Landscapes of Resistance

Sonja was one of the first female partisans in Serbia and helped lead the resistance in Auschwitz. When we initially encounter her in Landscapes of Resistance, she is a friendly elderly lady with a playful cat on her lap. This is the start of an exceptional journey through her memories of revolutionary books from her student days, her wedding to a communist, the resistance against the German occupiers and her torture after capture as a communist and anti-fascist fighter, right the way through to her escape from the concentration camp.

Archival material is conspicuously absent. Sonja also makes scant appearances. While we hear her voice-over, the camera travels to spots the stories could have taken place. A landscape is given Sonja’s voice: grass and trees, a crack in the wall, slates off an old farm shed, a pool of water, deer grazing in the distance, even the chimney that is still standing. Sometimes images are augmented by drawings and journal-like entries from Sonja’s granddaughter, who also wrote this film’s script.

In this way, Sonja’s memories gently merge with the filming process, which took a decade and began to incorporate the authors’ concern about the rise of a new fascism in contemporary Europe. It is an unorthodox documentary: personal and political, sober and lyrical, crystal clear and intimate. Opening and concluding in song.