Eva Lanska is a London-based director and screenwriter. After graduating from the London Film Academy, Eva has focused on producing both documentary and fiction films. She has directed several award-winning films recognized throughout Europe and America.
Across her films, Eva studies the concepts of acceptance and love in challenging circumstances. She poses pressing questions to direct her audience to reflect on the choices to be made, putting themselves in the shoes of her protagonists.
Her previous film, Little French Fish, starring British actors Jonas Khan and Devora Wilde, draws attention to the global stigma against interracial marriages through the relationship of an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim man. In 2020, Little French Fish was selected by one of the world’s oldest and largest Jewish festivals, the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
Her previous picture Okay, Mum, won Best Picture at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was selected for the Short Film Corner at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. She recently announced her first feature I Am Not An Actress, inspired by the philosophy of Brigitte Bardot.
What’s your origin story?
In my student years, I ended up in Paris, the city won me over with its elegance and creativity. The French really know how to subtly enjoy life. In France I recorded two albums, wrote several books and started shooting my first videos. This magical city has become my guide to the world of cinema.
How did you get into the film industry?
Since childhood, I dreamed of making a movie, but the path to the industry turned out to be a long one. At first, I wrote songs, novels and scripts, performed as a singer, shot music videos, and only after acquiring significant experience, I had the confidence and energy to finally take on directing.
Give a shout out to your mentors.
Thanks to my parents, I started reading books at the age of five. It is the books that are my main mentors, and I owe most of my achievements to them. Books develop the subconscious, broaden the horizon of thinking and activate the right hemisphere of the brain.
Good literature is a magic wand for a creative person. If you want your children to achieve meteoric heights, teach them to love books. Leo Tolstoy, Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway were my closest friends in childhood.
While there will be others, what do you consider your biggest achievement to date?
It seems to me that my most important achievement to date is my depth of understanding of what true love and creativity are.
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How about your biggest disappointment?
Mistakes or disappointments are past experiences and have no place in the present. I try to remember only the good and important moments.
If being a woman is your superpower, how has it helped you?
Feminine intuition and flexibility help me tremendously as a director in working with actors. The ability to perceive halftones and subtle edges of reality helps in the artistic process.
The ability to understand and empathize with others, at first sight, helps to understand human characters, which is extremely important for a director.
What’s your Kryptonite?
My Kryptonite – Besides chocolate? I’m addicted to change the world for the better, and cinematography is the key. Day and night have no boundaries, I’m a workaholic.
How did a combination of a pandemic, Black Lives Matter and QAnon affect you?
The past year has brought many changes. Global constraints during the pandemic made it possible for people to think about real values.
Mutual help, attention to each other, and family and friends are what helped us survive the pandemic and these are the most important things we have.
If you’re Batwoman, who’s Robin?
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.
What’s the engine that pulls you?
As an artist, I can modify and create magnificence in any object. I like to bring beauty into the world.
What does Women’s History Month mean to You?
With the negative statistics of gender inequality in the film industry and other professional fields, it is very important that such a movement is taking place. You can offer women from other countries that Women’s History Month would spread its cultural influence to other territories.
Women’s unification and mutual assistance is a force with great potential, even women themselves cannot always know what great results could be achieved by uniting efforts between each other. Women make a huge contribution to world history and the development of modern society. We must always remember this!
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