THREE POLISH FILMS AT HOT DOCS
On 23rd April, the International Documentary Film Festival "Hot Docs" in Canada starts. In the programme of this year's edition, there are three Polish documentary films: "The End of the World" by Monika Pawluczuk, "The Place" by Julia Popławska and "The Queen of Silence" by Agnieszka Zwiefka.
Initiated in 1993, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary film festival on the American continent. It takes place every year in spring, and film screenings are accompanied by international film market and industry conferences. This year's edition, the 22nd one, begins on April 23 and lasts until May 3. During this edition, 210 films from 45 countries, chosen from among 2435 films submitted to selection, will be shown. At the festival, there will be 47 world premières and 55 international premières.
For the film "End of the World," the screening at Hot Docs will be its world première. The documentary film was produced by Wajda Studio. The film by Monika Pawluczuk shows one night in a big city: people are talking and listening to each other: on the radio, in a dispatch centre, in a therapy session, or in a taxi wandering through the streets: these intimate stories are formally interwoven into a simple yet precise structure.
"The Queen of Silence" is a film telling the story of deaf and mute girl, 10 year-old Denisa, who lives on an illegal gypsy encampment, but also the story of the place itself, threatened with eviction. Like other children on the encampment, Denisa has never been to school, she can neither read nor write, and lives in extremely difficult conditions, without running water and constant access to electricity. In addition, she is also laughed at by her peers, who call her "the deaf one" or "the silly one," rarely using her name. However, Denisa lives in her own world. Since she found a box with Bollywood films among the rubbish, she finds escape from the everyday reality in them. The girl spends all her days watching Bollywood choreography and tries to imitate it. Because Denisa never learnt to speak, dance is her only language. Only by dancing she can give vent to her anger, show sadness or joy. In the film, two layers - the documentary, strictly observational one, and the musical one, inspired by Bollywood, smoothly intertwine with one another, creating one, consistent story.
We would like to invite you to read the review of the film.
"The Place" by Julia Popławska documents everyday life in the workplace which is located at the highest point in Poland, where night observation of the surrounding world incessantly goes on. The employers of "the Place," suspended out of time and space, are unshakably on their posts, in spite of adversity and surprising situations.
"The Queen of Silence" and "End of the World" were shown in 2014 within the frames of Docs To Go.
The full programme of the festival is available on the Festival's website.