Afghanistan and Ukraine – what do they have in common? And what remains of humanity when conflict outbursts? Another Summer tells stories of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in Europe through their perspective.
The directors of Another Summer provided training and equipment to a group of Afghan and Ukrainian first-time filmmakers who had taken refuge in different European countries after the Taliban takeover in 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The filmmakers were divided into teams and sent to seven cities in Europe and Turkey. Their task was to record the stories of people like themselves who had fled violence and repression.
The footage they took was then edited by two directors, David Edwards and Alžběta Kovandová-Bartoníčková. The film is thus a partial record of what the students saw, what they heard, and what they experienced – interpreted by David and Alžběta.
David Edwards
David Edwards is the co-director and producer of the film, Kabul Transit, which was an official selection of numerous film festivals, including the Los Angeles Film Festival, the International Documentary Festival – Amsterdam, and the Independents Night film series at
Lincoln Center in New York City. An anthropologist and specialist on Afghanistan, Edwards is the author of three books published by the University of California Press, the most recent of which (Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan) was awarded the Senior Book Prize from the American Ethnological Society. Edwards has degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan and has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which named him a Scholar of Vision in 2002.
Alžběta Kovandová-Bartoníčková
Alžběta Kovandová-Bartoníčková is a documentary filmmaker and researcher. She has
spent the last eight years (2016-2024) in the UK, where she studied, worked as an editor, and taught at the University of Kent as a Lecturer in Film & Media Practice. In May 2024, Alžběta moved back to Prague, where she is originally from. Alžběta has made several short documentaries and experimental films, which have screened at film festivals and been nominated for several awards, including the Pavel Koutecký Award for Best Czech Short Documentary and the Magnesia Award for Best Student Film. Alžběta completed her BA at the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU in Prague, followed by a Master of Research Degree at Liverpool John Moores University. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Kent with a project at the intersection of documentary film and anthropology, focused on the meaning of home in London. Alžběta co-founded the first Autism-Friendly Screenings (Kino v Klidu) in the Czech Republic.