Something Better to Come

Something Better to Come
Directed by Hanna Polak
Produced by Sigrid Dyekjær
Hanna Polak
Written by Hanna Polak
Starring Yula
Music by Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Cinematography Hanna Polak
Edited by Marcin Bastkowski
Release date
  • 12 December 2014 (2014-12-12) (ArtDocFest)
Running time
 98 minutes
Country
Language Russian

Something Better to Come is a Danish-Polish documentary film about children living on a garbage dump near Moscow directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak and produced by Sigrid Dyekjær of Danish Documentary – one of the world's key players in creative documentary film production. Something Better to Come won the Special Jury Award at the world's biggest documentary festival – IDFA, where the film had premiered.

The Children of Leningradsky

One of Hanna Polak's first film – The Children of Leningradsky focuses on homeless children living in the Leningradsky railway station in Moscow. The movie was nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy Award in two categories and won number of other awards. This put the film in the spotlight and catalyzed change for the children featured in it, offering them hope for a better future. One impact of that film was to force local authorities to change policy regulations pertaining to the homeless, which helped hundreds of other kids. Hanna Polak uses her camera as a weapon in a global fight to help these children escape lives of poverty and misery. It was pitched at the 2012 MeetMarket as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Content

In 2000, in parallel with shooting The Children of Leningradsky, Hanna began working on Something Better to Come. This was the same year Vladimir Putin stepped into power in Russia and coincidentally, the story of Yula, the main character of the film, is parallel to the unfolding story of Putin's Russia.

Ten-year-old Yula has but one dream – to lead a normal life. For 14 years, Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows up in the forbidden territory of Svalka, the garbage dump located 13 miles from the Kremlin in Putin's Russia. Something Better to Come is Yula's story – a dramatic tale of coming of age and maturing to the point of taking destiny into one's own hands. It is a story of hope, courage, and life, all shot in gripping vérité style that stuns with its directness and immediacy.

Reception

The film has received wide positive acclaim from critics. Mark Adams from Screen Daily stated that Something Better to Come is "strikingly visceral and plaintively moving documentary that is arresting right from its first powerful moments" and added that "This is a film that packs an emotional punch and is strikingly directed and shot by the talented Hanna Polak."[1] Aleksandr Gorbachev from Newsweek called the film "a great coming-of-age story – Boyhood from a trash can." [2] Sheri Linden from Los Angeles Times described the film as "work of powerful images – heart-rending, elegiac, charged with hope." [3] Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing, stated that his "most powerful experience of nonfiction cinema this year was [...] Something Better to Come."[4] While Neil Young from The Hollywood Reporter reviewed it as "an eye-opening documentary." [5]

Awards

  • Special Jury Prize International Documentary, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (USA)[6]
  • Youth Jury Award, Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival (Germany)[7]
  • Best Documentary Award, Jameson CineFest (Hungary)[8]
  • Berlin's Favorite Award and Bremen's Favourite Award, Favourites Film Festival Berlin (Germany)[9]
  • The Estonian People's Award, Pärnu Film Festival (Estonia)[10]
  • Best Documentary, Valletta Film Festival (Malta)[11]
  • Best International Feature Award, Documentary Edge Festival (New Zealand)[12]
  • Best Cinematography, Gdansk DocFilm Festival (Poland)[13]
  • Special Mention, Underhill Festival (Montenegro)
  • Special Award Club 418 Mirror of Art DocFest and Small Mirror of Art DocFest, Andrey Tarkovsky International Film Festival (Russia)[14]
  • Millennium Award for Best Feature Documentary Film and Canon Non Fiction Frame Special Mention, Docs Against Gravity (Poland)[15]
  • VIKTOR Main Competition DOK.international, DOK.fest Munich (Germany[16]
  • Second Price of the Jury, DocumentaMadrid (Spain)[17]
  • Special Mention, One World Brussels (Belgium)[18]
  • Jury's Main Prize, Eurodok – European Documentary Film Festival (Norway)[19]
  • Special Mention, ZagrebDox (Croatia)[20]
  • Grand Prix, Open Documentary Film Festival "Artdocfest" (Russia)
  • Youth Jury Award, International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Switzerland)[21]
  • Alpe Adria Cinema Award: Best Documentary, Trieste Film Festival (Italy)[22]
  • Special Jury Award, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) (Netherlands)[23]

References

  1. ↑ "Something Better to Come". Screen Daily.
  2. ↑ "The Best Documentaries of 2015 (So Far)". Newsweek.
  3. ↑ "'Something Better to Come' reveals lives in a Russian dump". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ↑ "Oscars 2015: they should have been contenders…". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ "'Something Better to Come': IDFA Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  6. ↑ "#HSDFF Award Winners & Sunday, October 18 Schedule". Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
  7. ↑ "A Film Festival's Fight for Human Rights". Handelsblatt Global Edition.
  8. ↑ "The Winners". Jameson CineFest.
  9. ↑ "Winner of the Berlin's Favourite Award 2015". Favourites Film Festival Berlin.
  10. ↑ "Awards of the XXIX Pärnu Film Festival". Pärnu Film Festival.
  11. ↑ "Winners at Valletta Film Festival 2015". Valletta Film Festival.
  12. ↑ "Documentary Edge Festival Celebrates Illustrious Awards!". Documentary Edge Festival.
  13. ↑ "Winners of 13. Gdańsk DocFilm Festival". Gdańsk DocFilm Festival.
  14. ↑ "Something Better to Come Awarded Twice In Russia". Polish Docs.
  15. ↑ "A unique encounter of film and world visions – the winners of 12th Docs Against Gravity Film Festival have been announced". Docs Against Gravity Film Festival.
  16. ↑ "Winners 2015". Dok.fest Muenchen.
  17. ↑ "'Something Better to Come' And 'Starting Point' Awarded At DocumentaMadrid". Polish Docs.
  18. ↑ "'War without Trace' named Best Film at One World Brussels". Cineuropa.
  19. ↑ "Eurodok Award to Something Better to Come". Norwegian Film Institute.
  20. ↑ "11th ZagrebDox winners announced". ZagrebDox.
  21. ↑ "The awards of the 13th edition of the FIFDH have been announced!". International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights.
  22. ↑ "The Winner". Trieste Film Festival.
  23. ↑ "Something Better to Come Wins at IDFA". Danish Film Institute.
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