise, Shiv, his wife and son welcomed him into their lives. “Imagine: A stranger comes to your house and says he wants to make a film about you. And yet, unlike most people in that situation, they didn’t immediately assume someone was trying to trick them,” he says.
“At first, everything was very official. The house was always clean, there was always food on the table. Luckily, after a while they got tired of me.
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