de fac-to

Alexandra Wachter, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair / Russia, Austria / 2018 / International Premiere / 32 min.

synopsis

How do we deal with our history? Is it possible that history becomes rather a tool made to justify our current interests and views? Such questions are posed in the observation documentary called de fac-to. The filmmakers visited several public events commemorating World War II in the Ukrainian town of Lviv. Moving recitations of poems are followed by anti-alcoholism propagandist bashings, allegations claiming that decommunization process in Ukraine had been started by Hitler or comparing numbers of victims during the Nazi and Communist eras. This diverse, often absurd kaleidoscope is structured as a stream of footage of events in chronological order with no commentary.

„With our film we want to give an insight into specific situations and atmospheres, documenting the various protagonists as they find a relationship to the present through rituals celebrating the past.“ E. Shapiro-Obermair

biography

De fac-to is a collaboration between the artist Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair and the historian Alexandra Wachter (1972), an expert on modern history of Eastern European countries. Shapiro-Obermair was born in Russia, but currently lives in Vienna. In her film Narrated (2015), she shows a guided tour through the house where Vladimir Lenin spent the last years of his life, while her film With you, it will be all right (2017) features interviews with students of a Jewish secondary school.

more about film

director:	Alexandra Wachter, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair
producer:	Alexandra Wachter, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair
photography:	Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Alexandra Wachter
editing:	Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair
sound:	Masha Dabelka