Born in Minsk, Belarus in 1987, Pavel Mozhar moved to Berlin, Germany at the age of ten and went on to study directing at the Film University Babelsberg with a focus on documentary filmmaking. His short film Handbuch, about the August 2020 protests in Belarus, won the Best Short Documentary Award at both IDFA and the Hamburg Short Film Festival. His work first screened at the Berlinale in 2024 when Ungewollte Verwandtschaft was selected for Berlinale Shorts.
What was your starting point for „Mit einem freundlichen Gruss“?
In the summer of 2022, I took part in a documentary film workshop as part of my studies at the
time. While doing research, a fellow student and I happened to find the application folders in
an abandoned production facility.
Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one in particular?
I like the faces and hands of the people we see in the film, especially the moments when our
gaze meets theirs – when we look into their eyes and they look back at us from the screen. It
still gets to me every time, even after months of editing.
What do you like about the short form?
Lately, I’ve sometimes found myself walking out of the cinema thinking, ‘That would have been
a great short!’ I like what shorts leave out.
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PRESS REVIEWS
Berlinale Shorts 