2 Dutch (Co-)Productions Selected for Sundance
Dutch documentary Three Minutes - a Lengthening and co-production Speak No Evil are selected for Sundance
Three Minutes - A Lengthening is written and directed by Bianca Stigter. The documentary world premiered in Venice Giornate degli Autori and also screened at Toronto, Telluride and IDFA. At Sundance Three Minutes - A Lengthening is part of the Spotlight programme, which is a tribute to the cinema that the Festival loves most and presents films that have played throughout the world.
Speak No Evil by Christian Tafdurp
Three Minutes - A Lengthening is produced by Family Affair Films in co-production with Lammas Park (United Kingdom) and has been made with the support of the Netherlands Film Fund, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and VPRO. International sales are handled by Autlook Filmsales and Super LTD. have acquired US rights.
Three Minutes - A Lengthening presents a home film shot in 1938 by David Kurtz of the Polish town Nasielsk and tries to postpone its ending. The film is a haunting essay about history and memory. As long as we are watching, history is not over yet. The three minutes of footage, mostly in colour, are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. The existing three minutes are examined moment by moment to unravel the stories hidden in the celluloid. Different voices enhance the images. Among them are writer Glenn Kurtz, grandson of David Kurtz, and Maurice Chandler, who appears in the footage as a young boy. The film is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and informed by the book Three Minutes in Poland by Glenn Kurtz.
Bianca Stigter comments: “The three minutes of film shot by David Kurtz in the Polish town of Nasielsk in 1938 were meant for his family and friends. In Three Minutes - A Lengthening these three minutes last more than one hour and can reach a new audience. I am delighted that Three Minutes has also been selected for Sundance now.”
The world premiere of director Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil takes place in the Midnight section of Sundance. The film is produced by Profile Pictures (Denmark) in co-production with Netherlands-based OAK Motion Pictures with the support of the Netherlands Production Incentive. Trust Nordisk are handling sales.
In Speak No Evil a Danish family on a vacation in Tuscany, instantly befriends a family from the Netherlands. Months later the Danish visit the Dutch in their wooden house. However, it does not take long before the joy of reunion is replaced with misunderstandings. Things gradually get out of hand, as the Dutch turn out to be something very else than what they have pretended to be. The small Danish family now find themselves trapped in a house, that they wish they had never entered.
Sundance Film Festival takes place between January 20th and 30th, 2022.