Slovenčina                                                              28.03.2024, 23:31
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Meet Wanda Adamík Hrycová (*1978), producer of The Line, fourth feature film of Slovak director Peter Bebjak (his previous works are Čistič (2015), Zlo (2012) and Marhuľový ostrov (2011)), , now in main competition of 52nd Karlovy Vary IFF. Just like in the story of the film, Wanda, former student of the Academy of Performing Arts VŠMU in Bratislava, was crossing various borders of the Slovak Arts – working as deputy managing director of radio station Twist, CEO of Slovak theatre Nová Scéna, CEO at MediaPro Entertainment, biggest production company in the field of TV content, just to name a few - before she established production company Wandal Production.

The Line is a producer´s project – your project. For how long have you been carrying the story in your head and what inspired you to make this film about the Slovak-Ukrainian borderlands?
I have known the Slovak-Ukrainian border region well since childhood. My mother is from there and my grandparents lived there. I grew up on those funnily sad smuggler stories full of drama and intimate personal histories.

I remember the times when I used to visit grandma in my teenage years. In that small traditional Eastern-Slovak village it was absolutely common that Afghan, Chinese, Georgian or Chechens, who were fleeing war or poverty, would stroll in the streets. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union nobody even considered the other side of the border, a contact with the Soviet Union practically did not exist. And once this Imperium fell apart, and Ukraine as an independent state was formed, that´s when the big chaos started.

This interplay of political events opened new possibilities that no one would think of before. Given that Ukrainians were basically lacking everything, and on the other hand Slovaks were disposed of extremely cheap alcohol, fuel and cigarettes, both sides discovered very quickly how to profit from this situation.

At a certain point I realized that I want to tell these stories and so I decided to turn them into a film. The first idea came in summer 2013. I held on to it and then everything went quite fast. We managed to make the whole film – from the initial idea up to the final version – in four years, which is, in my opinion, a decent achievement considering it is my debut as a delegate feature film producer.

Based on what criteria did you choose the executive team for the project?
The story is set in Eastern Slovakia. It was crucial for me to really get a feel of that eastern spirit and transfer the special atmosphere of the region onto paper. The first person I approached was scriptwriter Peter Balko. I hadn´t known Peter before but I chose him based on recommendations and his work on the film Kandidát (d. Jonáš Karásek) which I really liked.

When we took him to the borderlands, he was drinking for two weeks. That really helped him to soak up the atmosphere of the East to the very core. And he succeeded in transmitting this genius loci into the script.

By the time we had the fifth version of the script (altogether there have been 10), I approached director Peter Bebjak, my former schoolmate from the Academy, whose graduation film Štefan I produced at the time. I really like his work – he makes genre films, knows very well how to work with actors and most of all, he has mastered the crime genre. Moreover, he can create an amazing atmosphere on set and his cooperation with DoP Martin Žiaran is just perfect.

World Premiere at an A-class festival like 52nd Karlovy Vary IFF marks only the beginning of a successful journey for The Line. What does it mean to you and what are your further plans with the film?
I am really honoured and enormously happy to have the world premiere in the main competition of Karlovy Vary IFF. Moreover also because KVIFF was one of the first international platforms where I have pitched the project – two years ago in the Pitch and Feedback section under its previous working title “SchengenStory”. It would be wonderful if the film appealed to other festival representatives too.

Karlovy Vary is important to me also in regard to the Czech audience. Considering that the film does not have a Czech co-producer, it can be said that we have a little disadvantage regarding our position on the Czech market, despite the fact that Czech actors and crew members were involved in the project. But I do believe and hope that also thanks to Karlovy Vary IFF we will succeed and the film will capture the interest of professionals in Czech distribution. Good luck to us I must say.

The Line is a co-production between Slovakia and Ukraine, which is rather unusual. How would you evaluate it and what positive impact did it have on the Slovak audiovisual environment?
The Line is in fact the first independent coproduction between Slovakia and Ukraine. The cooperation was very good, yet not always easy. We are speaking of a country outside of the European Union and the Schengen area, which means that their legislation differs from ours completely.

Half of the crew was Ukrainian, the other half was Slovak. This brought unbelievable refreshment into the team – not only on the personal, but also on the creative level. It was truly delightful to work with people who are true professionals, even though we did not know them at all before. I absolutely relied on our Ukrainian partners on this, who really delivered us the best specialists in the field.

What upcoming projects from Wandal Production can we look out for in near future?
At the moment I am preparing a big project. I would like to make a stylized political thriller inspired by the Gorila Case – the story about how few oligarchs have stolen our country from its citizens.

I am very interested in current issues that move our society and I believe it is our responsibility to reflect on things that are happening in our country. For me it represents a topic that inevitably needs to be treated. Therefore I truly hope that the Slovak Audiovisual Fund will grant us the development of this project.

Personal Quote: When I was younger, I used to write down quotes in a notebook. But reading them after some time with hindsight, I had to laugh at them a lot. So now I don´t have any prefabricated quote in my head, I simply try to live a happy, fulfilling and independent life surrounded by the loved ones.
Favourite Word: For the moment it´s family and kids.
A Film You Could Watch a Million Times: Actually, most of them J. The thing is, I don´t remember films very well. I can watch a film five times over and usually I don´t realize that I have seen it before until the final credits. There are only few exceptions that I know by heart.
Much-Loved Meal: Everything that makes you fat – most of all traditional Slovak dishes like pierogi, dumplings with bryndza cheese, and other dishes made of flour and potatoes.

The Line by Peter Bebjak: Official Selection - Competition @KVIFF

published:
updated: 29.06.2017