Slovak director Tomáš Krúpa has started production on his creative documentary “We Have to Survive.” The Slovak/French/Austrian coproduction captures stories about climatic change impacts from four corners of the world, while leaving the smallest carbon footprint possible, Film New Europe reports.
“By choosing local stories, we strive for social and ethnic diversity,” Krúpa told FNE. “We want to have representatives of different races and cultures so that the film has a global narrative value. The mosaic story structure will allow the viewer to look into the lives of several characters and their families in places where climate change has been going on for a long time.”
The development of the 100-minute documentary started at the end of 2019 and was slowed by the pandemic. Production is planned for three years. The shoot started on location in U.S. and Mongolia, while Greenland and Australia are still in the scouting phase.
“We Have to Survive” is meant to deliver a message about how global warming affects everyday life. The main idea is that there is no predetermined destiny, only the future that we create. The effects of heat, drought, expanding deserts and floods are the main elements the film deals with.
“We are trying to implement the project with the lowest possible carbon footprint, that is why we approached an ecoexpert, with whom we monitor the carbon data during the production. We try to eliminate [the carbon output] and eventually compensate with CO² offsets,” Krúpa said.
Courtesy of FNE
The film is produced by Krúpa’s Hailstone, in coproduction with Yuzu Productions in France, Golden Girls Filmproduction in Austria, the Radio and Television Slovakia, ARTE in France and Puls4 in Austria.
With support from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA, the CNC and Procirep in France, the producers have already covered about 70% of the estimated budget of 713,000 Euros.
The completion of the film is planned for 2025. Filmtopia will release it in Slovakia.
This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.
