Cinema for me is…

David in 10 frames

1. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
La Pointe-Courte (1955) by Agnès Varda. It’s pure poetry, and I love how Varda made films out of intuition and love for the world.

2. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Klondike (Ukrainian: Клондайк, 2022) by Maryna Er Gorbach
Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) by Jasmila Žbanić
Into My Name (Italian: Nel mio nome, 2022) by Nicolò Bassetti

3. What does Europe mean to you?
Home, future, Europe ≠ EU, potential, German and Ukrainian citizenship

4. What do you like the most about your country that makes it unique?
Barely anything feels more like home to me than eating fresh German bread. It’s when I stand
in line at the bakery on a Sunday morning that I feel the most German.

5. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
The Filmhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s a homey independent cinema showing the diversity of world cinema. I’m a regular at the £2 Tuesday screenings for student/young person members whenever I’m in Edinburgh!

6. What is your dream job in the film industry?
My dream is to work in a film company that aims for social and political change through film. I want to direct and support the making of films about, by and for people that do not feel represented in cinema.

7. Which film director would you like to be?
It would be easy to name Agnès Varda, but she’s a gemini and I’m a cancer. I’m more melodramatic, more like Pedro Almodóvar. But really, I’d like to be my own film director (and be a bit like Céline Sciamma with Noah Baumbach’s humour, hehe).

8. Which film character do you most identify with?
My mind is as chaotic and my world is as random and colorful as the one from Amélie in
Amélie (French: Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001).

9. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
To pick only one soundtrack, oy vey. Here’s two: the soundtracks of The Piano (dir. Jane Campion, 1993), composed by Michael Nyman, and of The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy your Bath! (Russian: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!, dir. Eldar Ryazanov, 1976), composed by Mikael Tariverdiev.

10. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
My Neighbor Totoro (Japanese: となりのトトロ, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 1988), together with my little sister!

David Bakum is the Ambassador of Abaton Kino. Find out more about the Cinema here.