A non-competitive section “Polish Film Panorama”, will present 22 carefully selected documentaries, short films and recent animations.
As previously, this year’s Krakow Film Festival will run at the turn of May and June. The programme will include, among others, a non-competitive section “Polish Film Panorama”, presenting 22 carefully selected documentaries, short films and recent animations.
This year, surprisingly from the Krakow’s perspective, we will start with a film based in Warsaw “The Palace”, a recent documentary from Tomasz Wolski, will be one of the main highlights of this section. Wolski, this year’s festival judge, awarded previously in Krakow and the winner of the Golden Frog prize for “The Doctors” at Camerimage Festival in 2011, is back with a new documentary film “The Palace”, portraying Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, the hated reminiscence of Stalinism, with a pinch of salt. Through the lens of a camera we will reach the hidden corners of the building and take a closer look at the crowd, taking part in a very humorous observation that inspired the director to pose further questions.
After a strong emphasis on Warsaw, we join Tomasz Magierski and the protagonist of his recent film “Blinky and Me”, Yoram Gross, the Australian animation producer with Polish-Jewish background, on his sentimental journey back to Krakow. Journey, which is both tough, as it recalls the times of Holocaust, and pleasant, because it’s spent amongst his grandchildren who, through discovering the previously unknown past, realize how close are connections between the animated biography of “Disney” and his work. The extraordinary career of a grown up Yoram wouldn’t be possible without his ongoing will to survive, cheerful character and Jerzyk’s frivolous sense of humor. The film has been recently awarded at the Jewish Motifs International Film Festival and the protagonist will participate in its screening in Krakow.
In this section, we will also present “Waltz with Miłosz” by Joanna Helander and Bo Persson, about previously unknown peer influences and relations between the poet and the 8th Day Theatre; as well as Słowomir Rogowski’s and Stanisław Zawiśliński’s film “Tala of rosary”, portraying a controversial novelist of the communist regime and Karol Wojtyła’s friend of his youth – Natalia Roleczek.
Worth mentioning is also a screening of two out of five parts of “World form Dawn till Dusk”, a project by Mirosław Dembinski and Maciej Drygas, produced under the artistic supervision of Jacek Bławut, Marcel Łozinski, Maciej Drygas, Andrzej Musiał, Mateusz Werner and Vita Żelakeviciute. In this collaboration young filmmakers focus their cameras on the inhabitants of the capitals of Russia and Ukraine. “Moscow from Dusk till Down” will take us to various places of the city describing a great variety of Moscow’s occupations; while “Kiev from Dusk till Down”, a reference to the legendary “The Cruise” by Marek Piwowski, will invite us to join the sailing trip along the Dnieper River accompanied by the inevitable oligarchy, young musicians and the old war veteran – from this journey funny and, at the same time, warm image of the city will emerge.
Polish fiction will be represented by two unique short films produced by an indie filmmaker Bodo Kox – “The Pipe” starring Mateusz Damięcki which, with a typical for the director sense of humor, refers to Andrzej Wajda’s “The Sewer”; and “Lunar River” starring Maria Seweryn and Wojciech Mecwaldowski, describing the first landing on the moon from the Chech perspective. What’s interesting is the fact that both films were made in the National Film, Television and Theate School in Łódź.
This year’s programme of the “Polish Film Panorama” section will be complemented by a screening of films made in Munk’s Studio, whose programming board involve such people as Agnieszka Holland, Jacek Bromski and Michał Kwieciński – head of the judging panel of the Polish Film Competition at the 52nd Krakow Film Festival. The most recent production of the Munk Studio will be available to watch during the festival, including a short animation by Artur Kordas, “Roundabout”, Ewa Podgórska’s documentary “ The Chicken and the Egg” , which will have its world’s premiere during the festival and two features – “Battleheart” by Tomek Matuszczak and Sylwester Jakimow’s “Amigos forever”, awarded at the latest edition of Youth and Cinema Debut Film Festival in Koszalin.
In addition to the newcomers, the festival will be attended by such tycoons of Polish cinema as Andrzej Titkow, Sławomir Grünberg or Krzysztof Materna, who will make his directorial debut this year.
We take both Polish Film Panorama and the Polish Competition as an indication for foreign distributors, who frequently visit our festival”, says Krakow Film Festival director Krzysztof Gierat. Films selected by them in Krakow are most likely to become successful around the world.