POLISH DOCUMENTARIES WIN AT CZECH FESTIVAL
Apolonia Apolonia by Lea Glob was named Best Film while Alisa Kovalenko received the Best Director Award for We Will Not Fade Away at the recently concluded International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World.
International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World in Prague is one of the world's largest festivals dedicated to films about human rights. Last year it attracted more than 125,000 viewers. In addition to screenings in Prague, films from the One World program are also shown in 36 cities in the Czech Republic and abroad.
This edition proved extremely successful to Polish co-productions. The main award went to Apolonia, Apolonia by Lea Glob.
The winning documentary tells the story of French-Polish painter Apolonia Sokol, who leaves Denmark and moves to her native Paris to work on her art there. Viewers get the chance to see the evolution of her beliefs about sexuality, art, ideals and love, and witness how her talent matures while she herself shifts to the commercial side of the artistic world.
In We Will Not Fade Away by Alisa Kovalenko – recognised for best direction – we follow five Ukrainian teenagers growing up in small towns near a coalfield. Like their peers around the world, they struggle with boredom and the many frustrations of finding their own identity and path in life. However, these five live in the Donbass, where there has been war for years. Not only has the region been economically devastated, but there is constant fighting in the distance – and sometimes quite close by. The youngsters are struggling with reality, trying to find their way in all this chaos through drawing, photography, music and, above all, friendship.
You can find the list of all awarded films here.