PAWEŁ KLOC AWARDED IN GEORGIA
The first edition of the documentary film festival Cine-Doc Tbilisi ended last Sunday in the capital of Georgia. A film by Paweł Kloc ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” received the Special Jury Award in the International Competition.
The Cine-Doc festival in Tbilisi has taken place this year for the first time. Eleven titles have competed in the International Competition. The jury including Paul Pauwels (Belgium), Tue Steen Mueller (Denmark) and Viktoria Belopolskaya (Russia) decided to give the Special Jury Award to the film “Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Paweł Kloc.
The motivation for the verdict states: ‘The Special Jury Award goes to a documentary that very much seduced the jury by its’ cinematic qualities and its’ intriguing protagonist. By using powerful images and an impressive and well-balanced soundtrack the filmmaker introduces us into a society that in reality looks quite different from the one to be found in the glossy images of the travel agency brochures. Every scene of this film is of a seldom seen intimacy, bringing the viewer very close to the internal struggle of a man trying to be good in a bad world. In addition, the filmmaker manages to introduce a second layer on top of the personal story: this of the constant scandal of sexual abuse of women and children in a society that sometimes seems completely lawless’.
“Phnom Penh lullaby” is an intimate story of a man looking for love and acceptance. Ilan Schickman left Israel dreaming of a new life. He now lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with his Khmer girlfriend Saran and daughters Marie, 2 years old, and Jasmine, 6 months, trying to make ends meet as a street fortune-teller.
It’s also worth mentioning, that the main prize of the International Competition went to the Lithuanian director Lina Luzyte for the film “Igrushki”.
You can find the full list of awarded films at the festival’s official website.