MASKS

Short Talk with Amina Krami (director) and Emma Holzapfel (editor)

BEST SHORT STUDENT DOCUMENTARY FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

Germany, Documentary, German, 00:11:56, 2024

Synopsis: When the first snow falls, the fifth season begins in the village surrounded by mountains. Once a year, the ‘untamed and wild’ is allowed to burst out of the men under the protection of the masks.

Biography: Amina Krami was born in Salzburg in 1992 as the daughter of an Algerian father and an Austrian mother. She has been studying scenic directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg since 2020. In 2022, Amina Krami is a scholarship holder of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation at the film school "La FEMIS" in Paris. 2023 she is nominated for the Simon S. Newcomer Director Award. 2025 Amina Krami is a scholarship holder of the Deutschlandstipendium.

Amina Krami, director

Kaloyan Vasilev: How did you approach the people wearing the masks? Did you direct them in any way?

Amina Krani: I was lucky. I grew up in Austria, and this is an Austrian tradition. When I told some of my former classmates that I wanted to make a film about it, they immediately said, “You should come to our village, things get pretty wild here.” Having that personal connection made a big difference. Without it, I don’t think people would have been so open to me. There’s also a lot of criticism around this tradition, so not everyone likes being filmed. As for directing, yes, we asked them to stand still for portraits, things like that. I think there’s always some directing in documentaries, especially later in the editing process.

Kaloyan Vasilev: Speaking of editing, was it difficult to combine all the footage you had?

Emma Holzapfel: We had several viewing sessions together, plus a lot of interview material. Amina also helped me with the language my Austrian German isn’t perfect. After that, I locked myself in for a few hours at a time, trying to find the story in all this material. What really helped was leaning into contrasts: the idyllic little village—reinforced by the sound design and music, set against this intense, almost demonic ritual that happens every year. That contrast became the way to tell the village’s story.

Kaloyan Vasilev: How was your collaboration? A director and editor have to understand each other almost instinctively.

Krani: We’ve known each other for a long time, we studied together and have worked on several projects before. So there’s already a mutual understanding.

Holzapfel: Yes, and this was Amina’s first documentary, she usually does fiction.

Krani: Exactly. I was honestly terrified during the edit. After two weeks, I was thinking, “What is this movie going to be?” But two weeks isn’t actually much for a documentary. I also knew Emma needed space to work without me second-guessing everything. 

Holzapfel: We had talked a lot beforehand about the direction we wanted, so I trusted that it would turn into something close to what we’d envisioned.

Interviewer: Kaloyan Vasilev

Editor: Martic Kudlac