[...] Bogumił Godfrejów's evocative photography, filmed [...] from the hand, the characters' spontaneous behaviour, and the city always in the background, all creates a feeling of authenticity. culture.pl

culture.pl

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„The cinematography is stunning. Your cinematographer was Bogumil Godfrejow – who is from Cracow/Poland (a long way from Hokianga!). How did you decide on Bogumil and what did he bring to the look of the film?

Because we had a German co-production we needed to use a European DOP, I saw a film that Bogumil had shot called Requiem. I was drawn to his use of hand held camera, he has a great instinct for catching the action, giving the actors a lot of freedom to move in the space. This excited me especially as we were working with non-professional actors and lots of animals. I traveled to Poland to meet up with him and a beer or two later he was heading to New Zealand! He was very excited to shoot here. Visually it couldn’t be more different from Poland, he loved the landscape and the light.”

‘The Strength of Water’ Interview

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Our DoP Bogumil Godfrejow is fantastic with a handheld camera; he is the kind of person you call an actor’s DoP. He understands emotions very well and he is so gentle with the actor that when the camera is rolling everything happens the way it should.

Juris Kursietis

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