The Nordic & Baltic Oscar Contenders series at Scandinavia House continues this season with a screening of the Danish documentary A House Made of Splinters (dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont, Denmark, 2022), which has now been shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.
In this war-worn and impoverished corner of Eastern Ukraine where addiction casts along shadow, there sits a safe haven for children temporarily removed from their parents. A House Made of Splinters follows three kids awaiting their fate: will they go back or move on to a new home, while as a group of dedicated social-workers create small moments of joy and respite from childhoods all but lost.
Filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont returns with a follow-up to his acclaimed first feature, The Distant Barking of Dogs, offering a unique look into how the long-term consequences of war on a society already under strain impacts the most vulnerable. His is a poignant and deeply intimate portrait of a remarkable way station filled with care, support, and trust for a group of kids who are in desperate need of more.
This screening will take place in-person at Scandinavia House in Victor Borge Hall.
About the Director
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Simon Lereng Wilmont graduated as a Documentary Film Director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2009. His first feature documentary film The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), premiered at IDFA and was awarded Best First Appearance. It has since then won 35+ awards worldwide, among these the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at San Francisco’s SFFILM Festival, it was nominated for a European Film Award (EFA 2018), an Emmy (2020), and shortlisted for an Oscar (2019).
The film also won a Peabody Award (2020). As a director, his films also include Dormitory Master (2009), Above Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008), Chikara-The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2013) and The Fencing Champion (2014).