"THE QUEEN OF SILENCE" AWARDED AT LET’S CEE
On October 11 ended Let’s Cee Film Festival in Vienna. The film by Agnieszka Zwiefka won the main award in the Documentary Film Competition.
At the festival, the audience could watch 118 productions from Central and Eastern Europe. 11 films competed in the Documentary Film Competition, and the Best Film award went to "The Queen of Silence" by Agnieszka Zwiefka.
The film tells 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.
Agnieszka Zwiefka was awarded the Silver Horn for the director of the best feature-length documentary film at the 55th Krakow Film Festival. At the festival, the cameramen were also honoured: Aleksander Duraj and Armand Urbaniak received the Polish Society of Cinematographers Award for the best cinematography, sponsored by Chimney Poland.