Afterwar

Synopsis

AFTERWAR is filmed over 15 years. Director Birgitte Stærmose originally met the cast in 2008 when they were children selling cigarettes and peanuts on the streets of postwar Pristina and returned again in 2018 and to film another 5 years with them as adults. The film builds on the lived experience of the cast and is based on extensive interviews and a co-creation process with them. They tell their collective story through monologues spoken directly to the camera as well as staged, scripted scenes, sometimes together with professional actors and sometimes with amateurs. This is not a documentary; nor a true fiction film, but a performative testament to the war that lives on in people, when the fighting is over.

Director Biography

Danish film director Birgitte Stærmose is educated in the US, where she resided for 14 years. Her early award-winning shorts all screened at prestigious festivals (Sundance, New Directors/New Films, Berlin, Rotterdam) and earned her twice the EFA Best Short Film nomination, as well as awards at Berlin, Rotterdam, Melbourne IFF, Stockholm IFF, Dokufest and Danish Academy Award for Best Documentary for Out of Love.