April 23, 2013 (XXVI:14) Marleen Gorris, WITHIN THE WHIRLWIND (2009, 90 min.)

Directed by Marleen Gorris Screenplay by Nancy Larson Based on the autobiography by Eugenia Ginzburg Produced by Christine Ruppert Original Music by Wlodzimierz Pawlik Cinematography by Arkadiusz Tomiak Emily Watson…Evgenia Ginzburg Pam Ferris…Genia's mother Ian Hart…Beylin Ben Miller…Krasny Ulrich Tukur…Dr. Anton Walter Benjamin Sadler…Pavel Monica Dolan…Pitkowskaya Agata Buzek…Lena Nick Dong-Sik…Confucius Pierre Shrady…Pitkowski MARLEEN GORRIS (December 9, 1948, Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands) has 12 directing credits: 2011 “Rembrandt en ik”, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2007 “The L Word”, 2003/I Carolina, 2000 The Luzhin Defence, 1997 Mrs Dalloway, 1995 Antonia's Line, 1993 “Verhalen van de straat”, 1990 The Last Island, 1984 Gebroken spiegels, 1983 “De geest van gras”, and 1982 A Question of Silence. NANCY LARSON has three screenplay credits: 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 1988 The Wizard of Loneliness, and 1978 Coach. CHRISTINE RUPPERT has produced 28 films, among them 2013 Paradise: Hope, 2012 Paradise: Faith, 2012 Paradise: Love, 2009 Happy Ever Afters, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2009 Kill Daddy Good Night, 2009 Mediator, 2006 The Last King of Scotland, 2004 “Zeit nach der Trauer”, 2001 100 Pro, 1999 My Best Fiend - Klaus Kinski, and 1996 “The Writing on the Wall.” WLODZIMIERZ PAWLIK (October 4, 1958, Kielce, Swietokrzyskie, Poland) did the scores for seven films: 2012 Inny swiat, 2010 Mystification, 2009 The Reverse, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2007 Time to Die, 2007 Nightwatching, and 1994 Wrony.

ARKADIUSZ TOMIAK (February 20, 1969, Koszalin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland) has been cinematographer on 29 films, among them 2013 Sep, 2012 Vocuus (short), 2012 Dziewczyna z szafy, 2012 Oblawa, 2011 Daas, 2011 Hanyut/Almayer's Folly, 2010 Cudowne lato, 2010 Mystification, 2010 Kolysanka, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2009 Zero, 2009 Case Unknown, 2008 Expecting Love, 2007 Jasne blekitne okna, 2006 Hyena, 2006 Statysci, 2006 Palimpsest, 2005 Your Name Is Justine, 2004 “Stacyjka”, 2003 Zróbmy sobie wnuka, 2003 Zurek, 2003 Symmetry, 2003 “Na Wspólnej”, 2002 Kariera Nikosia Dyzmy, 2001 Silence, 2001 “Siedem dalekich rejsów”, 2000 Keep Away from the Window, 2000 “Wielkie rzeczy: Siec”, and 1998 Przystan. EMILY WATSON…Evgenia Ginzburg (b. Emily Anita Watson, January 14, 1967, Islington, London, England) has 40 acting credits, some of which are 2013 Molly Moon: The Incredible Hypnotist (post-production), 2013/I Belle (post-production), 2013 “The Politician's Husband” (post-production), 2013 Little Boy (post-production), 2013 Some Girl(s), 2012 Anna Karenina, 2011 War Horse, 2011 “Appropriate Adult”, 2010 Oranges and Sunshine, 2010 Cemetery Junction, 2009 Within the Whirlwind,

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2009 Cold Souls, 2008 Synecdoche, New York, 2008 “The Memory Keeper's Daughter”, 2008 Fireflies in the Garden, 2007 The Water Horse, 2006 Miss Potter, 2006 Crusade in Jeans, 2005 Separate Lies, 2005 The Proposition, 2005 Corpse Bride, 2005 Wah-Wah, 2004 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, 2004 Boo, Zino & the Snurks, 2003 Blossoms & Blood (video short), 2002 Equilibrium, 2002 Red Dragon, 2002 Punch-Drunk Love, 2001 Gosford Park, 2000 The Luzhin Defence, 2000 Trixie, 1999 Angela's Ashes, 1999 Cradle Will Rock, 1998 Hilary and Jackie, 1997 The Boxer, 1997 Metroland, 1997 “The Mill on the Floss”, 1996 Breaking the Waves, and 1994 “A Summer Day's Dream.” PAM FERRIS…Genia's mother (May 11, 1948, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany) has 67 acting credits, some of which are 2012-2013 “Call the Midwife” (15 episodes), 2012/I The Raven, 2011 “Luther”, 2010 Jackboots on Whitehall, 2009 Nativity!, 2009 Malice in Wonderland, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2008 “Little Dorrit” (6 episodes), 2008 The Other Man, 2006 “Jane Eyre”, 2006 Children of Men, 2003-2006 “Rosemary & Thyme” (22 episodes), 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2002 “Paradise Heights” (6 episodes), 1997-2000 “Where the Heart Is” (37 episodes), 1994 “The Rector's Wife”, 1994 “Middlemarch”, 1991-1993 “The Darling Buds of May” (20 episodes), 1992 “Cluedo” (6 episodes), 1985 “Connie” (13 episodes), and 1984 “Meantime.” IAN HART…Beylin (October 8, 1964, Liverpool, Merseyside, England) has 82 acting credits, some of which are 2013 “Rogue”, 2013 “My Mad Fat Diary” (6 episodes), 2013 “Bates Motel”, 2011-2012 “Luck” (9 episodes), 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2009 “Father & Son”, 2007-2008 “Dirt” (20 episodes), 2005 Ripley Under Ground, 2005 Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, 2004 Finding Neverland, 2004 Every Seven Years (short), 2003 “Eroica”, 2003 Cheeky, 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1999 The End of the Affair, 1999 Wonderland, 1998 Enemy of the State, 1997 Robinson Crusoe, 1996 Michael Collins, 1995 Nothing Personal, 1995 Clockwork Mice, 1995 The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, 1995 Land and Freedom, 1994 Backbeat, and 1991 The Hours and Times. BEN MILLER… Krasny (b. Bennet Evan Miller, February 24, 1966, London, England) has 52 acting credits, among them 2013 “Molly Moon: The Incredible Hypnotist” (post-production), 2011-2013 “Death in Paradise” (16 episodes), 2011 The Engagement, 2007-2011 “Primeval” (36 episodes), 2007-2010 “The Armstrong and Miller Show” (19 episodes), 2010 4.3.2.1, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2008-2009 “Moving Wallpaper” (18 episodes), 2009 “Comic Relief 2009”, 2008 “Moving Wallpaper: The Mole”, 2004-2006 “The Worst Week of My Life” (17 episodes), 2006 “Popetown” (10 episodes), 2004 “Agatha Christie Marple: The Body in the Library”, 2003 The Actors, 2003 Johnny English, 2002 “Surrealissimo: The Scandalous Success of Salvador Dali”, 2001 Birthday Girl, 1997-2001 “Armstrong and Miller” (27 episodes), 1999 “Passion Killers”, 1999 “Hunting Venus”, 1993 “Paul Merton: The Series” (6 episodes), 1993 “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, and 1991 “Murder Most Horrid.” ULRICH TUKUR…Dr. Anton Walter (b. Ulrich Scheurlen, July 29, 1957, Viernheim, Hesse, Germany) had 90 acting credits, some

of which are 2013 Morocco (post-production), 2013 Houston, 2012 “Rommel”, 1996-2011 “Tatort” (6 episodes), 2011 When Pigs Have Wings, 2011 The Burma Conspiracy, 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2009 The White Ribbon, 2009 Kill Daddy Good Night, 2008 North Face, 2007 Hand of the Headless Man, 2006 The Lives of Others, 2005 “The Airlift”, 2004 “Operation Valkyrie”, 2004 “Die Dreigroschenoper”, 2002 Solaris, 2001 Taking Sides, 2000 Hunters in the Snow, 2000 Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, 1997 “Einmal Casanova sein”, 1997 “Ein Vater sieht rot”, 1996 Charms Zwischenfälle, 1995 “Der Mörder und sein Kind”, 1995 Tears of Stone, 1994 Rotwang muß weg!, 1993 “Maus und Katz”, 1993 “Wehner - Die unerzählte Geschichte”, 1993 “Das letzte U-Boot”, 1991 “Lulu”, 1984 Die Story, and 1982 The White Rose. BENJAMIN SADLER…Pavel (February 12, 1971, Toronto, Canada) has 70 acting credits, among them 2013 Himmelfahrt - Der Tote auf dem Eis, 1996-2012 “Tatort”, 2012 The Pursuit of Unhappiness, 2012 “Rommel”, 2012 The German Friend, 2012 Passion, 2011 If Not Us, Who?, 2010 “Paura d'amare” (6 episodes), 2009 Within the Whirlwind, 2009 “Impact”, 2007 “War and Peace”, 2007 “Caravaggio”, 2006 “Dresden”, 2003 “Imperium: Augustus”, 2003 “A Light in Dark Places”, 2003 Luther, 2002 “The Apocalypse”, 2000 “Secret of Tatooed Mummy”, 1999 “Mordkommission”, 1998 “The Sands of Time”, 1998 Rosenzweig's Freedom, 1996-1997 “Freundschaft mit Herz” (21 episodes), 1994 “Drei zum Verlieben”, and 1994 “Alle lieben Julia.” Yevgenia Ginzburg

Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (December 20, 1904 – May 25, 1977) (Russian: Евге́ния Соломо́новна Ги́нзбург) was a Russian author who served an 18-year sentence in the Gulag. Her given name is often Latinized to Eugenia.

Born in Moscow, her parents were Solomon Natanovich Ginzburg (a Jewish pharmacist) and Revekka Markovna Ginzburg. The family moved to Kazan in 1909.

In 1920, she began to study social sciences at Kazan State University, later switching to pedagogy. She worked as a rabfak (рабфак, рабочий факультет, workers' faculty) teacher. In April 1934, Ginzburg was officially confirmed as a docent (approximately equivalent to an associate professor in western universities), specializing in the history of the All-Union Communist Party. Shortly thereafter, on May 25, she was named head of the newly created department of the history of Leninism. However, by the fall of 1935, she was forced to quit the university.

She first married a doctor Dmitriy Fedorov, by whom she had a son, Alexei Fedorov, born in 1926. He died in 1941 during

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the siege of Leningrad. Around 1930, she married Pavel Aksyonov, the mayor (председатель горсовета) of Kazan and a member of the Central Executive Committee (ЦИК) of the USSR. Her son by this marriage, Vasily Aksyonov, born in 1932, became a well-known writer. After becoming a Communist Party member, Ginzburg continued her successful career as educator, journalist and administrator.

Following the assassination of Sergei Mironovich Kirov on December 1, 1934, Ginzburg, like many communists (see the Great Purge), was accused of participating in a "counter-revolutionary Trotskyist group," this one led by Professor N. N. El'vov and concentrated in the editorial board of the newspaper Krasnaya Tatariia (Red Tataria) where she was employed. After a long fight to keep her party card, she was expelled from the party, officially excluded on February 8, 1937. Then, on February 15, 1937, she was arrested, accused of engaging in counter-revolutionary activity in El'vov's group and concealing this activity. Because she was a party member throughout this alleged activity, she was also accused of "playing a double game." From the day of her arrest, and unlike most of those around her, she forcefully denied the NKVD's accusations and never accepted any role in the supposed "counter-revolutionary Trotskyist organization."As recorded in her initial interrogation, when asked whether she recognized her guilt, she responded "I do not acknowledge it. I have not engaged in any Trotskyist struggle with the party. I have not been a member of a counter-revolutionary Trotskyist organization." Her parents were also arrested but released two months later. Her husband was arrested in July, sentenced to 15 years of "corrective labor," and his property confiscated under Articles 58-7 and 11 of the RSFSR Penal Code.

On August 1, 1937, although Ginzburg still did not recognize her supposed guilt (despite the NKVD's repeated, ruthless interrogations), a closed meeting of the Military College of the Supreme Court of the USSR (in Moscow) sentenced her to 10 years imprisonment with deprivation of political rights for five years and confiscation of all her personal property. The judgement was declared to be final with no possibility of appeal. Ginzburg later wrote, in a letter to the chairman of the Presidium of the USSR's Supreme Soviet, that her entire "trial" took seven minutes, including the questioning and reading of the judgement: "My judges were in such a hurry that they did not answer any of my questions and declarations." Interestingly, in one of the most revealing chapters of her autobiography, Ginzburg expressed great relief upon hearing the verdict, because she had feared up to that very moment that she would be condemned to death: “To live! Without property, but what was that to me? Let them confiscate it – they were brigands anyway, confiscating was their business. They wouldn't get much good out of mine, a few books and clothes – why, we didn't even have a radio. My husband was a

loyal Communist of the old stamp, not the kind who had to have a Buick or a Mercedes... Ten years!... Do you [the judges], with your codfish faces, really think you can go on robbing and murdering for another ten years, that there aren't people in the Party who will stop you sooner or later? I knew there were – and in order to see that day, I must live. In prison, if needs be, but I must at all costs live!... I looked at the guards, whose hands were still clasped behind my back. Every nerve in my body was quivering with the joy of being alive. What nice faces the guards had! Peasant boys from Ryazan or Kursk, most likely. They couldn't help being warders – no doubt they were conscripts. And they had joined hands to save me from falling. But they needn't have – I wasn't

going to fall. I shook back my hair curled so carefully before facing the court, so as not to disgrace the memory of Charlotte Corday. Then I gave the guards a friendly smile. They looked at me in astonishment.”

Yevgenia experienced at first hand the infamous Lefortovo and Butyrka prisons in Moscow, and the Yaroslavl "Korovniki". She crossed the USSR on a prison train to Vladivostok and was put in the cargo hold of the steamer Jurma (Джурма) whose destination

was Magadan. There she worked at a camp hospital, but was soon sent to the harsh camps of the Kolyma valley, where she was assigned to so-called "common jobs" and quickly became an emaciated dokhodyaga ("goner"). A Crimean German doctor, Anton Walter, probably saved her life by recommending her for a nursing position; they eventually married. Anton had been deported because of his German heritage. In February 1949, Ginzburg was released from the Gulag system, but had to remain in Magadan for five years. She found a position at a kindergarten and began to write her memoirs in secret. However, in October 1949, she was arrested again and exiled to the Krasnoyarsk region, but (at her request) her destination was changed to Kolyma at the last minute. No reason was ever given for this second arrest and exile.

After Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 and following Ginzburg's repeated, vigorous appeals to various authorities to have her case reconsidered, she was released from the exile (on 25 June 1955) and allowed to return to Moscow. She was rehabilitated in 1955. She returned to Moscow, worked as a reporter and continued her work on her magnum opus, her memoir Journey into the Whirlwind (English title). She finished the book in 1967 but was unable to publish it in the USSR. The manuscript was then smuggled abroad and published in 1967 by Mondadori in Milan and Possev in Frankfurt am Main; it has since been translated into many languages. Eventually, her memoir was divided into two parts, whose Russian titles are "Krutoi marshrut I" and "Krutoi marshrut II" -- "Harsh Route" or "Steep Route." She died in Moscow, aged 72.

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Melissa Silverstein: Interview with Marleen Gorris and Nancy Larson – director and writer of Within the Whirlwind (February 4, 2010) Dutch director Marleen Gorris is one of the most feminist directors around. She has actually won an academy award for one of the most feminist films I have ever seen,Antonia’s Line, which won the best foreign language film Oscar in 1995. Her other films include A Question of Silence, Mrs. Dalloway and The Luzhin Defence.

Her new film tells the true story of Evgenia Ginzburg (Emily Watson) who was sentenced to 10 years hard labor in Siberia during Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union. Watson is her usual wonderful self in this intense story about a woman who believed she was a solid and stalwart party member, who wound up in a whirlwind of accusations with no power. But while the gulag is extraordinarily depressing, the film is a story of hope as Evgenia is able to find love with the camp’s doctor (played by Ulrich Tukur) under these most difficult circumstances. Women & Hollywood was able to ask some questions of director Marleen Gorris and writer Nancy Larson when their film was screened at the recent NY Jewish Film Festival. Women &Hollywood: Nancy, tell us how the story began. Nancy Larson: I had developed a film with another producer and the producer wanted to work with me again. And he asked me what book I would like to do. And I had read this book and I said this is the one I would like to do. W&H: So they hired you to write the script? NL: I came in more like a writer/producer in a way. I just wrote the script and the first person we thought of was Marleen. W&H: Marleen, what made you interested in the film? Marleen Gorris: I was very interested in the subject because there is so little done with that particular period. The Stalin Purges. Stalin in general. And I was also fascinated with Russia. Even now, a great part of the population worships Stalin. So obviously the Russians did not do anything with their history in that sense as for instance the Germans did. What I mean is that it came out into

the open and people started talking about it and historians went into the subject. None of all that happened in Russia. And then of course it was a personal story of a woman who had written very extensively with great memory about what she went through. Also, my admiration for this woman. Where does one get the power to survive something like this? And all these elements I thought were fascinating to make a film of. W&H: Did you first think of Emily? You had worked with her before. MG: I can’t remember when I thought of Emily. This film was very long in the making — the financing was difficult. First we had a French producer and then that went wrong. We ended up with a lovely German producer. And two countries, Poland and Belgium supplied some of the money. But it took forever. W&H: When did you write the script? NL: I don’t even remember. Must have been seven years ago. Of course, it was an ongoing process throughout the seven years. W&H: Do you feel that it was the subject matter that made it so difficult to finance? Is it that it was a woman’s story? Is it a story about a time period that people would happily say bye-bye to and not pay attention to again? MG: People say this is a bio-pic. No bio-pics. This is a political film. No political films. They always came up with some excuse. NL: There’s always a reason not to make a film. W&H: Do you have distribution here in the US? Are you looking for it? What are your thoughts for the next level for this film here in this country and elsewhere. Has it premiered elsewhere? MG: It has been shown elsewhere. NL: In fact it’s been a work in progress. Between festival to festival there have been adjustments. MG: One thing that didn’t really works in our favor is the world crisis. Last year was abysmal. Half of the American distributors went broke and out of business. In Europe it’s not much better. We are looking for an American distributor. It’s not exactly a barrel of laughs. It’s either the big blockbusters that people go to or comedies, especially in bad times. But I presume that’s part of the difficulty for a lot of independent films to find distributors. W&H: Most of your films have had a strong feminist themes. Has that been deliberate on your part? MG: I guess you could say so. I never really understood why it would be worth commenting on a film that a film has a woman as a person. It still seems to be very unusual. Given the fact that more than half of the people on this earth are women we should get this attention.

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NL: It’s funny you don’t say to a man I’ve noticed that you only make films about men. W&H: Do you feel that taking that position has helped your career? Hurt your career? Or is it just who you are? MG: Well, it is just who I am. It’s difficult of course to say if it’s hurt my career. In a sense I have had an Oscar for Antonia’s Line which is a very feminist point of view as well. So I certainly can’t complain of lack of attention. Of course, if I had made completely mainstream films or films lacking feminist perspective – then my career would certainly look different I imagine. W&H: I see from your bio you directed an episode of the L Word? Was that fun? Enjoyable? How did you like working here in the US? MG: I have worked in the US before. I did a film called Carolina with Shirley MacLaine and Julia Stiles which went straight to DVD because the Weinstein Company didn’t like it enough I think. And the others were British. And they asked me one time. And I thought yes, I liked working in the states. Actually, most of it was done in Vancover so I didn’t really work in the states. W&H: Can you talk a little about the Virginia Woolf movie and your experience with that? MG: That also took years. It was really a wonderful experience with Vanessa Redgrave who is a magnificent actress. I actually shot the first part with the older people first. Then we had a break in the film because the producer lost all his money. Then the American distributors of Antonia’s Line took over the film and gave me the money to finish it three weeks later. And then I did the younger generation. That was very fortunate because that almost never happens that you break a film in the middle and then someone else gives you money to finish it. It was hugely enjoyable making a film like that. W&H: What is it like to be a director where you’re from? What is it like to be a woman director from a country where you can have a body of work? MG: The main difference is that women filmmakers, or any filmmaker from a small country, is subsidized by the government. That is something that Denmark has, and we in Holland and Germany. In that sense it’s easier. I think we have in Holland quite a number of women filmmakers, even though there are still aren’t as many as men. But there is not such strict difference as apparently there are in America. I did try at one time to make a film here in the states because I was asked and that didn’t work out. And then of course you go onto other things. But it’s tough. Whatever you do – it’s tough. W&H: What is your advice for an upcoming and/or established screenwriter? And what is your advice for a director? NL: For me I have not had very good luck with the studios. I’ve had good luck in terms of getting many commissions but not in

terms of getting films made. And I think you have to find a way. Europeans are more interested in what I do so I tend to go there. They don’t pay as much but they tend to make your films. But my advice is really to absolutely persevere with what you’re truly interested in. Otherwise everything sounds alike. MG: That is definitely my advice as well. Persevere. Because what else can you do? Or choose a completely different profession all together. W&H: You come from a place where a woman’s vision is treated differently. Is that true? Marleen: I don’t know in general. I’m not so sure. My first films were met with a lot of opposition and also, fortunately, a lot of encouragement. But in many ways I find the states freer. And almost every woman works in the states. But that’s not the case with Holland, even though Holland quite an emancipated country.

James van Maanen, trustmovies.com: You'll probably remember Ms Gorris as the filmmaker whose movie Antonia's Line (for my money one of the great films of all time) won a deserved Oscar for 1996's Best Foreign Film. She also made the interesting, if not totally successful, Mrs. Dalloway; The Luzhin Defence and the film that put her on the map, A Question of Silence. Now, in Within the Whirlwind, Gorris is working at very close to her best, using her star, the very fine Emily Watson (who worked with the director previously on Luzhin) to excellent advantage. Watson has her finest role since her film debut in Breaking the Waves, and this new movie is even better than what she made for the jokey Mr.von Trier.

Within the Whirlwind is a relatively conventional biopic, but one done with immaculate intelligence, plenty of creativity and the kind of good taste that seems to know innately what and what not to stick up there on the screen. Written by Nancy Larson, from Ms Ginzburg's own memoir, the film tosses us, almost from the first, into the paranoid purges of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin and his apparatchiks (Ginzburg's chief adversary is played by Ian Hart). We quickly learn that Evgenia's husband is going to be of little help. Whether he is frightened for his own skin or that of their children, Evgenia is soon on her own. If you know history at all, you'll also know that few of the Russian intelligentsia of the time escaped these purges. Imprisonment was preferable to death, and Ginzburg manages the former -- in the Siberian gulag.

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For a film that deals mainly with a time of captivity in a place of wretched deprivation, Gorris and Larson contrive to show us a fair amount of small, kind -- sometimes quite surprising -- moments. From a bowl of raspberries handed by a peasant girl into the boxcar in which our prisoners are being shipped to a dinner in the home of Russian camp commandant and the many acts of kindness between the women prisoners -- one of whom steps in front of a guard's rifle to protect her friend -- these tiny fragments build slowly, helping the women to survive and the audience to thrive.

Gorris has always been intensely interested in women and how they fit into the world. And if her men range from craven (the father of Evgenia's children -- though what else could he do when so few of his ilk got out alive) to barbaric (the prison guards), they can occasionally (like the German prison doctor, beautifully played by Ulrich Tukur) be a source of joy and help.

As a writer and poet, Ginzburg is sustained through her imprisonment by the art of poetry. One of Gorris' achievements is to give this poetry its proper place, along with the politics of the time, the horror of prison life and the sustaining love Ginzburg finds from both her women co-prisoners and her doctor. That the filmmakers manage to honor all these with intelligence and feeling adds up to a quiet triumph.

At the audience Q&A following the screening, Ms Gorris and Ms Larson were asked some thoughtful questions which they answered with equal thought. One viewer wanted to know how the director had become interested in this subject. Gorris explained that her interest went back quite a long while. Financing for the film took a very long time to raise, but this gave the director and the writer the chance to keeping working on the script while learning more about Ginzburg's life. "You find out what you're really interested in, and then you pursue it," explained Larson. For her part, Gorris was particularly intersted in how political paranoia could lead to something as awful as what we see here, in the process discovering also how one could find some humanity present.

"This was a particularly difficult script to get right," the director explained. "So many people died in these labor camps,

and yet, extermination did not seem to have been the goal. So how to portray all this? It demands a different focus, without placing too much emphasis on politics, or horror, or romance or even poetry. So I hope the film did come out well, with the right balance," she told us. At which point, via applause, the audience assured her that it had.

How did she incorporate the poetry so well? "Poetry was so important to Evgenia, so it was equally important to us that we

use the correct amount -- and make it fit within the film."

How did she come to choose Emily Watson for the role? "I had worked with Emily on The Luzhin Defence and had loved her work ever since Breaking the Waves. Emily really wanted to be here with us today but could not come because she is making a film in Australia -- which is a long commute."

…Where was the film shot? In Russia, perhaps? "We shot the film in Poland and

Germany. We attempted to use Russia: I spent a fruitless weekend there, and our producer was arrested at the border for some very small reason and then had to pay an entire new air fare to get back home. I don't think the authorities would have been helpful, had we have even been able to reach them. But, of course, you never know."

Were the tensions between Evgenia and her husband also apparent in her memoir? "Not so much," Ms. Larson told us, " but they are there if you read between the lines."

The Anti-Semitism was not particularly underscored in the movie. "No, it was certainly present, but Evgenia does not speak much about that. I think she saw this as more directed against the intellectuals. In the camp itself, there was a strong differentiation between the criminal prisoners and the intellectuals, and the latter were at the bottom of the pile and were preyed upon terribly by the criminal element."

Was the "I have a body" poem by Osip Mandelstam referred to in her memoir? "No," explained the director, "but I felt it was so right and was necessary to have in the film."

Was the burying of the piece of candy also referred to in the memoir? "No, that was not there, either. We just imagined it!"

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