Occupation 1968 is a coproduction between five countries from the Warsaw Pact: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary. In an effort to get the most diverse views on this complicated topic, each country is represented by one director, who made a 26-minute film about the invasion from the perspective of the people who played the part of the occupiers.
The five short films were directed by Stefan Komandarev (An Unnecessary Hero, Bulgaria), Marie Elisa Scheidt (Voices in the Forest, Germany), Magdalena Szymkow (Soldiers’ Wives & Spies, Poland), Evdokiya Moskvina (The Last Mission of General Ermakov, Russia) and Linda Dombrovszsky (Red Rose [Friendship and Love in the Time of Occupation], Hungary).
„When I saw the topics, it was clear to me that from the Russian story we would like to learn all the basic information. The Hungarian story tells us what soldiers did during the occupation, and the Polish director came up with a film about their women waiting at home. For a moment I thought about whether to include a German or Bulgarian story, but when I saw the film about the unnecessary death of a soldier, it was the best choice for the ending,“ said producer Peter Kerekes.
Occupation 1968 was coproduced by Hypermarket Film, Agitprop, Silver Frame, ELF Pictures and supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA, the Czech Film Fund, the Polish Film Institute, Filmjus, the Bulgarian National Film Center and the Hungarian National Film Fund.
Production Information:
Producer:
Peter Kerekes (Slovakia)
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Coproducers:
Hypermarket Film (Czech Republic)
Agitprop (Bulgaria)
Silver Frame (Poland)
ELF Pictures (Hungary)
Credits:
Directors: Evdokia Moskvina, Linda Dombrovszky, Maria Elisa Scheidt, Magda Szymków, Stephan Komandarev
Scriptwriters: Evdokia Moskvina, Linda Dombrovszky, Maria Elisa Scheidt, Magda Szymków, Stephan Komandarev
DoPs: Jakub Halousek, Ákos Nyoszoli, Zuzanna Kernbach, Vesselin Hristov, Moritz Tessendorf
Editors: Matej Beneš, levente Pap, Iza Pająk, Nina Altaparmakova, Denize Galiao
Sound:Richard Müller
Cast:Jurij Michailovič Jermakov, lev Nikolaevič Gorelov, Maria Michailovna Ponomareva, Ilja lvovič Smolokovsky, Sandor Osźlanczi, Irena Oratowska, Tadeusz Oratowski, Klaus Auerswald, Reinhard Bohse, laura Hempel, Petar Nikolov
