His film, “In the Rearview”, was selected for Acid, the association of independent cinemas, during the Cannes festival. Going against the current of this 76th edition, it is one of the rare films, whether in competition or in the parallel selections, to tackle the war in Ukraine. Its director, Maciek Hamela, from Warsaw, Poland, decided to act. First as a volunteer. “Like thousands of people in Poland, I was hired at the start of this war as a volunteer driver to evacuate Ukrainians. At the border, first, then very quickly from more dangerous areas, where there was no transport”, says the director who makes the effort to speak French.
This commitment, he restores it in his work, by filming inside his car these Ukrainians who are preparing to become refugees. Without staging or distorting these scenes of mutual aid, Maciek Hamela posed the camera in his place, as an observer. “This idea for the film came a month after the start of the war, at the end of March, when I called a cinematographer friend to help me drive the car,” continues the young director. And to specify: “It is a film which has two messages. The first is to show all these cars, causing huge traffic jams at the border, filled with refugee women and children. And the second message is to say that their daily life for these people was interrupted overnight. And these lives, they resemble our lives, whether we are in Poland, in France, there are no big differences. »
“A perspective on the world around us”
So, cinema as highlighting the news? “I’m not naive, I don’t think my film will change the world. But if he can already do something at 1%, it will already be a success”. Director, actress, producer, even cinema can have a role in showing, denouncing or questioning. Everything is a look, a point of view on the world around us.