THE SUCCESS OF "VIOLATED LETTERS" IN BATUMI
During the recent Batumi International Art-house Film Festival (BIAFF), a film by Maciej Drygas took prominence over pictures such as "The Erotic Man" by Jergen Leth, "The Exit Through The Gift Shop" by Banksy and "Khodorkovsky" by Cyril Truschi.
The film "Violated Letters" by Maciej Drygas was given the award for the Best Doc Film at the festival in Batumi.
"Violated Letters" is a unique filmic collage, in which Maciej Drygas gains access to archives of IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) and reveals the letters of Poles written in the PRL era (the Polish People's Republic); controlled by the Security Service, daily correspondence of Polish people becomes a base for a director to create a touching, inntimate portrayal of Poles between 1945 and 1989.
Through those frames, a civilization of queues, pilgrimages and work becomes visible. "This film is not only a story of PRL, but also a study of a world unfriendly to a man- a picture of everyday life under invisible weight of a system" - says Tadeusz Sobolewski in his review of "Violated Letters" in Gazeta Wyborcza (Polish daily newspaper).
"Violated Letters" premiered in Poland during the 8th Planete Doc Festival in May this year. Maciej Drygas's film competed in The Magic Hours, the feature documentary section of the International Competition.
The film "Violated Letters" is distributed worldwide by Arte and internationally promoted by Against Gravity.
BIAFF is an Art-house film festival organised in Georgian Batumi since 2006. Apart from the film by Maciej Drygas, the international jury awarded "Code Blue" by Urszula Antoniak (best actress). This year's programme also included a short film screening from the Film School of Andrzej Wajda ("Little Bride" by Leslaw Dobrucki, "Glasgow" by Piotr Subbotko, "North from Calabria" by Marcin Sauter, "Decrescendo" by Marta Minorowicz and "Paparazzi" by Piotr Bernaś).
More about the festival can befound at www.biaff.org.