Paysages résistants

Sonja was one of the first female partisan in Serbia and helped lead the resistance in Auschwitz. When we initially encounter her in Landscapes of Resistance, she is a friendly elderly lady with a playful cat on her lap. This is the start of an exceptional journey through her memories of revolutionary books from her student days, her wedding to a communist, the resistance against the German occupiers and her torture after capture as a communist and anti-fascist fighter, right the way through to her escape from the concentration camp.
Archival material is conspicuously absent. Sonja also makes scant appearances. While we hear her voice-over, the camera travels to spots the stories could have taken place. A landscape is given Sonja’s voice: grass and trees, a crack in the wall, slates off an old farm shed, a pool of water, deer grazing in the distance, even the chimney that is still standing. Sometimes images are augmented by drawings and journal-like entries from Sonja’s granddaughter, who also wrote this film’s script.
In this way, Sonja’s memories gently merge with the filming process, which took a decade and began to incorporate the authors’ concern about the raise of new fascism in contemporary Europe. It is an unorthodox documentary: personal and political, sober and lyrical, crystal clear and intimate. Opening and concluding in song.