Liefde is Aardappelen

Love Is Potatoes

One day, Dutch film maker van der Horst was given her inheritance: 6 square meters, one sixth of a wooden house in the Russian countryside where her mother grew up. She began a journey back into the childhood of her Russian mother and her five sisters, all of whom struggled with fear, famine and war in Stalin's Russia. Aliona's quest into the fate of her family becomes a poignant and poetic film. Accompanied by the magical animation of Simone Massi, unimaginable events in the Soviet past are given an immediate charge. The filmmaker tells the tale of Soviet terror, immense bravery and a fear that has never left those four walls. // One day, Dutch film maker van der Horst was given her inheritance: 6 square meters, one sixth of a small, wooden house in the Russian countryside where her mother grew up. (...) She began a journey into the past, back into the childhood of her Russian mother and her five sisters, all of whom struggled with fear, famine and war in Stalin’s Russia; experiences that left them scarred to their very soul. Aliona’s quest into the lives and fate of her family becomes a loving, poignant, and poetic film with Chekhovian characters. (...) Along with the stories of ordinary people living in the small farmhouse, the film maker tells the tale of Soviet terror, immense bravery and a fear that has never left those four walls. (Square Eyes)

Director's Biography
Aliona van der Horst
Dutch director Aliona van der Horst has directed four international award-winning documentaries. She was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1970 and studied Russian literature at the University of Amsterdam and film at the Dutch Film and Television Academy. She began her career in 1997 with the much-acclaimed “The Lady with the White Hat”. Since then she has received multiple awards for most of her films.

Film Selection: Liefde is Aardappelen (Love Is Potatoes, 2017) — 15 Attempts (2013) — Don’t Shoot The Messenger (2013) — Water Children (2011) — Boris Ryzhy (2008, CE’10) — Voices Of Bam (2006) — A Passion For The Hermitage (series, 2006) — Na de lente van ’68 (After The Spring Of ’68, 2001) — De dame met het witte hoedje (The Lady With The White Hat, 1997)   
European Panorama Documentary 2018
Aliona van der Horst
Netherlands 2017
color
90 minutes
Russian / Dutch
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay Aliona van der Horst
Cinematography Aliona van der Horst, Maasja Ooms
Editing Aliona van der Horst, Maasja Ooms, Oliver Huddleston
Sound/Sounddesign Tim van Peppen
Music Stefano Sasso
With Zoya Zotova, Elizaveta Rusinova, Tatiana Ionova, Aleksander Rusinov
Producer(s) Frank van den Engel
Production
Zeppers Film
Austrian Premiere
Weltpremiere / World Premiere
International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film 2017

Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere