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Apolonia, Apolonia

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Canadian Premiere

A dazzling whirlwind, Apolonia Sokol seemingly lives an enchanted life: as the daughter of actor parents, she is surrounded by poets, artists, and intellectuals, and lives in a vast Parisian building home to an experimental theatre company. She puts on plays, hosts dinner parties for bohemians, and opens her dilapidated home to exiled Ukranian feminist activists. Apolonia is charming, captivating, and is the center of her social circle, switching effortlessly between French, English, Danish and Polish. She also happens to be an immensely talented artist with singular vision and drive.

Filming over 13 years, director Lea Glob follows the young French painter and chronicles her intense struggles to succeed in the patriarchal and capitalist art world. Apolonia, Apolonia is joyful, inspiring, and intimate; it is a portrait of the vibrant, charismatic force that is Apolonia, but is also a remarkable document of the friendship and creative interplay between the filmmaker and her subject.

The absorbingly intimate portrait of an artist as a young woman over the transformative span of 13 years.
Screen International

 

Presented by

Series Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Apolonia Sokol, Oksana Shachko, Lea Glob

Credits
Country of Origin

Denmark/Poland

Year

2023

Series

Portraits

Language

In Danish, English, French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Self Harm, Suicide

18+
116 min
Art, Music & Photography Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

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Credits

Producer

Sidsel Siersted

Cinematography

Lea Glob

Editor

Andreas Bøggild Monies,Thor Ochsnerb

Original Music

Jonas Struck

Director

Lea Glob headshot

Lea Glob

Lea Glob was born in Mariager, Denmark. Her debut documentary, Olmo & The Seagull (2015), was co-directed alongside Petra Costa. The film won the Young Jury Prize at Locarno, as well as Best Nordic Dox at CPH:DOX. Afterwards, Glob co-directed Venus (2016) with Mette Carla Albrechtsen. The film premiered in IDFA’s First Appearance Competition and won the audience award in IndieLisboa IIFF. Apolonia, Apolonia (2023) is the director’s first documentary feature as a solo-director.

Filmography: Olmo & The Seagull (2015); Venus (2016)

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