8.8 /10 1 Votes
100% Rotten Tomatoes Written by Hanna Polak Edited by Marcin Bastkowski Screenplay Hanna Polak Cast Hanna Polak, Yula | 7.7/10 IMDb Directed by Hanna Polak Cinematography Hanna Polak Director Hanna Polak Production company Danish Documentary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Produced by Sigrid Dyekjær (da)
Hanna Polak Music by Kristian Eidnes Andersen Initial release 22 May 2015 (New York City) Music director Kristian Eidnes Andersen, Keaton Henson Similar Movies about Russia, Documentaries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Something Better to Come is a Danish-Polish documentary film about children living on a garbage dump near Moscow directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak and produced by Sigrid Dyekjær of Danish Documentary – one of the world's key players in creative documentary film production. Something Better to Come won the Special Jury Award at the world's biggest documentary festival – IDFA, where the film had premiered.
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Content
One of Hanna Polak's first film – The Children of Leningradsky focuses on homeless children living in the Leningradsky railway station in Moscow. The movie was nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy Award in two categories and won number of other awards. This put the film in the spotlight and catalyzed change for the children featured in it, offering them hope for a better future. One impact of that film was to force local authorities to change policy regulations pertaining to the homeless, which helped hundreds of other kids. Hanna Polak uses her camera as a weapon in a global fight to help these children escape lives of poverty and misery. It was pitched at the 2012 MeetMarket as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest.
In 2000, in parallel with shooting The Children of Leningradsky, Hanna began working on Something Better to Come. This was the same year Vladimir Putin stepped into power in Russia and coincidentally, the story of Yula, the main character of the film, is parallel to the unfolding story of Putin's Russia.
Ten-year-old Yula has but one dream – to lead a normal life. For 14 years, Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows up in the forbidden territory of Svalka, the garbage dump located 13 miles from the Kremlin in Putin's Russia. Something Better to Come is Yula's story – a dramatic tale of coming of age and maturing to the point of taking destiny into one's own hands. It is a story of hope, courage, and life, all shot in gripping vérité style that stuns with its directness and immediacy.
Reception
The film has received wide positive acclaim from critics. Mark Adams from Screen Daily stated that Something Better to Come is "strikingly visceral and plaintively moving documentary that is arresting right from its first powerful moments" and added that "This is a film that packs an emotional punch and is strikingly directed and shot by the talented Hanna Polak." Aleksandr Gorbachev from Newsweek called the film "a great coming-of-age story – Boyhood from a trash can." Sheri Linden from Los Angeles Times described the film as "work of powerful images – heart-rending, elegiac, charged with hope." Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing, stated that his "most powerful experience of nonfiction cinema this year was [...] Something Better to Come." While Neil Young from The Hollywood Reporter reviewed it as "an eye-opening documentary."
Awards
