Director Magnus Gertten’s latest film is the beautifully poignant Nelly & Nadine, which uses 8mm home movies, old photos and long-lost diaries to piece together the decades-long relationship between an opera singer and a diplomat’s daughter, who fell in love while imprisoned at a WWII concentration camp. We posed our Qs à la mode to Magnus, and here’s what he shared!
If I had to describe my film using only five adjectives, they would be: “Revealing, loving, passionate, brave, female.”
The thing that surprised me most about my film’s subject(s)/topic was: “How the power of love could help us overcome the worst of circumstances.”
My favourite moment/scene/sequence in my film is: “Depends on my mood, but I’m always blown away by the powerful diary that Nelly wrote.”
The toughest part of the whole shoot was: “Creating a coherent story with fragments from the lives of two brave women. I wish we had more material from the moment when the two women were reunited after the war.”
My most invaluable piece of doc-making gear was/is: “My ears and my eyes.”
My go-to, get-me-through snack of choice for long shoots or epic editing sessions is: “As we were shooting at a farm in France, a glass of red wine and cheese.”
Another Hot Docs 2022 film I’m excited to see is: “Fire of Love. I love volcanoes.”
Want to see Magnus’s film or just learn more about it?
Get the scoop, and your tickets, here!
