SUCCESS OF POLISH FILMS IN TEGERNSEE
At the recently finished International Mountain Film Festival in Tegernsee, two Polish documentary films were shown: "The Place" by Julia Popławska and "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański. Both returned from Germany with awards.
The International Mountain Film Festival in Tegernsee was held for the thirteenth time. The film "The Place" by Julia Popławska was honoured with the festival's Grand Prix, whereas the Jury's Special Mention went to Paweł Wysoczański for his film "Jurek."
"The Place" depicts the highest workplace in Poland, where night observation of the surrounding world incessantly goes on. The employers of "the Place" suspended out of time and space, are unshakeably on their posts, in spite of any adversity and surprising situations.
"Jurek" presents the story of Jerzy Kukuczka, who died on 24 October 1989 during the Lhotse expedition. It was the first time when we went to the Himalayas with money, equipment, and a a really famous person. The documentary by Paweł Wysoczański does not, however, concentrate on the mystery of the Himalayan mountaineer's death. It shows a person who climbs up, higher and higher - literally, but also metaphorically and symbolically. From a bootblack to a millionaire, from a socialist worker to an international media star, from the man who climbs without any money and equipment to the real competitor of Reinhold Messner in the competition to climb the Crown of the Himalayas and the Karakoram. Interviews with family and friends, archive materials, photographs, recordings, excerpts from television programmes and interviews make up the portrait of the Himalayan mountaineers in 1980s. It is also the image of the times in which they lived - hard and colourful at the same time, when idealism was more valued than fame.
The full list of award-winning films is on the festival's website.