What a ride! Our series of film nights about borders in Deventer (NL) has come to an end. We talked about borders, war, migration, identity and hope. Thanks to our guests Abed Al-Qadr Al-Attar, Karel Smouter, Lidija Zelovic, Romy van Baarsen and Reber Dosky.
During the Summer of 2025, we organised ‘Across the Border’, a series of film nights about borders in collaboration with film theatre Mimik and the IJsselbiënnale in Deventer (the Netherlands). We invited film makers, journalists and experts to talk about the work.
The series kicked off with Home Game, a film by Lidija Zelovic. This honest and confronting documentary about a family from former Yugoslavia moved the audience and provided lots of food for thought about how othering and polarisation works. The film maker was present herself to talk with De Facto’s Jorie Horsthuis about her life and work. Interesting take-out from the evening: go out more, keep in touch with people you don’t automatically agree with and meet others in public spaces.
The movie Half Moon, by Bahman Ghobadi was screened on the second evening of ‘Across the Border’. It was followed by an interview with Dutch Kurdish film maker Reber Dosky and explored the complex realities of the large Kurdish community and the fight for autonomy and self-determination. The audience was moved by his stories and the beautiful, traditional music from the film.
The third evening showcased Green Border, the deeply impressive movie by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, about the inhumane way in which migrants are treated on the border between Belarus and Poland. This topic was expanded and explored more by Jorie Horsthuis interviewing journalist Romy van Baarsen, who investigated pushbacks in Greece and Poland and wrote about the mechanisms of dehumanisation and the way Europe’s border policy gets normalised more and more.
We ended our series with Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk, a raw and intimate document of life in occupied Gaza, as seen through video calls between Iranian film maker Sepideh Farsi and the young Palestinian photo journalist Fatma Hassona. Just one day after the documentary was selected at the Cannes film festival, Hassona was killed by an air raid.
Jorie Horsthuis interviewed Dutch-Palestinian Abed al-Qadr al-Attar, who was stuck in Gaza on September 7th, 2023 and wasn’t able to go back to the Netherlands for fifteen months. Karel Smouter, editor in chief of Dutch newspaper Trouw, kept in touch with him and wrote about the war from the beginning onwards. How do you keep up journalism when the borders are closed and journalists are murdered? And how do you navigate the line between activism and journalism? The talks continued in the foyer of the theatre.
‘What can we do to stop this?’ was one of the questions from the audience, which is telling for all the themes in the movies. Obviously, nobody has a single, clear answer. But one thing became evident throughout these evenings: we should’t look away.
Many thanks to our sponsors: Stichting Wesselings van Breemen and Deventer Cultuur Club.