The London International Documentary Festival organised by Culture Institutes and Embassies of European countries in London this year has prepared a programme focusing on memory. This subject is related to the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall because an intensive memory work is taking place in Western and especially Eastern and Central Europe in order to understand our recent past in the radically changed present. The six-day festival will take place from November 15 to 21 at the Ciné lumière as well as the Hungarian Culture and Italian Culture Institutes. The documentary and animated film Grandpa and Grandma by Giedrė Beinoriūtė is among films included in the festival’s programme; it will be screened on November 17 at 8:30 p.m. at Ciné lumière, together with films from and .

 

This documentary-animated film is based on the director’s grandparents’ life story: they have survived a deportation to Siberia . Many of the most important events from her grandparents’ lives have been recorded in photographs, which have become the visual basis of the documentary film. Documentary footage and animation created especially for the film are shown next to the photographs.

 

“When I was little, my grandmother used to tell a lot about her life. There used to be horrible and funny episodes in her stories. My mother has also told most wonderful things about Siberia , such as a comet flying above their barrack one night… I have brought these tales from my childhood. Now that I have grown up, I can share them with others.” (director Giedrė Beinoriūtė)