Fighting against Windwills
Written and directed by: Annette Mari Olsen & Katia Forbert Petersen
Director of Photography: Katia Forbert Petersen
Producers: Annette Mari Olsen & Katia Forbert Petersen
Duration: 34 minutes
Produced by: Sfinx Film in co-production with DRTV and The Danish Film Institute
Awarded Prix Europa
Fighting against Windwills is part of the documentary series You have to be Round to live in a Globe, which was awarded special commendation of Prix Europa about life in exile, migration, the subject of refugees and the culture clashes it entails.
After WW II most people thought that now persecution of the Jews and anti-Semitism had come to a stop. But after the Polish student rebellion in 1968 an anti-Semitic political hunt re-started. The film tells the story of a group of Polish Jews, who were thrown out of Poland during that period.
The painter Theodor Bok, the poet Janina Katz, Milla and Michael Wedrowski were among those who were lucky to get asylum in Denmark. When they left Poland, they lost their Polish citizenship and instead got a non-acknowledged international document, a kind of a passport, in which it was written that the owner of this document is no longer a Polish citizen. At that time Denmark welcomed about 3000 persons who where in such a situation. Twenty years later they draw up the balance sheet with respect to their new country and their native Poland. Where do they belong today? They are all artists and are well adjusted on the surface, but they all have wounds in their souls, which still make them yearn and never find peace. Teodor Bok does not submit to currents. He creates his own category. Fighting against Windmills is an allegory for the figure of Don Quixote – a desperate fight against something bigger than oneself.