“Persona non grata”, interview with director Antonin Svoboda

April 19, 2024

Antonin Svoboda: “My protagonist doesn’t have to stick with her past anymore, she’s changing this past tense in the present for the future, she’s feeling alive”.

“Persona non grata”, interview with director Antonin Svoboda Chiara Nicoletti

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It is a woman driven film, “Persona Non Grata“, the new film by Austrian director Antonin Svoboda, screening at the 37°Bolzano Film Festival in the Special section.

Inspired by the story of skier Nicola Spieb who reported she was a victim of abuse in her field, the film sees Gerti Drassl in the role of Andrea, a former skier who, after the death of her husband, decides to report the abuses she had to endure as a young professional.

With his non judgmental look on his characters, Antonin Svoboda focuses on his protagonist and her interactions, especially with the two other women in her life, her mother and her daughter.

While the latter becomes an ally along her difficult journey facing what she went through years before, her mother claims that “It’s always been like that and they should stop acting like a victim”.

“Persona Non Grata“ is the story of a woman’ second chance to live as, to quote Antonin Svoboda “she doesn’t have to stick with her past anymore, she’s changing this past tense in the present for the future, she’s feeling alive”.

Plot

After the death of her husband, former skier Andrea is confronted with many problems. The relationship with her parents and her daughter Sara has always been tense, and she has to cope with the loss of her partner alone. Traumatized and plagued by fears, she tries to cope with her everyday life. In the wake of the #MeToo wave, Andrea decides to give an interview about her time as a young professional skier. In this very personal interview, she records the monstrous power structures of the home management at the time and how the abuse between colleagues and coaches continued. In doing so, she unleashes a media avalanche to which her family also reacts with rejection. However, more and more people support the allegations. A story of liberation based on true events. A film about a remarkable woman. Persona Non Grata.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Antonin Svoboda Gerti Drassl

Film

Persona non grata

Festival

Bolzano Film Festival

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