"AN ORDINARY COUNTRY" AWARDED AT VISIONS DU RÉEL

The Visions du Réel festival in Nyon has just ended. One of the awarded films was the latest documentary by Tomasz Wolski.

Visions du Réel has been organized in the Swiss city of Nyon since 1969. At the beginning of the festival in Nyon, mainly Swiss films and productions from Eastern Bloc countries were showcased there, as they were very difficult to see by audiences from Western Europe. Currently, Visions du Reél is one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe. This year's edition was held entirely online.

The medium-length documentary "An Ordinary Country" was honored with the Jury Prize Clinique de Genolier. The award is given to the most innovative films in its category. Tomasz Wolski's film is an extraordinary record of Polish reality from several decades ago. They were everywhere, trying to remain invisible. They filmed hiding in restaurants, streets, shops. They registered illegal fuel bottling at one of the single-family housing estates. Another time they captured the unsuccessful launching of the MIR (friendship in Russian) frigate ship or Fidel Castro playing basketball with the Krakow team. They recorded a meeting of lovers at the hotel and an editorial meeting at Polish television, where journalists talked about propaganda. Sometimes officers registered interrogations, during which they blackmailed the interrogated and forced them to cooperate. At other times they tried to get detailed information about their daily expenses, including the type of meat and the amount of butter. They overheard the telephone conversations of a man with a friend in Oslo, from whom he ordered hemorrhoids ointment, which could not be bought in the country. They filmed riots, during which people threw trash bins at them. They also recorded their own dramatic conversations during the siege of the militia station, which the strikers set on fire. The imprisoned asked for help, which could not come.

The awarded documentary  was produced by Kijora Film. It was the world premiere of the film. The Polish one will be at 60th Krakow Film Festival. 

More information about Visions de Reél can be found on the festival's website.