On Feb. 8, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) hosted the International Directors Panel, bringing in five directors from different countries. Executive director of SBIFF, Roger Durling, interviewed each director, as well as showing short clips from each individual film. The panel included Kleber Mendonça Filho with his film “The Secret Agent”, Jafar Panahi with “It Was Just An Accident”, Joachim Trier with “Sentimental Value”, Oliver Laxe with “Sirât”, and Kaouther Ben Hania with “The Voice Of Hind Rajab”.
Durling introduced each film for the audience with a summary, before showing a short snippet of the piece. Following, he asked specialized questions to each director about their respective film. Questions included technical ones, such as casting decisions, the meaning behind certain sounds in the films, and the reason behind using specific lenses and lighting.
Long conversations about wanting to bring out a certain feeling in the viewer also took place. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania explained how she wanted to portray the feeling of helplessness people have about the Gaza war in her film. She did this by using the real recording of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was tragically killed in the midst of the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza. “I knew that this recording would be the backbone of the movie… So the main idea was to do the most respectful, but at the time impactful movie, and the idea to stay with those who listened.” The viewer, along with the characters in the film, cannot save her, no matter what they do. “We hear what is happening in Gaza, but we feel helpless, so I needed to explore this feeling of helplessness, although they did everything in their power to save this little girl, they paid a very heavy price.” Hania said.
Isolating a moving quote from Panahi on “It Was Just An Accident”, “I don’t make political films, I make socially engaged films,” Durling built in a round-robin questionnaire to all of the panelists. Filho joked that “I never woke up and said I’m going to start writing my new political film.” Other directors agreed and explained that politics naturally become a theme in most movies where humans are at the center of it.
Durling wrapped up the panel, stating this year’s International Directors’ Panel was one of his personal favorites, and one of the most prestigious in SBIFF history.
