Docugast Heddy Honigmann over 'Bread Day'

Van 9 tot en met 15 oktober is Heddy Honigmann te gast bij Holland Doc 24 in de serie Docugasten. Naast drie documentaires van de regisseur zelf, vertoont het digitale documentairekanaal maar liefst vijf documentaires van andere makers die Honigmann speciaal voor deze gelegenheid geselecteerd heeft. Onder hen 'Bread Day' van Sergei Dvortsevoi. Kom er in dit item achter waarom Honigmann vindt dat documentaires als deze gemaakt moeten worden. Interview door Annegriet Wijchers, camera en montage door Frithjof Kalf.

It’s a documentary which wouldn't be paid for by a single Dutch film fund.

Simply put, it is about a train delivering bread to a village in a snow-covered landscape.

If you would write a script, you would write...

the train runs, is pushed to, through the snow to the village.

And the train has to... delivers bread to the village.

And then one would say: and what happens next? What's the dramatic storyline?

Or, what else is happening?

And then you could reply: Actually, nothing more than the people collecting the bread...

...and some small extras.

And then one would say: Yes, that could be interesting.

No, I don't think that that would happen.

I'll never forget that very long shot where the train runs through the snow...

...and the people walking next to it.

And more and more animals join, dogs and goats.

And finally, finally, finally, the train arrives in the village and in one of the carriages...

...is the bread, is like a load of bakery items.

Well, then the routine of the village just starts.

The locals collecting their ration of bread, which is very important....

...and from that very long intro in the snow...

...where you can somehow feel the climate and the need...

...that the village is isolated...

...and the need, really, to have bread...

...you enter in the... in the...

...in the secluded life in the village, just the locals who collect their bread...

...the villagers who quarrel about the rations they have received...

...the animals that live around them...

... you enter a microcosm.

This type of films should be made, actually.

They are about the bare necessities like having bread.

Your basic, basic necessities.