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FUTURE FRAMES 2021

German Golub • Réalisateur de My Dear Corpses

“Le cinéma n’est pas juste un art, c’est un acte d’empathie mu par les relations existant des deux côtés de l’écran”

par 

- Le court-métrage de German Golub a déjà gagné un Academy Award des étudiants en 2020, il est à présent sélectionné pour le programme Future Frames de l’EFP à Karlovy Vary

German Golub • Réalisateur de My Dear Corpses

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

Born into an Estonian/Russian family in Estonia, German Golub studied at the Tallinn-based Baltic Film, Media and Arts School where he directed several shorts and documentaries. One of these shorts, My Dear Corpses, ended up winning a Student Academy Award (Gold) in 2020.

My Dear Corpses is now set to screen as part of the European Film Promotion’s Future Frames at the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film follows Erki who – after being told he’s going to be evicted – knows he must find a job quickly. He soon finds one: a corpse transporter. As he helps the recently deceased get from the place of their demise to the morgue, he discovers his colleague has become desensitised to the death around them. 

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With a strain of gallows humour, Golub confronts society’s attitude to death with an eye for the absurd and strange. He talks to Cineuropa about the origins of the film and what it was like to win a Student Academy Award.

Cineuropa: Where did the idea of My Dear Corpses first come from?
German Golub: My team and I had to pitch a new project for a diploma film, and I had experience working as a corpse transporter. Using that experience, I wanted to raise the topic of the different stages in our life, and those moments when we lose someone or witness death. Rituals and traditions always accompany death, but the understanding about and the need for these traditions have declined since the world became more modern and commercialised. Death became more hidden, and we as filmmakers believe it needs to be addressed because if you don't know anything about death, you don't know anything about life. So using that concept, I wrote the script and managed to make the film.

Part of the film's success is due to Erki Laur and Ruuben-Joosua Palu. What attracted you to them to play the leads?
Ruuben-Joosua Palu is a great young actor, and I know that he had personal experience similar to that of the lead character. He instantly recognised himself in this character, and after that, there was no need to experiment. He was Erki. Erki Laur, on the other hand, is a very experienced actor, and he was attracted to the complexity of the character. He read the script, and we discussed some ideas behind the film. He masterfully adapted the nature of Ott, added nuance and gave realness to the character. His understanding of the character was as good as it can be.

What is your approach to filmmaking?
For me, film is not just art, it’s an act of empathy driven by relationships from both sides of the screen. The most important aspects are the character and the journey they have to take. When we achieve that goal, the viewer understands the character and cares enough to empathise with them. In short, it is important for me to capture the humanity of the character – regardless of who he or she is – and a situation that a viewer could identify with.

What was it like to win a Student Academy Award?
I am still living this experience thanks to different mentorship and educational programs. First of all, it was a shock that we won and got a lot of attention, but then I had to learn fast and had to understand how the international film industry works. For me, this was and is not just an award and attention, but it is a great way to learn and gain necessary experience.

What are you working on next?
I am developing a debut feature film called Our Erika. It’s the biographical story of the track cyclist Erika Salumäe, from her painful and tortured childhood to her first Olympic win in 1988. Erika is a highly focused and defiant fighter who wants to be the best bicycle racer in the world, driven by her subconscious need and desire to be loved. There are some other projects as well, but we are at the stage of screenplay preparation.

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