Director BIO: Minka Jakerson (EVA AND RAMONA)

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY AND SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
Minka Jakerson studied cinematography at The National Film School of Denmark and has since worked with moving images in various contexts and collaborations.
In 2012, she directed the short film THE YEARNING ROOM which premiered at the Gothenburg International Film Festival and competed at the Berlinale Generation Film Festival 2013.
Beside cinematography assignments Minka is currently developing her first feature film at Cinenic film. Her directorial work is mainly concerned with private and intimate stories set in a wider political context.

Director Statement

I was born in Sweden but my parents come from the Czech Republic. I have long wondered, how the division between East and West affected the individual’s most private sphere – our self-esteem. As a child, I started to sense and experience a value scale in which the ”East” was considered inferior to the ”West”. After persistent nagging on my part, we changed our family name from Jakersonova to Jakerson to erase my Eastern European background. Much like Eva in EVA AND RAMONA, I experienced a big status shift when I visited the Eastern block for the first time as a teenager. Suddenly I became someone and everyone was curious about me because I came from the West.
Ramona, in contrast, experienced a loss of status as the GDR was absorbed by West Germany.
Overnight she became an ”Ossie” – a second class citizen in her own country.
In EVA AND RAMONA I wanted to wok with an associative narrative. By weaving together documentary, fiction, archive and personal photographs the film work as a reflection on the status difference between East and West – but also on how authentic friendship
can restore our sense of self.