POLISH PROJECT AT DOK LEIPZIG CO-PRODUCTION MEETING
Among 35 projects that have qualified for this year's edition of the DOK Leipzig Co-Production Meeting there is also one from Poland – Katarzyna Trzaska's 'Birdwatching', produced by ZYGIZAGA Films. Its authors may seize an opportunity to get production companies and founding institutions worldwide interested in their new film.
The DOK Leipzig Co-Production Meeting will see its ninth edition this year, to be held on October 28-29. Being a fringe event for the DOK Leipzig festival, the Co-Production Meeting is meant to provide a common ground of contact for film producers from different countries, thus helping to initiate international co-production projects. Participants of Co-Production Meeting attend ‘one-to-one’ meetings with representatives of production companies and founding institutions of their choice, but they may also participate in case studies and discussion panels concerning issues of co-production. Brazil and Israel will join this year's edition of the event as special guests.
Having debated for several weeks, the programmers made their choices to accept 35 out of over 230 projects submitted and invite them to participate in the event. One of the projects that have made their way into the final group is Polish 'Birdwatching', authored by Katarzyna Trzaska and produced by ZYGIZAGA Films.
The film takes place in the Biebrza National Park, Poland, where the director of the film was born. The beginning of a one-week hatching period of water-fowl attracts ornithologists from all over the world. One of them is a German from Berlin, Jan Avenhous, an advertising agency employee, personally a vegan and a passionate advocate of eco lifestyle. Jan, who up until now mostly stayed over in hotels when travelling, wants his vacation to be different this time. He plans to rent a wooden cabin right at a riverside, with no conveniences, so as to get in even closer touch with nature. During his stay, Jan, who speaks Polish language, is bound to come in contact with locals living in the village, exchange views and reflections on the nature that surrounds them.
What fuels dispute and humour in the film is a clash of two different worlds – that of a man living in a developed and industrialized Western European country, accustomed to comfort but sick of the ever-increasing pace of city life, and that of a Polish family living on a farm, who have adopted a very clear attitude to nature: it is the source of beauty, something they all cherish since childhood, but also occasionally commit wrongdoings against it (such as poaching or throwing litter about). Jan takes nature seriously and with proper respect but he is no more than a temporary guest in that place. As for the farmers, their relationship with nature is much deeper and stronger, even though it's sometimes beyond their conscious grasp and most elderly villagers, jaded with strenuous work, like the idea of moving...to a city.