SAFE PLACE

Director's Statement

The film is based on the events that affected me and my family. While writing the screenplay, I thought I would never bring it to life. I wrote it for myself, so to speak. It felt too intimate to share. In the end, I didn’t hide the screenplay, the film was made, and to make my initial reluctance even more absurd, I even took on a role in it- my first time acting.
While the film undoubtedly explores the themes of mental disorder and suicide, its creation was not driven by silence and shame often surrounding these issues. I think I was strangely fascinated by the fact that such a horror, which happened to us, is even possible, and I wanted to capture it. It serves as a reminder of my own naivety, an expression of a childish revenge against those who perhaps could have helped us, and a final adventure shared with my brother. I talk to him in the film, despite him being dead – perhaps this is why I needed an audience, to bear witness to this miracle.
One viewer described it as a film about a man who tries to overtake death. We haven’t come up with a better logline yet.