“An impressively idiosyncratic, far-reaching work…” (Variety) — see Danish filmmaker Lea Glob’s fascinating portrait of an artist as a young woman, Apolonia, Apolonia (Denmark/Poland, 20223)! Returning this November and December, the Nordic & Baltic Oscar Contenders series features films chosen for Oscar nominations at the 96th Annual Academy Awards. The director will be present for a talk about her film, which has been selected as a contender for Best Documentary Feature Film.
When Lea Glob first met (and filmed) Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented young painter was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community — the ultimate bohemian existence — later studying in her 20s at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe. Over the next 13 years, Glob continued to film the charismatic Apolonia, as a special bond developed between the two young women. In the resulting documentary, we see a young woman trying to find her place in the art world: one who is confident in her talent, but does not always find herself on an easy path. Apolonia soon learns that women painters have to make more sacrifices and overcome greater obstacles than their male counterparts do, a lesson that applies both herself and her longtime friend Oksana Shachko, one of the founders of the feminist action group Femen.
“It may seem like an ambitious prospect for a filmmaker to take ‘life’ and ‘art’ as her stated subject, but that is precisely the feat Lea Glob has pulled off with her tender new documentary… The viewer is getting to know Apolonia deeply – and what a pleasure” (Payton McCarty-Simas, Film Inquiry)
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Director, cinematographer Lea Glob (b. 1982) graduated from the documentary program at the National Film School of Denmark in 2011. She has worked in still and video photography since her early years. Glob’s graduation film Meeting My Father Kasper Top Hat (2011) was nominated for a national Robert award and received an award for most innovative documentary at the Chinese Sichuan TV festival. Glob and co-director Petra Costa won the Nordic Dox Award for Olmo and the Seagull at CPH:DOX in 2014, where Glob also received the Reel Talent Award. Glob is director, with Mette Carla Albrechtsen, of Venus (2016), a documentary about young female desire which was selected for the First Appearance Competition at the IDFA festival in Amsterdam.