In Focus: Triptych

The IWM Short Film Festival showcases films responding to past and contemporary conflict across 5 days of screenings, featuring animations, dramas and documentaries

Discover more about some of the films shortlisted for the 2018 festival in our interviews with the filmmakers behind them.

In Triptych, filmmaker Katia Lom combines live action, poetry and animation to bring to life the recollections of her mother who fled Czechoslovakia as a child due to the anti-Semitic Slansky trials of 1952.

Here she discusses the inspiration behind her film and the importance of surfacing the personal experience.

Still from Triptych, a film by Katia Lom showing a silhouette of two birds in flight on a pale blue background featuring stars.

"Working in archives and care homes before going to film school I became inspired by the significance objects hold in bearing witness to the past and connecting future generations to that history.

I wanted to create a film that was structured and experienced more like a poem rather than a straight forward narrative. I wanted to create moments that were experienced through different points of view, and I wanted to express these by how different emotional perspectives could be expressed through different visual perspectives.

It was important for me for my film to be viewed within the historical context the impact of war has on people's lives. The opportunity of having my film screened in a museum like IWM meant my story could be heard within a specific context. We learn of war through the history books, and although the main events are explained, the personal experiences often do not have a voice. IWM Short Film Festival was an opportunity for my voice to be heard along with other voices who also experienced trauma, and generational trauma, as a result of armed conflict. This has been very important for me."

Visit our film festival page for screening times and the full festival programme.

In Focus...

Salute - a still from Burma's Forgotten Army, a film by Luke Radcliff

Second World War

In Focus: Burma’s Forgotten Army

Luke Radcliff’s documentary Burma’s Forgotten Army uses archive material and interviews with Burmese soldiers to shed light on the little known but significant contribution of Burmese hill tribes of the Second World War. Here he discusses the challenges of making his film and the incredibly diverse stories he discovered during the process.

Two veterans sit beside each other in a still from Alex Lazarowich's film Cree Code Talker

Second World War

In Focus: Cree Code Talker

Alex Lazarowich’s documentary Cree Code Talker focuses on Charles ‘Checker’ Thomkins, a First Nation Canadian Cree group member and reveals how Canadian Cree Native languages were used as a code for exchange vital military information during the Second World War.

Man stands in a still from Emanuele Bonomi's film Croste di Polenta

First World War

In Focus: Croste di Polenta

Croste di Polenta, a film by Emanuele Bonomi, tells the story of Matteo. In 1915, he is called to enlist in the Austro-Hungarian army but not wanting to fight, he takes shelter in the alpine forest near his home with his best friend, Geremia. Their solace is short-lived as the conflict draws nearer and the young men must come to terms with their situation

Holocaust

In Focus: Shemira

In Shemira by filmmaker Adam Wells. Audiences are allowed an intimate look at the life of Myer as he spends the night saying goodbye to his beloved wife, Leah. Myer recalls moments they shared from the unexpected, to the seemingly insignificant, to the devastating events of the Holocaust.

Still from The Butcher of Bosnia, a film by Maria Polachowska

Cold War

In Focus: The Butcher of Bosnia

The Butcher of Bosnia is a challenging documentary which offers an insight into the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and one of its most high profile cases, the trial of Ratko Mladić.