Dutch documentarians Peter Lataster and Petra Lataster-Czisch are veterans on their home turf of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam — where they won Best Dutch Film in 2014 and 2022 — but this year brought a career highlight for the renowned duo: introducing their latest doc “All Is Well” at the beautiful Tuschinski cinema alongside 70 Ukrainian refugees, including the subjects of their film.
“All Is Well,” which had its world premiere at IDFA in the Signed strand, begins with the opening of a new shelter for Ukrainian refugees on the outskirts of Amsterdam. There, the duo finds three babushkas, older Ukrainian matriarchs displaced by the war, and whose lives are marked by a complicated dichotomy between the need to survive and rebuild and the overwhelming grief of forced displacement.
Speaking about the initial inspiration for the documentary, Peter mentioned the “right-wing narrative” that the Netherlands “can’t take care of refugees and must send them home.” “There is also a sentiment that people are ‘getting tired of the war in Ukraine,’ which is completely crazy. The people who are tired of the war are the people in Ukraine. So we wanted to show what the daily life of a refugee in this country looked like – the ups and downs of being a displaced person.”
“We have chosen elderly women, three babushkas, because they have a very high status in Ukrainian society,” adds Petra of their subjects. “They take care of the grandchildren and the household. We wondered how they felt after being separated from their families and losing their function in society.”
The Latasters learned about the opening of the shelter three months before the inauguration, working rapidly with the local authorities to obtain all permits needed to shoot at the location, where they filmed for nine months. “All Is Well” is not the first time the documentarians have chronicled the reality of refugees in their home country, with 2016’s “Miss Kiet’s Children” exploring the day-to-day life of Syrian and Iraqi children in a school in the Dutch village of Hapert.
“It helped a great deal that Petra speaks a little Russian,” recalls Peter when commenting on the language barrier. “We had translators with us at all times, but Petra was able to have little conversations, which helped us get some form of mutual understanding and trust. The women were so open, unselfish and funny.”
“When we filmed with Syrian refugee children, we often also knew what they were talking about even without speaking the language,” added Petra. “If you watch people very carefully, you can read a lot.”
Despite the film’s many moments of lightness, the awful reality of the women looms ever-present throughout. This is particularly true of Zoia, whose 30-year-old son died in the war. Her grief is externalised in heartbreaking sobs that cut through the silence of the shelter as night falls, the immensity of her loss almost impossible to comprehend. The Latasters end the film with Zoia returning home to see her son’s grave, a process that took negotiating.
“Ukrainian women who have lost a beloved person have to go back to see the grave and their need is so big that they could die,” says Petra. “When we asked if we could go with Zoia, she said she was going to go crazy with grief and that we would not like to see her reaction.”
The Dutch duo spent four days in Ukraine, which helped them better understand the impact of the war. “You understand the psychology of needing to be home and the impossibility of it because home will never be the same again,” remarks Peter. “Once you’re in the house with Zoia, you feel the complete impact of what it means to leave everything dear to you and to long for it to be there again. This house is a mirror, it shows what has been lost.”
Also peppered throughout “All Is Well” are snippets of inflammatory speeches by the Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose policies are largely exclusionary of refugees and immigrants. “Everything wrong in our societies is being blamed upon immigrants and refugees,” says Peter. “This is the main narrative of this right-wing government at the moment, which of course we don’t share.”
“We started the film before the 2023 election but one of the reasons to make the film was this growing sentiment against refugees and immigrants,” he continues. “I’m so deeply ashamed when friends visit the country and ask how this could happen. Right-wing figures are interested in making problems bigger instead of solving them. Look at what happened in the U.S.”
Still, the filmmakers remain hopeful, largely thanks to the overwhelming warmth and generosity of their subjects. The two mention how “special” it was to have the world premiere of “All Is Well” at Amsterdam’s Tuschinski theater, with Peter highlighting the resonance of hosting the event in a building constructed by “a Jewish immigrant killed in World War II.”
“We love the idea that we could bring these Ukrainian ladies to this wonderful cinema because they don’t go to the cinema here since they can’t understand the language,” he adds. “This was the one thing we really wanted to do and it was lovely. We had a packed house and they got their applause and hugs.”
Petra recalls calling them on stage at the end of the screening and seeing how “excited” the women and their peers were. “This is exciting for us too because the only thing you can do against hate is to love, to bring love to others. I don’t know any other answer.”
