Love Is Potatoes

A film by

the Netherlands | 90' | 10/2017 | documentary

One day, Dutch film maker van der Horst was given her inheritance: 6 square meters, one sixth of a small, wooden house in the Russian countryside where her mother grew up. It was as if life had handed her a card she felt forced to play.
She began a journey into the past, back into the childhood of her Russian mother and her five sisters, all of whom struggled with fear, famine and war in Stalin’s Russia; experiences that left them scarred to their very soul.
Aliona’s quest into the lives and fate of her family becomes a loving, poignant, and poetic film with Chekhovian characters. Accompanied by the magical animation of acclaimed Italian artist Simone Massi, unimaginable events in the Soviet past are given an immediate charge. Along with the stories of ordinary people living in the small farmhouse, the film maker tells the tale of Soviet terror, immense bravery and a fear that has never left those four walls.

Square Eyes - Leipzig_aardappelen award
Square Eyes - Leipzig_aardappelen award2
Square Eyes - Leipzig_aardappelen award
Square Eyes - Leipzig_aardappelen award2

Aliona van der Horst

Biography

Dutch director Aliona van der Horst has directed four international award-winning documentaries.  She was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1970 and studied Russian literature at the University of Amsterdam and film at the Dutch Film and Television Academy. She began her career in 1997 with the much-acclaimed The Lady with the White Hat and since then has received multiple awards for most of her films, among them the Special Jury Prize at the Tribeca film festival for Voices of Bam (2006), and the Grand Prix of the FIFA Montreal for The Hermitage Dwellers (2004). Recently she has received the Jan Kassies award by the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund, for outstanding achievement. For her latest documentary Boris Ryzhy (2008) she received the ‘Silver Wolf Award’ at the IDFA 2008, Best Documentary Award at Edinburgh Filmfestival 2009 , the Award of the Dutch Filmjournalists and the Special Jury Prize at the FIFA, Montréal.

Filmography

  • Love Is Potatoes – 2017 – feature length documentary
  • 15 Attempts – 2013
  • Don’t Shoot The Messenger – 2013
  • Water Children – 2011 – feature length documentary
  • Boris Ryzhy – 2008 – mid-length documentary
  • Voices Of Bam – 2006 – feature length documentary
  • A Passion For The Hermitage – series – 2006
  • After The Spring Of ’68 – 2000
  • The Lady With The White Hat – 1997
Square Eyes - Director - Aliona van der Horst - Square Eyes

Crew

Director: Aliona van der Horst
Screenplay: Aliona van der Horst
Producer: Zeppers Film: Frank van den Engel
Cinematographer: Aliona van der Horst, Maasja Ooms
Sound design: Marc Lizier
Sound recording: Tim van Peppen
Editor: Aliona van der Horst, Maasja Ooms, Ollie Huddleston
Executive producers: Julia van Schieveen
Commissioning editor: VPRO – David Kleijwegt, Barbara Truyen
Animations: Simone Massi
Sound Design – Animations: Stefano Sasso
Composer – Animations: Stefano Sasso

Festivals

  • DOK Leipzig – International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany (30 October – 5 November, 2017)
    International Competition Won: Interreligious Jury Award & Honorary Mention in the International Competition
  • Artdocfest – Russian Open Documentary Film Festival, Russia (6 – 17 December, 2018)
    Official Competition Won: Grand Prix
  • Ambulante Film Festival, Mexico (8 March – 17 May, 2018)
  • It’s All True International Documentary Film Festival, Brazil (12 – 22 April, 2018)
    International Competition
  • Crossing Europe, Austria (25 – 30 April, 2018)
    European Panorama Doc
  • fest International Documentary Film Festival München, Germany (2 – 13 May, 2018)
    DOK.panorama
  • Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Serbia (7 – 14 May, 2018)
    International Competition
  • EDOC – International Documentary Film Festival, Ecuador (9 – 20 May, 2018)
    Official Selection
  • Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, Poland (11 – 20 May, 2018)
    Official Selection
  • Biografilm Festival – International Celebration of Lives, Italy (8 – 18 June, 2018)
    Official Selection Won: Life Tales Award
  • DOCUMENTARIST Istanbul Documentary Days, Turkey (9 – 14 June, 2018)
    Official Selection
  • Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, Ireland (20 – 22 July, 2018)
    Official Selection
  • Nederlands Film Festival, Netherlands (27 September – 5 October, 2018)
    Gouden Kalf Competition & Forum van Regisseurs Won: Best Dutch Feature Documentary
  • Meetings in Siberia – International Festival of Documentary Films, Russia (5 – 12 September, 2018)
    Official Selection
  • Astra Film Festival, Romania (15 – 21 October, 2018)
    Central&Eastern Europe Competition
  • La Orquídea Film Festival, Ecuador (19 – 26 October, 2018)
    Out of comeptition: Gender Section
  • Panorama Internacional Coisa de Cinema, Brazil (14 – 21 November, 2018)
    International Competition Won: Best Feature Film
  • Beirut International Womens Film Festival, Lebanon (10 – 15 March, 2019)
    Official Selection Won: Best Documentary
  • Femcine9, Chile (19 – 24 March, 2019)
    International Feature Length Film Competition Won: Best Feature Length
  • Animavì – Animation Cinema And Poetic Art, Festival, Italy (21 – 22 June, 2019)
  • FIDBA – Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival, Argentina (2 – 11 September, 2019)
    Official Selection
  • History Film Festival, Croatia (10 – 14 September, 2019)
    Official Selection Won: Grand Prix

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