59^th Inter­na­tional Film Fest­ival in Mel­bourne means 18 days of screen­ings, 227 fea­ture films and 99 short films from over 50 coun­tries – among them also the rep­res­ent­a­tion of the brand new Pol­ish cinematography.

59^th Inter­na­tional Film Fest­ival in Mel­bourne is the largest and the most import­ant film event in Aus­tralia, and it is also one of the lead­ing fest­ivals on the world. Its sig­ni­fic­ance is sup­por­ted by the fact that since 1996, the num­ber of each edition’s view­ers has been increas­ing by 230 per cent. The fest­ival in Mel­bourne offers an extremely rich pro­gramme, diverse as far as the form and top­ics are con­cerned. Fea­ture films as well as doc­u­ment­ar­ies and anim­a­tions are shown.

Dur­ing this year’s edi­tion of the fest­ival, the audi­ence will have an oppor­tun­ity to get acquain­ted with sev­eral Pol­ish films. Within the frames of the cycle “Pol­ish Shorts”, seven short films will be shown, among them “Poste Rest­ante” by Mar­cel Łoz­iński. The film presents the story of a let­ter, which was addressed to God, and per­haps that is why it ended up in the Depart­ment of Unsent Mail in Koluszki.

Also two feature-​long doc­u­ment­ar­ies will be presen­ted in Mel­bourne. These include: the 2009 Oscar-​nominee “Rab­bit a la Ber­lin” by Bartek Konopka, a story about the Ber­lin Wall told from the per­spect­ive of rab­bits liv­ing there, and “War Games” by Dari­usz Jabłoński, his­tory of Rysz­ard Kuk­liński, a Pol­ish col­onel, who handed over the top secret doc­u­ments of the Warsaw Pact to CIA dur­ing the Cold War.

It is note­worthy that it is the first time when Pol­ish films have such a strong rep­res­ent­a­tion in Mel­bourne. Dur­ing the pre­vi­ous edi­tions, only a few films appeared, among them three doc­u­ment­ar­ies. In 2005, “Born Dead’ by Jacek Bławut and “For a Mir­acle” by Jarek Sztand­era were shown, and in 2008 – the doc­u­ment­ary “The Exist­ence” by Mar­cin Kosz­a­łka.

59^th Inter­na­tional Film Fest­ival in Mel­bourne starts on 22^nd July and ends on 8^th August.

Detailed inform­a­tion about the fest­ival can be found on: www​.mel​bour​nefilm​festival​.com​.au (20.07.2010)