Nordisk Panorama 2021: Interview of Director Anna Hildur | A Song Called Hate (Best Nordic Documentary Competition)

We interviewed Icelandic Director Anna Hildur who presented A Song Called Hate at the 32nd Nordisk Panorama Film Festival, a captivating, thought-provoking music documentary dealing with the responsibility of art.

The 32nd Nordisk Panorama Film Festival, taking place in Malmö, Sweden, from September 16th to 21st 2021, has become a hotspot for the best Nordic documentaries and short films, where we had the pleasure to discover, as part of the Best Nordic Documentary Competition, A Song Called Hate, the documentary feature debut of Icelandic director Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdottir. The film chronicles the journey of music band Hatari in the days preceding the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest held in Tel Aviv, as they intend to politicize the contest, and use their participation as a platform to show their support to the Palestinian nation.

Hatari claim to be driven by a mission to end late capitalism. Their selection to represent Iceland at Eurovision is audacious, but now they must confront the true cost of taking their message to a global stage. Faced with the political context of a non-political Eurovision song contest, hosted in Israel with occupied territories on the doorstep, Hatari decides to take a stand. Ultimately, A Song Called Hate asks what is the role of the artist and do they have a responsibility to engage in politics? If so, do intentions even count, without actions? With unique access, this documentary examines how these young artists cope, both on and off stage, and how they can navigate criticism, when it comes from all sides. With a mission to penetrate the high gloss and shiny show-business of Eurovision, Hatari are forced to accept that everything they do might just be read as irony, because is it even possible to participate within a system while simultaneously rejecting it?

We were delighted to sit down with director Anna Hildur for an interview following the screening of A Song Called Hate in Malmö, to chat about the filmmaking process and the secrets behind what Anna calls “a life changing experience”, which resulted in a thought-provoking, powerful documentary, which was previously presented at Oslo PIX (Norway), CPH:DOX (Denmark), Cleveland International Film Festival (USA), Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece), Human International Documentary Film Festival (Norway), DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (Finland), Göteborg International Film Festival (Sweden), Reykjavik International Film Festival (Iceland), and more.