POLISH DOCUMENTARIES IN THE COMPETITION AT THE 54TH KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL

We already know the full list of films qualified for the competitions of 54th Krakow Film Festival. This year, 21 Polish documentary films will compete for awards in various competitive sections.

Polish Competition

– Krakow Film Festival is a mirror of our cinema in the area in which we achieve the greatest success in the world – says Krzysztof Gierat, the director of the Festival. – Each year the Polish competition arouses the strongest emotions. It comes as no surprise, it is here where international careers start for those who win or are noticed by foreign visitors among other filmmakers.

The selection committee has chosen 21 films for the documentary section of the Polish competition. This year, the trend, which began to crystallise during previous editions of Krakow Film Festival, continues - Polish filmmakers prefer to shoot their films abroad. The result can be spectacular, like in the film "6 Degrees" , which documents the six degrees of separation theory, or in the moving film "Samuel" by feature filmmaker Jan Kidawa-Błoński, who had to find the protagonist of his film and the hero of Polish land in Israel, or finally in "Domino Effect" , a story about love in Abkhazia, forgotten by the world - very current, taking into account the events in Ukraine.

A documentary film is a perfect tool to bring attention to people from the margins, who are excluded at their own request or by the rulings of history, and Polish filmmakers use this tool in a skillful and sensitive way.In the programme of 54th edition of KFF, there will be films about the simplest joy of living ("It’s Only a Dream”), about struggle for life ("W. Sisters' Beauty Salon"), the need to leave a trace of oneself ("One Man Show”) or about being responsible for other being ("Werka”). A documentary film is also the prism through which one observes the reality. It was the greatest strength of the films by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Wiszniewski and Kazimierz Karabasz. The young filmmakers follow in their footsteps, ironically looking at Polish need to honour historical victories ("From Grunwald Village"), maliciously portraying the war of the sexes ("Survey About Men") or saying a nostalgic goodbye to the travelling circus ("Knife in the Wife").

The viewers will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with the story of the largest prison revolts in Europe after the IIWW ("Rebellion"), look closely at the life story of Wojciech Zamecznik and his family ("House on the head") and ponder the phenomenon of the cultural centre "Nowy Wspaniały Świat" ("Brave New World"). They will also meet interesting protagonists. The protagonists of the film "Together" are people, who transferred all their feelings to their animals, "Strongwoman" is a woman from a mountain village in Dagestan, who - in the surrounding patriarchal world - behaves in a non-conformist way. In the Polish competition, also the opening film of the 54th KFF will take part - "Dream of Warsaw," the biographical story about Czesław Niemen.

It is worth noting that almost all competition films are supported by Polish Film Institute. An exceptionally strong representation has also been prepared this year by Channel 2 of the Polish Television.

The full list of films qualified for the Polish competition can be found here.

The documentary competition

The films which may take part in the competition have to be longer than 30 minutes. 10 medium-length films, including two Polish ones, will compete for the main prize - the Golden Horn. These are: "What’s next Karolinka – Norwid and Nicole” and "Let Them Love, Let Them Dream”, as well as 10 feature-length films, including 2 Polish ones "Deep Love", "Domino Effect" and a Polish-Australian co-production "Once my mother."

The authors of " What’s next Karolinka – Norwid and Nicole” try to find out how Karolina, who made her début in the film „Hi, Tereska” by Robert Gliński deals with the challenges of being a single mother. It is worth emphasising that the film picks up the threads taken up by the film „What’s next Karolinka”.

The documentary competition at the 54th KFF also looks at different facets of love. Janusz, in spite of having suffered a stroke, cannot imagine his life without diving; his girlfriend and physiotherapist Asia tries to dissuade him from this dangerous pastime ("Deep Love”). The marriage of the minister of sport of Abkhazia with a much younger opera singer from Russia is not a bed of roses, particularly because cultural differences become apparent ("Domino Effect").

The thread of the family is closely intertwined with history in the film "Once my mother” by Sophia Turkiewicz, in which the director tries to find the reasons why her mother, an emigrant, left her in an orphanage, and the entire story is outlined against the background of the tale about the wanderings of Siberian deportees.

The full list of films qualified for the documentary competition can be found here.

The short film competition

The short film competition is the most diverse competition of Krakow Film Festival. Three genres are mixed in it - documentary, animation and fiction film, and the films come from various parts of the world. Polish documentary film will be represented in the short film competition by Jakub Stożek and his film "W. Sisters' Beauty Salon" - about two sisters who have the only beauty salon in Poland dedicated to cancer patients. It is worth mentioning that the director of the British film "Vegas," qualified for the competition, is a Pole - Łukasz Konopa.

The full list qualified for the short film competition can be found here.

DocFilmMusic Competition

DocFilmMusic, the youngest of the four competitions of Krakow Film Festival, takes place for the second time. The music documentary films submitted to the selection have to be longer than 30 minutes. The winner of this section will get the The Golden Heynal award and a cash prize amounting to 20 000 zloty. Two Polish films will compete for this award: "The New Warsaw” and "For Being Alive.”

"The New Warsaw" records a project by Stanisława Celińska and Royal String Quartet. New arrangements of popular songs about Warsaw are interwoven with a story about the actress, whose fate was united to the history of the capital city in a special way. "For Being Alive” will bring to the festival cinemas strong Polish punk from Polish People's Republic.

The full list of films qualified for the DocFilmMusic competition can be found here.

The films to all four competitions of Krakow Film Festival have been chosen by the selection committee working under the guidance of the president Krzysztof Gierat. The documentary films were recommended by the film critics Anita Piotrowska and Anna Bielak and film theorists Jadwiga Hućkova and Marta Hauschild. The short films were selected by the director Paweł Kloc and film critics Joanna Ostrowska and Tomasz Bielenia. All Polish films, regardless of their genre, were watched by the critic Jerzy Armata.

Polish Docs is the patron of the Krakow Film Festival.