PHOENIX KATJA

PHOENIX KATJA the film

12 min. 2024 color and b&w language: Russian, w/English st format: 16:9, HD location: Narva, Estonia music: Lucy Railton camera and montage: Eléonore de Montesquiou “I am a phoenix bird. It's hard for me take off and fall.” writes Katja. She is a kindergarten teacher in Narva, a border town between Estonia and Russia. She was born in 1992, with the new Estonian Republic, in a Russian speaking family and environment. Katja considers that her generation was an experiment for the new republic. Today she is trapped between languages that reflect opposite positions about war and peace and freedom. I have been filming Katja since 2016. We made a first film together “Eksperiment Katja”. Today we wanted to continue and focus on languages. When I was in Tallinn and Narva at the end of March 2022, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, I could see that Katja did not want to express her opinion. Katja lives in Narva, Russian speaking town in Estonia. In Narva people are split today, divided between those listening to voices of Russia or voices of Europe. Katja identifies with a phoenix, a phoenix that is coming back to life like the coexistence of Russian and Estonian speakers in her country.

EKSPERIMENT KATJA

EKSPERIMENT KATJA trailer

Première: 24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival Screening: June 2021: Shortshotfestival June-October 2021: Life in Decline, Kohtla Nômme Mining Museum, Estonia, cur Francisco Martinez September 2021: Moscow Film Festival MosfilmFest view the film in long version (password: narva): 17 min. view the film in its short version (password: narva): 9 min. 26 b&w music: Lucy Railton with: Ekaterina Grafova language: Russian with English subtitles location: Narva, Estonia ------- short synopsis: Katja was born in 1992, an experiment generation for the new Republic of Estonia. She is floating, neither attached to Estonia, nor to Russia. Like Little Red Riding hood, she has freed herself from experiments and fears imposed on her. The film suggests several metaphors to describe the trauma of the displaced - from Little Red Riding Hood to the keyword of experiment. Première: 24th Jihlava film festival, in competition -short joy section- Short shot, Moscow film festival Dumbo film festival, New York: semi finalist Marché du film court, France Articles plus anciens

OLGA & OLGA

OLGA & OLGA trailer link to film password: narva 30 min b&w language: Russian, English st format: 16:9, HD 2017

DIRECTOR Eléonore de Montesquiou MUSIC Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes WITH Olga Afanasyeva AND Olga Tüvi TRANSLATION Sergei Pogoreltsev REVIEWING Jenny Zinovieff SOUND MIX Jochen Jezussek MUSIC MASTERING Tammo Sumera LOCATION Ivangorod and the river Narva, Russian-Estonian border THE FILM IS DEDICATED to Olga Félicie Noëlle PRODUCED WITH THE SUPPORT OF Berlin Senat Film Funding and Eesti Kultuurkapital -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Women struggling through life and their political environment. How Olga and Olga manage their relationship with men? What does feminism mean for them is the recurrent question that I have been asking Olga and Olga for almost ten years. Both Olgas live on the Estonian-Russian border. Olga Afanasyeva was born in Tver, she studied in Moscow before being displaced to a factory in Ivangorod in the 70s. Olga Tüvi was born in Narva, now Estonia, and worked as a metallurgist in a factory in Ivangorod. She has an Estonian passport and family but speaks only Russian. In the nineties, Perestroika times, they both lost their jobs, since factories were remodeled or closed down all over the ex-Soviet Union. Today, Olga Afanasyeva sells socks and pants in Ivangorod market, Olga Tüvi is responsible for the maintenance of lifts in panel housings in Ivangorod. The pensions that they receive in Russia allows them to live with one Euro a day, to make ends meet, they both smuggle things daily across the Estonian border. The men have disappeared from their lives.

HORSES, PEOPLE, TIME

HORSES, PEOPLE, TIME кони, люди, время view the film 16 min 12 2014 b&w sound: Triplex with Olga Tüvi and Eduard Habik

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Olga and Eduard are on a roof of a collective housing, in Ivangorod, on the Russian side of the Estonian-Russian border, overlooking the Estonian city of Narva. They are waiting for the sun to rise. During that night, they speak about borders, death, love, emigration, horses, people, time as Eduard refers to Lermontov’s poem. excerpt: Olga: The seagulls are waking up…can you hear them? It’s really hard to believe that these are now two different cities with a border. Eduard:.The day is breaking. There is Mother Russia with its forests and fallen trees. Over there you can see something more civilized, and on this side it’s totally different. Olga: You know what? There is a forest over there now, where you can’t get lost anymore. Eduard: Have they cut the trees? Olga: Yes, they have cut in squares – it's just horrible. What kind of forest is it if you can’t get lost in it? They have built country roads, there’s nothing wrong with that, the forest has been preserved, but it's forbidden to get lost. It’s too tight for me now. In our Russian forests, it's different you walk in and you never know where you’ll end up. That’s what I call life. If you know where you’re going to come out, it is not interesting at all.

GAZETTE

GAZETTE

the film


4 min 12
2009
Russian with Engl. Text
B&w
With Dora Grafova

- Dora Grafova, a woman in her eighties, talks about the various magazines that she used to subscribe to during Soviet times. She received seventeen different monthly magazines for herself, her husband and her son: about gardens, about the world, about techniques, about women and about growing potatoes. She has kept them all in her apartment in Narva.

VABRIK -film in progress

VABRIK - a factory-


the film


length : 30 minutes
2010
b&w
Narva (Estonia)

images:
Tallinn film archive
Narva Museum archive
and Eléonore de Montesquiou
music and sound:
Marcel Türkowsky and Eléonore de Montesquiou
original language: Russian
with: Dora Grafova and Ekaterina Moskalenko,
w/ English or Estonian subtitles

KREENHOLM

film 1: KREENHOLM, 25 min.
film 2: KREENHOM, 15 min.
film 3: Oleg Klushin, 30 min.


images:
Narva archive images
and Eléonore de Montesquiou
music and sound:
Marcel Türkowsky

original language: Russian
with: Dora Grafova, Ekaterina Moskalenko, Oleg Klushin
w/ English or Estonian subtitles

in Kreenholm, textile factory in Narva (Estonia)


images: Narva Museum archives

The three films about Kreenholm deal with the story of the manufacture, some archive images, the last shots that I could make in the weaving units, recent images in the printing units and a long interview with Oleg Klushin who was director of Kreenholm in the early 1980s.

The textile factory - or at least parts of it: the spinning and weaving unit- in Narva will be closed soon, and most workers are fired. Delocalisation, restructuration, the well-know scheme due to globalization induces an economical disaster for the region and more specifically the cities of Narva and Ivangorod.

Kreenholm Textile Manufacture was
established in 1857 by Baron Knoop
on the Narva river, which marks today
the boundary between Russia and Europe.


The factory is a unique example of
19th century industrial architecture
with water-powered complexes to
either side of a waterfall.

The manufacture handled the entire
chain from processing raw materials
to design and product development
and on to the finished product.

When Estonia regained independence in
1991, the factory was privatised.
In 1994, the Swedish company Borås
Wäfveri became the main shareholder.

In 2008, Kreenholm shut down its
spinning and weaving units. It faced
bankruptcy, and there was growing
unemployment throughout the whole Narva region.

Matti Haarajoki, a Finnish businessman
known for closing factories, led the firm
until Igor Poleschuk was appointed as
chief executive officer of Kreenholm
in December 2008.

Poleschuk had been working in Kreenholm
and knew the factory, the workers and
the market well enough to raise high expectations.

Although it was alleged that many of the
purchasing and sales contracts were dubious,
Igor Poleschuk stated that Kreenholm
was perfectly able to turn a profit.

In April 2009, the Swedish owners dismissed
Igor Poleschuk. He was replaced by Kenneth Udd
from Sweden and Tônu Luman from Estonia.

In summer 2009, the workers are just a few hundred
in bleaching, colouring, printing and sewing units,
producing home textiles.
and importing textiles from Pakistan, India and Turkey.

Relying on its flexibility compared to Asan firms, Kreenholm
plans to continue with home textiles clients

The slow decline of Kreenholm
reflects a sharp turn in philosophy in
textile production and in leadership,
from technocracy to brandmaking.

There are two major reasons for the
way that Kreenholm has evolved, says
Oleg Klushin, Kreenholm's ex-director.
In Soviet times there was a closed
market and all Kreenholm production
was intended for the Soviet Union.

This enormous market was lost
immediately in the early 1990's
with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Then, after privatisation, the policy
was that Kreenholm should sell itself
as a brand, a devastating decision.

It turned out impossible to compete
with Asia for good markets
while remaining cost efficient.

The chosen path has proved ineffective
and operating at a loss Kreenholm will
hold out for a while, but not forever.