PRODUCER Dora Nedeczky

A New START

Dora Nedeczky is a Hungarian producer and strategist, with a background in aesthetics, film theory and history, living in Tallinn since 2020. Marko Raat’s upcoming film is her first feature in Estonia as a producer – she is working shoulder to shoulder with Estonia’s most established film producer Ivo Felt.

By Maria Ulfsak Photos by Marcell Lobenwein and Roxana Sadvokassova

Dora, please tell us a bit more about your background – you are originally from Hungary, but what brought you to Estonia? It’s been a long journey, but it starts back in 2011. Hungary’s film fund had collapsed and, instead of financing films, all I could do was to participate in international training programmes. It was time wellspent – I was selected to Sarajevo, Berlinale Talents, Kyoto Filmmakers Lab, etc. The very first of these trainings was the ENGAGE Programme back in 2011, in which I had Edith Sepp and Tiina Lokk among my mentors and we walked around Tallinn and visited BFM (Baltic Film, Media and Arts School). It’s always been a very fond memory.

As my career progressed, I found myself working mostly with international directors - I’ve produced several short films for the British cult director Peter Strickland (GUO4, 2019 – Venice; Cold Meridian 2020 – San Sebastian), and worked on a number of short docs with Texas-based directors Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan (The Rabbit Hunt, 2017 – Berlinale; Happiness Is A Journey, 2021 – Locarno).

My first feature length films Empty Horses (2019 – IFFR) and The Philosophy of Horror (2020 – Torino, IFFR) by Lichter Péter and Bori Máté (Hungarian experimental filmmakers and academics) were financed outside of the traditional system. Hungary will always have a special place in my heart, still, I’ve been sub-consciously searching for a new place I can call home for over a decade. While the Hungarian film industry has exciting aspects, the tax credit and NFI initiatives such as Fast Forward programme and the Incubator, I didn’t have access to great opportunities, even after delivering A-list premieres.

But when did you move here? The actual move happened very quickly. I put together my love for wild Northern forests, longing for the sea (coming from a land-locked country), and my experience in different film industry regions, and there it was. I moved with my partner, plants and pets by car four days before the borders were closed in 2020. It’s a quite different place to live, but we also have some shared history. I do feel like there is a deeper Finno-Ugric connection too!

This is your first project as a producer here. You are working in the biggest production company Allfilm at the moment. How did that happen and how has the experience been so far? After deciding to move to Tallinn, I consciously tried to build up my network here. I was lucky enough to hold a lecture about film festival strategy at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event in 2019, while I also had the Nordic premiere of GUO4 at PÖFF Shorts. I tried to rekindle my old relationships with my ENGAGE 2011 and EAVE Producers Workshop 2016 classmates, and I also tried to meet as many people from the Estonian film industry as I could. That happened to include Ivo Felt.

I imagined that at first I’d find work in the production or coordination department of some random service production, so it was a very pleasant surprise when Ivo suggested I read the treatment for 8 Views of Lake Biwa. From then on, the collaboration and the

The more I sat with the script - and this central idea that we’ve all lost our connection to the world and our playfulness - the more it resonated with me.

Dora Nedeczky is currently working on Marko Raat’s 8 Views of Lake Biwa.

GUO4 (directed by Peter Strickland).

Cold Meridian (directed by Peter Strickland).

atmosphere working with Ivo and director Marko Raat has been both incredibly inspiring but also remarkably calm and open. They’ve worked together for many years and it feels like a real honour that they would invite me into this creative space as an equal.

8 Views of Lake Biwa is quite an extraordinary project. For you personally, what is it about it

The Philosophy of Horror (directed by Péter Lichter and Bori Máté). that impresses you, what made you feel that this is the film I want to spend the next years of my life with? It’s quite unlike anything I’ve come across before – a beautiful, heavy, grotesque vision which we’re transforming into this rich, multi-layered, monumental piece of art. As a student of aesthetics and film theory, I had semesters focused on iconography and Japanese filmmaking, and I love the depth of symbolism and precision that Marko applies to what he does. Delving into his previous works, I could see from The Knife and Snow Queen how sensitively and knowingly he approaches female characters, and how deep he explores the dark and destructive side of the human experience. It felt cathartic, and that’s exactly how I felt when I first read the treatment.

The more I sat with the script – and this central idea that we’ve all lost our connection to the world and our playfulness - the more it resonated with me. I think that’s been the case for the many cast and crew members who’ve come aboard along the way too. The hard work that they’re all putting in now is driven by a belief that this tragic story, that still reveals an essential magic at the bottom of everything, will really speak to the world as it is today. EF

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