POLISH DOCUMENTARIES AT THE 55TH KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL
We already know the full list of films qualified for the competitions of 55th Krakow Film Festival. This year, 20 Polish documentary films will compete for awards in various competition sections.
Polish films will participate in three competitions: International short film competition, International documentary film competition and Polish competition. There will also be non-competing screenings called "Panorama of the Polish film," a Polish production will also be seen in the section "Festival Award Winners."
Documentary film is often based on an interesting main protagonist, and it is similar in this year, the documentary film makers will make us acquainted with well-known personages, among others, Andrzej Gołota ("Endrju," dir. Tomasz Blachnicki, Robert N. Wachowiak) and protagonists unknown to a wider group, discovered by the documentary film-makers. In this group, we will get acquainted, among others, with 11-year-old Denisa, a deaf gypsy girl, whose passion is music and choreography from Bollywood ("The Queen of Silence", dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka) and a 16-year-old apprentice of the art of haircut, who dreams about great love ("Love, Love," dir. Grzegorz Zariczny). The protagonist of the film "Mów mi Marianna" ("Call me Marianna") by Karolina Bielawska undergoes the process of sex change operation, which complicates her relationship with the family, and in the film "Raj na ziemi" ("Paradise on Earth"), the perfomer Cecylia Malik looks tenderly at her neighbours - goldbricks, a homeless couple from Krakow.
The festival will not lack films with historical, reckoning context, asking questions, such as "The Dybbuk. A Tale of the wandering souls" by Krzysztof Kopczyński about Uman in Ukraine, a pilgrimage destination of Hassidic Jews and the place of expansion of Ukrainian nationalists. Bogdan Dziworski, last year's winner of the Dragon of Dragons, the eminent documentary film-maker, will show his first film in 25 years, entitled "Plus and minus, or the fly's journey to the East" - a phantasmagoric diary of a journey in the footsteps of... Joseph Stalin.
There is a strong representation of films about sport at this year's 55th Krakow Film Festival. Tomasz Blachnicki and Robert Wachowiak managed to approach Wisława Szymborska's favourite athlete, heavyweight champion Andrzej Gołota, Bartosz Kowalski achieved a perfect drama in "Unstoppables" by juxtaposing totally different protagonists, their story and family relationships as well as the passion they share - American football. How does it feel to be the worst football team in Poland and not to lose heart? The film "Little Big Team" by Krystian Kamiński shows in a warm and charming way the dreams about great football of LZS Chrząstawa team, playing on a football pitch which was rooted by wild boars, whose masseur has do go somewhere and did not come back. Piotr Bernaś, the author of the famous film "Paparazzi," will show his new documentary film "Life of a Butterfly" - about a competitor in MMA - fighting arena where no holds are barred.
Mountain-climbing enthusiast will be certainly happy to watch two films: reminiscent "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański, about the most famous Polish Himalayan mountaineer Jerzy Kukuczka, and the long-expected film by Eliza Kubarska "K2 - Touching the Sky," which asks what is the price of passion. Three young people embark on a K2 expedition in the footsteps of their parents, who undertook this challenge in the past and never returned from this expedition.
The Documentary competition
The films which participate in the international documentary competition have to be longer than 30 minutes. This year, 5 Polish films will compete for the main award, the Golden Horn: "Casa Blanca" by Aleksandra Maciuszek, "The Dybbuk. A Tale of the wandering souls" by Krzysztof Kopczyński, "The Queen of Silence" by Agnieszka Zwiefka, "Call me Marianna" by Karolina Bielawska and "Plus and minus, or the fly's journey to the East" by Bogdan Dziworski.
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 feature film, and the films come from various parts of the world. Polish documentary film in the short film competition will be represented by the film "Object" by Paulina Skibińska and "Love, love" by Grzegorz Zariczny.
The Polish competition
In the Polish competition, there are 39 films, including twenty documentary films. In addition to the films, which qualified also for international competitions, the following productions are included in this section: "Agfa 1939" by Michał Wnuk, "Endblum" by Wiola Sowa and Dorota Krakowska, "Endrju" by Tomasz Blachnicki, "Figure" by Katarzyna Gondek, "K2 - Touching the Sky" by Eliza Kubarska, "The End of the World" by Monika Pawluczuk, "Talk to me" by Marta Prus, "Unstoppables" by Bartosz M. Kowalski, "Piano" by Vita Maria Drygas, "Paradise on Earth" by Cecylia Malik, "The Snails" by Grzegorz Szczepanik, "The Island" by Natalia Krasinlikova and "The Life of a Butterfly" by Piotr Bernaś.
Panorama of the Polish film
Panorama of the Polish film is a non-competing section of Krakow Film Festival. This year, it is almost completely overmastered by documentary films. We will see there, among others, documentary films portraying well-known personages: "(Dis)appearance" by Magdalena Łazarkiewicz tells the story of Piotr Łazarkiewicz, "The Actress" by Kinga Dębska and Maria Konwicka recalls Elżbieta Czyżewska, while "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański brings closer the story of Jerzy Kukuczka.
In the programme of this year's Panorama, there is also "Aram" by Krzysztof Talczewski, "Little Big Team" by Krystian Kamiński, "Big-Man" by Jędrzej Michalak, "Egzamin dojrzałości" by Filip Gieldon,"The Place" by Julia Popławska, "Niepamięć" by Piotr Brożek, "I am Kuba" by Åse Svenheim Drivenes, "Singing in Exile" by Nathalie Rossetti, Turi Finocchiaro, "Together, written separately" by Anna Kasperska, "Pill Junkies" by Bartosz Staszewski, "The return" by Adam Zucker, "Totart" by Bartosz Paduch and "Football Brothers" by Marcin Filipowicz.
Festival Award Winners:
In the section Festival Award Winners there will be films which are already successful at international festivals. Poland will be represented by the documentary film "Something better to come," repeatedly awarded abroad, among others, at IDFA in the Netherlands, Italian Trieste Film Festival and Croatian Zagreb Dox.
The film tells a story of an 11-year-old Jula, who lives on the Svalka, the largest dumping ground in Europe, 20 km away from the centre of Moscow. The area, surrounded by a wall and controlled by the guards, is supposed to be free from all kinds of intruders. However, there is a small group of people who live there and make a small community, deprived of the rights. These people are Jula's closest family. She leads her life here, and here Jula dreams about future far away from the dumping ground.
In total, during the 55th. Krakow Film Festival, there will be 60 films chosen from among 268 submitted titles, including 36 documentary films, 10 feature films and 14 animated films by Polish directors.
You can find the full list of Polish films participating in Krakow Film Festival here.