Apolonia, Apolonia is Glob’s first solo feature after the acclaimed Olmo and the Seagull co-directed with Petra Costa and Venus co-directed with Mette Carla Albrechtse, which screened in competition at IDFA’s First Appearance section.

The former Nordic Talents winner has spent more than 13 years filming her main protagonist, French figurative painter of Danish and Polish origin Apolonia Sokol, her family and friends, including Oksana Shachko, one of the founders of the feminist action group Femen.

We see Sokol’s journey, from her time at her bohemian Parisian home - an underground theatre run by her father - her studies at the prestigious Beaux-Arts Academy in Paris, and experiences as an artist-in-the-making in the US and in Europe.

Over the years, Glob keeps returning to filming Apolonia as she grapples with the difficulties and joys of womanhood, the relationships with others and her own body and creation.

By intertwining some of her own experiences with Sokol’s coming-of-age, Glob has delivered a captivating and moving film about art, love, motherhood, sexuality, life and death.

The film was produced by Sidsel Lønvig Siersted for Danish Documentary Production, in co-production with Malgorzata Staron for Staron Films, co-financing from DR, SVT, YLE, VGTV, HBO Max, Arte Geie, Avrotros support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Firstly how does it feel to be selected in competition at IDFA?
Lea Glob: It's huge honour to be in competition at IDFA, which is a crucial platform for us, artistically-oriented documentary filmmakers. I feel so happy and relieved. I owe so much to the wonderful people who let me into their lives, but also to the organisations and commissioners who believed in me, supported me and made this film possible although it was a very long ride. Also, Amsterdam is the best place ever to showcase a film about a painter, and I’m a film nerd, so having the world premiere at the historical Tuschinski cinema is a dream come true.

Is Apolonia Sokol going to be there? Has she seen the film?
LG: Yes she will be in Amsterdam to see the film on the big screen. She has seen many versions but the film will be born on November 12.

I think she’s pleased with it. She entered this project many years ago and it was so generous of her to continue over such a long period, although you mature, and look at your past mistakes on screen. But we’re happy to be in this moment of cinema, where it is possible to make a film with strong female characters. It really stays on the shoulders of all the women over hundreds of years, who have enabled this to happen.

Is this film a new chapter in your exploration of womanhood, desire and identity?
LG: This film is a little different. My previous film Venus was a collaborative work with Mette Carla Albrechtsen and grew from a personal relationship with her, and Olmo and the Seagull co-directed with Petra Costa was the result of a matchmaking exercise. It was also co-created with the main protagonists Olivia Corsini and Serge Nicolaï.

For this film, I was inspired by the people I met, the female stories - Apolonia, her mother, grandmother, Oksana. But yes, I have always been drawn to strong female characters for all my films.

How did you meet Apolonia and what convinced you to make her the protagonist of your film?
LG: Apolonia was the very first documentary subject that I met. At the Danish Film School we had a mid-term assignment with a few weeks to do a 20-minute film. I sent out a note, asking people: are you an artist, actress, interested in being in my film? Call me! It was naïve perhaps. Malou Reymann (director of A Perfectly Normal Family, who was at the time just an actress) contacted me and eventually directed me to Apolonia.

I skyped Apolonia who was in France, and presented myself. She looked just gorgeous, like an actress very French, smoking a cigarette. She was almost interviewing me. Immediately, when she started speaking, I saw different stories unfolding. I just jumped on a train to meet her in real life in Paris. I told her I would start filming immediately the short film. Then years later, while I was back in Paris for Olmo and the Seagull, I felt the urge to contact Apolonia again to continue this adventure.

Did you have an idea of the direction you wanted to take with the dramaturgy and knew from the beginning you would be following Apolonia over several years?
LG: Not really. I felt a bit blind at the beginning. Then with one of my editors Thor Ochsner, we saw the footage, Apolonia’s paintings. They are incredible but I knew they take a long time to dry. This is when I realised I needed to film for a long time to capture her journey as an artist.

From the very first meeting, there is an interplay between you, and you say in the film that you have captured Apolonia the way she has captured you. Can you expand on this interesting role ambiguity?
LG: At the beginning, I was determined to be a ‘perfect’ filmmaker, following the filmmaking rules, with me as the director and her as the subject. That was an illusion. The film is so much about growing as a person, from a young woman to a mature woman and I included both our experiences to give the film a wider and more universal dimension.

We come from totally different backgrounds. As a French woman, she had access to an intellectual and artistic world in Paris, with many people from the 1968 generation. Although I grew up in Denmark with paintings - as members of my family were painters, being intellectual wasn’t so well looked upon.

It was also interesting to integrate the shifting relationships between us which changed over time. When we started I was at film school, but she hadn’t started studying yet. Then she became an alumna of one of the biggest art institutions in France and she grew as a strong artist.

Also, when we started I had the means to travel, camera equipment, while Apolonia had very little money. This gradually improved for her. As a painter, if you become established, you can become rich. This is not the case with documentary filmmaking.

I said that she captured me as much as I captured her, because of her strong personality. She would often challenge me and didn’t take any idea for granted. At the same time she was playful and lovely.

Was your decision to do the voice-over a way to keep a better control of your material as well?
LG: Well there was so much I wanted to tell - it would have required at least 10 hours of filming to include it all. Therefore the voice over was a good alternative. Then I love the spoken word in cinema. Many of my favourite films are narrated, it adds another layer of meaning to the images. That said-it was super hard to write the narration. My co-editor Andreas [Bøggild Monies] helped me with the voice-over writing.

Was it hard to decide when filming would end?
LG: I knew relatively early on that I would end the film when there was a physical sign showing that Apolonia had made it as an artist. I found the angle when she gets invited to attend the prestigious Villa Medici Academy in Rome. I wanted to show that she becomes an established painter and makes it into the art world without losing herself.

The difficulty was for me to make the film good enough. But I had a great collaboration with Andreas Bøggild Monies, Thor Ochsner, all the institutions and commissioners, including HBO Max. I was afraid they would be too ‘commercially-oriented’ but they just pushed me to do my best. Everyone had a huge faith in the project and agreed to give it time. I was moved by everyone’s involvement.

The film also features a third very important protagonist, Oksana Shachko, the Ukrainian activist and co-founder of the feminist group Femen. She is Apolonia’s muse and soulmate in the film. How did you deal with the ethical issues linked with her tragic destiny while you were filming?
LG: Yes I was so inspired by Apolonia and Oksana because they were free-spirited artists and challenged my own taboos, about religion, sex, motherhood. When Oksana left us, it was a difficult time. I knew the film could not be released immediately, time had to pass. I tried to respect everyone close to her and her memory, not to take too much space.

In the course of filming, I learned about how art and filmmaking are like a memorial. What we do in documentary filmmaking is precisely that: capturing human beings, and giving a lasting representation of life.

What’s next for you?
LG: My next film will be about the body and the state, inspired by the book ‘Spaces of Danish Welfare’.