MY HEART OF DARKNESS

MY HEART OF DARKNESS by Eden Film & Gebrueder Beetz productions

Four war-veterans, former enemies journey back to past battlefields deep within the African interior in search of reconciliation, forgiveness and … atonement?


Directors Staffan Julén and Marius van Niekerk

“There are two kinds of men, those who dream of war and those who have nightmares of war” Marius van Niekerk

The characters in our film, MY HEART OF DARKNESS, are men who have nightmares of war. Forcefully recruited into the military at an early age, often to fight against their own countrymen. Four men, four stories entwined, four fucked-up lives. Always ready to crack, to strike out even against those they love? Why do they snap awake in the middle of the night, running, sweating, pursued, terrified?

MY HEART OF DARKNESS, a journey of reconciliation into the dark African jungle, into a psyche so tainted with years of colonisation, religious brainwash, superstition and witchcraft, where history seems unnoticed, mistakes repeated over and over again, where lies are true until discovered, where life’s worth as much as a bullet, a journey that took us into the darkest of our own souls.

It is undeniably a story that becomes frightening and cruel the farther we churned up that river. Nevertheless, deep down there is a flicker of hope, of human hope that tells of a will to change and the painful insight that shows the contrast of cruelty and selfishness… to dare to love your enemy.

As story infinite and universal, that all can relate to, even if you haven’t been in a war yourself. As more young boys return from Afghanistan to peaceful Sweden wrapped up in body bags, one often wanders what it take to quench the warmonger’s of this world’s thirst for blood, how many bodies will it take to still their hunger for death and destruction… and what will it take to cleanse all that?

During the nearly four years of working on the film, following the veterans journey up the river, closer and closer to their own hearts of darkness, we too had to delve deeper and deeper into our very own souls, our owns doubts but we had to go there to fully understand this process, to participate in that final blood cleansing ceremony. It was inspiring to watch our characters change and transform from former enemies to friends, and made us realise that veterans the world over, have many similarities and much to share and learn from each other. Deep down there the roots are at work, very often, with no one to encourage them.

They are true role models, risking proving to themselves and also to us, that reconciliation is possible and that war is fucked up, and that most people just want to live a peaceful life.


Stockholm 05 November 2010

Monday, 23 May 2011

CITY OF JOY – the raped women, their rapist & healers in DRC: CITY OF JOY - CROWDFUNDING

CITY OF JOY – the raped women, their rapist & healers in DRC: CITY OF JOY - CROWDFUNDING: "Dear crowdfunder, As we move on from the recent Swedish premier and success of our latest film 'My Heart of Darkness' 3 times nominated bes..."
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Thursday, 19 May 2011

EDOC10 International Film Festival CUITO QCUADOR May 13-23 2011





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Sunday, 15 May 2011

EDOC10 International Film Festival CUITO QCUADOR May 13-23 2011


 






TEN YEARS OF EDOC FIRST WEEKEND OF 10 IN QUITO EDOC 
From Friday 13 start of the EDOC functions in Quito in Ochoymedio, incineration, Sala Alfredo Pareja of the CCE and the Junior World. This first weekend will be 56 roles in 6 rooms, forums as well as national and international directors.
May 13 - 23th 2011

My Heart of Darkness Screenings:
S3 Incineration 18th 20.15
S3 Incineration 20th 18.30

http://www.festivaledoc.org/ 

Staffan is attending this years EDOC10 with both MY HEART OF DARKNESS  and LAST CHAPTER screening. See their site for the program. Unfortunately only in Spanish but you can download this amazing translator Google Chrome and translate the whole site in whatever language you want at the link:  http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=mac&hl=en

Hope you have a great time and may you see many great films & meet great filmmakers. 

See you there.
Marius & Staffan
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Friday, 13 May 2011

Swedish Reviews

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