Dirk Janek

How do you tell the tale of someone's life, when all you have are their memories

I have heard my father's story; street kid, Hitler Youth, artist, political prisoner, refugee, so many times it has bound itself to my own. Together, as a family, we became the custodians of these stories; Together, we told and retold Dad's stories, to reconcile, to share, to heal.
But then there were discrepancies in his telling, a detail that I enjoyed gone missing or an exaggeration gone too far. Had I forgotten the real version? Had he? 



It was not until his wife Belinda penned his memoirs that I realised the truth: There is no real story. Or at least, it's irrelevant.
Here and there she would use a little poetic licence, these new details weaving themselves into his own telling until he remembered them as fact.

And so, here is the real story: A man who experienced too much war, too much luck, too much beauty, until the only thing to do, was share the weight of his stories, and in doing so, found that memories were reshaped.

   

My goal is to create a 30 minute documentary to travel the international film festival circuit. 

Based on the same titled book by Belinda Broughton, this documentary will explore the power of story telling as an agent for healing, the enduring spirit of a man who would not surrender, and the love for a woman that rescues him everyday. 
Sparrow: Poems of a Refugee, investigates the slippery and ever evolving nature of memory. The tanks forever on the doorstep of our family home, the absent mother haunting Dad's sleep.


It has taken four years of travelling back and forth from Melbourne to my family home in the Adelaide Hills for me to collect images and tales, but now I need help. To complete this project I need other creatives; sound designers, composers, animators etc. 

I extend this invitation to you to help in sharing this human story. 

Below I have attached a small selection of poems from Belinda's book and a handful of images to give you a glimpse into this unique tale.

Many thanks for taking the time to consider this project.

Warm regards,

Miklos Janek.


The Cross
By Belinda Broughton

Behind the SS soldiers was the cross.
I comforted my mother when they shot René.
She was round with his child.
The baby rolled over in it's watery world,
was born and named René.
Her heart held.

Behind the SS soldiers was the cross.
They dressed a Christmas tree for me
because I was the only child in the jail.
In the barracks, my mother put the little cake 
on a high shelf next to my bed.
In the morning it was gone.

Behind the SS soldiers was the cross.
I comforted my mother
when they threw baby René in the fire.
I was three years old.
My mother was thin in my embrace.
Her heart, her heart,

I don't know what happened to her heart. 



Sparrow
By Belinda Broughton

The Hefner brothers sold me the sparrow.
They had caught it in their street
and were taking it to school in a shoebox.
It cost me my lunch money.
'What are you going to do with it?' they asked.
'Eat it' I said.

I didn't go to school that day.
I went down to the railway siding
where there was a bit of unkempt land.
Berry bushes in full white blossom,
daisies, dandelions, wild blue hyacinths,
there were even tulips from when 
it had been a garden. It still looked
like a garden to me.

I held the sparrow for a moment,
the weightlessness of its body,
delicacy of feather and bone,
its small heart hammering against my finger.
Then I opened my hand and it was gone.

I had a whole spring day ahead of me.
And sunshine.

About the book

Ervin and Belinda

我们项目的故事

关于这本书

资金如何被筹集？

我的一些其它工作

挑战

Ervin and Belinda

Post Production Dream Team Takes Shape

As I have self funded the actual shoot, all funds raised by this campaign will go to post production. Following is a list of post production elements required for the project:

- Edit
- Animation
- Visual effects
- Sound design
- Music composition
- Recording of the score (Musicians, recording studio, sound engineer)
- ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement)
- Sound mix
- Colour grade
- Language translation
- Sub titling
- Graphics
- Promotional material
- Website construction

Creating a film is always a challenge. In this case, being entrusted with my stepmother's writing and, indeed, my own father's life story is the biggest challenge I have faced as a filmmaker to date.