15th April 2026
Two guests each with a new feature doc in the can. A check-in with Rena Effendi on her film, Searching For Satyrus. And last week's guest, Dragana Jurišić, returns to answer the bonus questions...
THIS WEEK ON A SMALL VOICE PODCAST MEMBER-ONLY EPISODE...
This week on the member-only edition of A Small Voice podcast, a check-in with a guest from way back in June 2017 (episode 55), Rena Effendi. I wanted to hear from Rena about the new, feature length documentary she has directed, Searching For Satyrus.
Those of you familiar with Rena’s beautiful 2012 photobook Liquid Land, will know that her father, Rustam Effendi, was a renowned Soviet entomologist, more accurately a lepidopterist - a butterfly specialist. He was also something of an enigma, largely absent from Rena’s childhood, who died in 1991 when she was just 14. The film charts Rena’s personal journey to find Satyrus Effendi, the rare and endangered butterfly named after her dad, which flys for just two weeks every year and only in the heavily militarised borderland between Armenia and Azerbaijan — a landscape shaped by decades of conflict, displacement, and ecological devastation.
As Rena retraces her father’s footsteps into the mountainous borderland, the film becomes an exploration of memory, identity, loss, and survival. Blending personal memoir, political history, and environmental inquiry, it presents an intimate and globally relevant portrait of how conflict impacts both human lives and fragile ecosystems. It is a story of beauty persisting in the most unlikely places.
If you’re UK-based, there are a number of planned screenings throughout April and early May, including at London’s Frontline Club on April 22nd. It’s a beautiful, engaging and moving film.
Become a member at pod.fan!
Also…
Dragana Jurišić, who chatted with me last week on the main podcast episode about her own feature documentary, The Last Balkan Cowboy, returns to the member episode to tackle the bonus questions.
Sample question:
What has photography taught you about yourself or life in general?
“That I need a device to put in between me and the world. And maybe that’s not the answer you were looking for, but I need to mediate the world through a lens, because otherwise I find it too chaotic and unpredictable. So the camera gives me a device for the ordering of chaos. And I know this is absolute bullshit, like it’s not real, but it helps me live my life without wanting to jump off a cliff or something… You have control of the world that you have framed through this machine which makes you think you are in control - at which point a meteorite could fall on my head - but it helps me navigate life.”
Dragana’s Picks for…
Significant Photobook(s):
Ravens, Masahisa Fukase
Favourite photographer(s):
Recent Discoveries:
None
Become a member at pod.fan!
Episode sponsor: Is me!
If you think you might know someone in need of a new website please pass on this link: Boat Drinks Studio. I will pay you a 10% commission for any web design work I get as a result.
Thanks for this Ben. Rena's book looks absolutely beautiful, and I'm sure I'll end up buying it. There are no screenings within 150 miles but I'll keep an eye out for other opportunities.
I absolutely love Dragana's honesty: not just during the interview, but in answering the question here.
Cheers.