60th KFF – 2020

dir. Radu Ciorniciuc

85′dok2020

A Roma family lives in a nature reserve in Bucharest. Their life undergoes a dramatic change when they have to move to a flat in an apartment building. They need to face problems related to a different lifestyle, unknown to them until then.

dir. Zhenya Kryukova

26′fab2019

The confrontation between two adult children of a dead man occurs in his cramped flat on a gloomy day. The brother and the sister have not seen each other for a long time. Their paths have diverged, but mutual animosities have only become stronger. The combination of grief, vodka and the soul creates a powerful image of a family crisis.

dir. Richard Minier, Edouard Salier

81′dok2019

The film title is a reference to a piece by Las Maravillas de Mali, pioneers in Afro-Cuban music. In 1964, a group of young musicians from Mali was sent to a Caribbean island to strengthen the cultural ties between the two communist countries.

dir. Olga Bołądź

28′fab2020

A difficult topic and stirring powerful emotions – abortion – set against a surprising background. A story of accelerated growing up which is abruptly imposed on the main protagonist against her will. The teenager appears in the very centre of the fantasy, which is both beautiful and scary. Yet the decision cannot be postponed for ever and she is surrounded by a multitude of advisers.

dir. Anna Benner, Eluned Zoe Aiano

6′anim2020

They say that once there was a nurse who was raped by the Nazis. Supposedly, she fell ill after that. Apparently, she decided to take revenge... The animation tries to reconstruct an urban legend from the times of World War II using stories told by the residents of a Czech town.

dir. Jeppe Rønde

47′dok2020

A poignant cross-genre picture focused on questions about the nature of the relationship between man and technology. Have we already created a new Frankenstein? If yes, will he destroy us? Or maybe he will love us? Jeppe Rønde does not give us any ready-made interpretations. He assumes that asking questions is the most interesting.

dir. Piotr Stasik

55′dok2020

“Who would you like to become?”, “what would you like to tell us?”, “what is the most important thing in life?” – answers to these questions are delivered by children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. The documentary allows us to glance at their fascinating and unconventional minds.

dir. Dekel Berenson

15′fab2019

Somewhere in Eastern Ukraine, in a place without prospects or hope for a change, Anna, who is a middle-aged single mother, decides to give life yet another chance. Under the influence of a radio advert she signs up for a soirée organised by a dating agency that provides matchmaking services for American men and Ukrainian women.

dir. Tomasz Wolski

53′dok2020

Controlled conversations, recording with hidden cameras, dirty records of interrogations and recruitment attempts as well as video tutorials for the officers of the security service – all of these materials are employed to portray the monitored life in Poland under communism.

dir. Maartje Nevejan

89′dok2019

In her childhood, Maartje Nevejan suffered from epileptic seizures during which she had the sensation of non-existence, temporary inability to participate in the world. Today, the Dutch artist confronts the enigma of space void in the multimedia project of which the film is a small but focal part. Nevejan engages artists and scientists as well as spectators in her projects.

dir. Milena Mądra

10′dok2019

dir. Maja Gehrig

7′anim2019

Standard elements of data presentation ran away from Power Point and became the protagonists and the set design of the animation. The sensual dance of bar charts, diagrams and digits alludes to the mutual impact of individual indicators, a domino effect and problems of individuals hidden behind statistical reports.

dir. Łukasz Konopa

22′dok2019

Without any hesitation, Joza could be called a jolly good fellow. Open, funny, fluent in foreign languages and passionate about his job of a guide in Jerusalem. But behind this jovial image, there hides a man whose adventurous biography could be shared among a few people.

dir. Eva Mulvad

84′dok2017

Charlie Siem is a modern man of success. He is a renowned violinist and a model working for the most important fashion designers. Young, handsome and rich, he lives his luxurious life being constantly on the road. Is there anything that he misses?

dir. Ramón Sánchez Orense, Susanne Krauss

8′dok2019

Sport emotions, youthful energy and plenty of joy. These are the surroundings in which teenage Amina is growing up. Her mother was unable to find a place for her in a traditional school, so she signed up her hearing daughter for school for deaf students. The girl has been very successful there, she has learned the sign language and become a coach of the basketball team made of deaf children.

dir. Kristian Håskjold

19′fab2018

Night after night Erik works alone in his bakery. His only company is the late-night radio show, which he persistently attempts to get through to be honoured "Joker of the Week". He has gradually become more and more distant to his family, and all his efforts to re-establish the connection seem in vain. A growing depression hurls Erik into a tailspin, that in the end culminates in a desperate cry for help.

dir. Marcin Wojciechowski

11′anim2020

How to create new pieces if "scattered sounds revolve around the room and words take no shape"? The animation by Marcin Wojciechowski is not only a story inspired by the life of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's lead singer, but first and foremost - a universal story of a man who cannot handle the reality.

dir. Andrea Sorini

76′dok2019

The Baikonur Cosmodrome developed in the 1950s is the birthplace of the myth of Soviet space exploration and the symbol of its growth and decline followed by partial resurrection. This desert region of Kazakhstan, crossed by the Silk Road in the past, is also the place where other myths have been building up.

dir. Mads Koudal

19′fab2019

A story about an impossible, albeit inevitable, choice as well as a profound bond between a mother and a daughter. Seldom does life write for us scenarios we would dream about. An unwanted official letter changes both characters’ course of life forever. Only one of them is fully aware of what is going to happen, but she is unable to prevent it.

dir. Dorota Proba

53′dok2020

Is there a recipe for a successful relationship? Three couples, which differ in terms of their age, experience and the relationship's duration, reveal their fears and dreams related to their life together in front of the camera. This warm and wise film is full of difficult questions, surprising answers, intense emotions and humour, just like life itself.

dir. Damian Kocur

26′fab2020

Black and white photographs, amateurs in leading parts and the small realism of Poland’s provinces. Paweł is a single man who works on a small river ferry. Day by day he keeps doing the same things until he meets Mohammad, an illegal immigrant. Paweł decides to help him. Finally, there is someone he can talk to.

dir. Patrick Smith

4′anim2020

A journey through cultures, traditions and beliefs of people from all over the world using 3475 masks. The masks from the Japanese Nō theatre, Mexican skulls or decorations from the carnival in Venice are mixed with pop culture images of Hello Kitty or Lord Vader. Each of them is a symbol or has a secret story to tell.

dir. Jerzy Śladkowski

86′dok2020

A cruise along the Volga river may be an opportunity to heal one’s broken heart, experience a romance or repair a failing relationship. With tenderness, the camera captures the characters’ big and small dramas rooting for their efforts to find true love.

dir. Ed Perkins

27′dok2018

The story of Cornelius Walker, whose life changed on the day, when is peer Damilola Taylor was killed. Filmed with non-actors, the film blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction to pose difficult and highly topical questions about race and identity. Who decides what makes us who we are? And what compromises are we prepared to make in order to fit in?

dir. Maciej Jankowski

42′dok2019

"I like to feel powerful", says Andrzej detained in a unit for recidivists. But problems with the law and drugs make him admit his weakness. Will therapy and a rehabilitation programme help him get back on his feet and sort out his complicated relationship with his girlfriend?

dir. Stéphanie Lansaque, François Leroy

13′anim2018

A visual, acoustic, and odorous ballad through the wandering of a one-eyed dog. In the maze of Old Hanoi's narrow streets, daily life and legend mingle on the syncopated rhythm of Hat Xam, the Vietnamese blues.

dir. Valentin Riedl, Frédéric Schuld

5′anim2019

Valentin Riedl is a neuroscientist and a physician. Frédéric Schuld is an artist and an animator. Together, they show the internal world of a woman suffering from prosopagnosia, a perception disorder characterised by the inability to recognize faces.

dir. Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

22′fab2019

Trembling camera. Christmas tree. Lights. Holiday commotion, talks, arguments and naughty children. Fun that gets out of control. Or, maybe it got out of control much earlier? The secret that charismatic Jude is hiding will tear this delicate family tissue into shreds.

dir. Grit Lemke

98′dok2019

"Bob Dylan from a mine", is how one of the most famous bards of the German People’s Republic, who was still a star after the unification of Germany, was dubbed. Gerhard Gundermann turned from a worker who believed in communism into the icon of the change that affected his industrial region and the entire country.

dir. Benjamin Swiczinsky

4′anim2019

Donald Trump announces the day when "cowboys lost to Indians". America is re-settled by its indigenous peoples, while others have to go back home. Bruce Lee, Robert de Niro, Woody Allen, among others, set off on their journey… A film about the US immigration policy, the fear of immigrants and colonialism observed from a distance and presented in the comic book style.

dir. Przemysław Świda

6′anim2020

The protagonist goes for a crazy run within his own consciousness trying to recognize consecutive versions of himself. What will happen when his egos finally meet? In an abstract way, this animation shows the process of personality development employing the visual play with a black line and the free merging of consecutive images.

dir. Dominika Łapka

29′dok2020

Dominika visits her father, whom she has not seen for many years and knows only from letters. These few days that they will spend together in his flat will not be enough to change anything in their uneasy relationship. The conversations will be difficult and full of emotions. Will the daughter finally manage to ask the most important question?

dir. Marie Grahtø

19′fab2012

It is Christmas. The presents under the Christmas tree have been there for a long time, but twelve-year-old Daimi is waiting for her mother to return before she unpacks them. She is alone in an empty flat accompanied only by her pet, an unruly pig.

dir. Beatrice Möller

25′dok2019

This small African state on the east coast of the continent, once an Italian colony, was a country occupied by neighbouring Ethiopia. Railways were built in Eritrea thanks to Europeans while Ethiopia is blamed for their collapse. The film focuses on two men who cannot imagine their lives far away from the rail tracks.

dir. Jannik Splidsboel

84′dok2019

For many years, the Aborigines were treated as sub-humans in their own land. Although the times have changed, the effects of colonisation are still visible nowadays. Unemployment, alcoholism and suicide are the most common associations with the region of Kimberley where the film characters live.

dir. Mo Scarpelli

108′dok2020

It is not easy to make a feature film with your own father, in particular when he becomes the main actor and the story is inspired by his life in the Amazon jungle. Additionally, he has a serious alcohol problem. The work on the set turns into a psychodrama.

dir. Victor Asliuk

28′dok2020

This Belarussian necropolis is a place where some people can meet with dead family members and spend time on contemplation. Few others try to look for the traces of the past there and yet another group engages into family feasting. The faces from tomb photographs, frozen in time, look at all of them.

dir. Anders Thomas Jensen, Tomas Villum Jensen

12′fab1996

Jesus Christ returns to earth with a mission to save the world with the assistance of a new chosen individual. But two thousand years later the world is completely different and the chosen one is not particularly interested in the proposal of collaboration.

dir. Louise Detlefsen, Louise Unmack Kjeldsen

87′dok2019

They are young, beautiful and proud to call themselves fat. The characters are not ashamed of their ample shapes and fight for self-acceptance regardless of their looks or opinions of those that accuse them of obesity promotion.

dir. Julia Pełka

14′dok2019

The relationship that Varsovians have with clams is similar to the one that once joined canaries and miners. Eight completely inconspicuous molluscs bear the responsibility for the health or even lives of hundreds of thousands of the city residents. Julia Pelka, describes not only the complexities of the capital’s water supply system.

dir. Gilles Cuvelier

17′anim2017

Pedro has found a new job. A kind of strange one, but these days, he can't afford to be fussy. It's a real chance! Anyway, he's never been the kind of getting cold feet ...

dir. Paweł Banasiak

80′dok2020

An extraordinary life story of a Polish model and a celebrity who made a dazzling career in Italy in the early 2000s. The high-octane lifestyle has its price – addictive euphoria turns into depression. And when after many years she seems to have found her peace thanks to faith, the story takes an unexpected turn…

dir. Péter Forgács

75′dok1996

The chronicle of announced death – the story of the Holocaust of Hungarian Jews told using unique archival family materials. The everyday life of the well-off Petö family is thoroughly documented by an amateur filmmaker from Szeged who registered the first years of the war, still carefree, and the consecutive stages of persecution until the tragic summer of 1944.

dir. Wouter Sel, Thijs De Cloedt

19′anim2020

Johnny Supro is like an animated "Taxi Driver" from Scorsese's film who observes moral decay from his car: violence, alcoholism and sexual assaults. Was his life influenced by a girl called "Ghost Eye"? A neo-noir journey to the darkest corners of the human soul.

dir. Jan Borowiec

39′dok2019

The discovery of the eponymous negatives portraying the local Jewish community which were hidden in the attic of a townhouse in Lublin becomes the starting point for a fascinating journey in time and space. The thorough analysis of the miraculously retrieved photos leads to surprising findings…

dir. Anna Koch, Julia Lemke

91′dok2020

Who says a rodeo is for men only? Four girls are divided by almost everything, they have different cultural background and different motivation, but they share a common passion. They feel perfectly comfortable in the saddle, just as well as their fathers and male friends do.

dir. Aleksandra Maciejczyk

18′fab2019

The borderland between Poland and Ukraine. Zoja comes to Poland to sell goods at a local market, together with her brother, but soon escapes from work in order to meet Iśka, a friend she has not seen for a long time. The teenage girl has just buried her father. The tension and closeness arising between the girls is misinterpreted by one of them.

dir. Ewa Ślusarczyk

18′dok2019

dir. Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

76′dok2020

Screening with Polish audio description only

dir. Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

76′dok2020

Full of archival delights, the film is a story of an aristocrat condemned by his family and a man of many faces and talents. This admirer of female beauty who enjoyed life to the fullest was a sportsman, artist, a friend of Witkacy and a citizen of the world. Who really was August Zamoyski?

dir. Joanna Rytel

19′anim2019

Secretly, she is filming everything. In a surreal apartment a cougar, a guest, a child and promises of a dog if the child plays along.

dir. Olga Papacz

8′dok2020

dir. Yulia Vishnevets

90′dok2020

Two young idealists start work at school, which they very much want to change. Over the course of one year we can observe their efforts to win the confidence of their teenage students, to stimulate their interests and educate them to be better people.

dir. Konstantin Bronzit

16′anim2019

Konstantin Bronzit returns to take the viewers to space again. This time the director shows a story of a woman and her son who is born … in a space suit. The boy's dreams of a space flight are toned down by his mother as space has already taken someone away from her. A moving animation about growing up and looking for your destiny.

dir. Hasan Oswald

78′dok2019

When Nani, a drug addict, becomes pregnant, her partner Daryl, who is unable to help her anymore, tries at least to save their baby. Without any anaesthetic, the film shows the brutal reality of the American opioid crisis.

dir. Marek Gajczak

61′dok2019

The legendary Writers’ House at Krupnicza Street in Kraków was a unique place on an international scale. After the war it became a foothold for homeless authors. In 1945-1996 over 100 of them lived there (including Szymborska, Kisielewski, Mrożek, Różewicz and Gałczyński).

dir. Nicolas Fattouh

10′anim2020

One day flowers ceased to smell the way they used to. Then music on the radio became interspersed with noise until it stopped playing completely. When an elderly woman started losing her senses one by one, the housekeeper took care of the grandma. A poignant story about old age using metaphor to show the painful process of departing.

dir. Anna Pawluczuk

22′dok2019

An atypical portrait of a veteran of the competition in "floating on whatever you can find". Every year Arnold constructs hideous unidentified floating objects. His work is accompanied by constant chaos and the family life follows the rhythm dictated by the anticipation of the coming event.

dir. Péter Forgács

100′dok2009

The history of Hungarian immigration to the US in the early 1900s. A variety of testimonies, letters, photographs and takes from the period reflect the feverish rhythm and paradoxes of the life in the new world in an evocative way. On the one hand, there is freedom from the rigid framework of the class system of post-feudal Europe and, on the other – economic exploitation on an unprecedented scale.

dir. Andrias Høgenni

21′fab2018

What are the consequences of blocking someone online? An accidental meeting of two friends in a shop gives rise to reflections on social media and their role in human contacts.

dir. Julia Orlik

15′anim2020

"I’m here!", the protagonist would like to cry out, but she not even able to ask for a glass of water. She cannot get up because the disease confined her to bed and made her dependent on others. Nevertheless, she can hear very well what her family members say about her condition. This piercing story about loneliness is presented from the perspective of a dying woman.

dir. Ben Reid

20′fab2019

Narrated with the verve characteristic of the best British crime stories, this film is an engaging puzzle from the very first until the last take. It is full of emotions, drama and suspense. A worker of a social welfare home dies in mysterious circumstances – he falls out of a window. How did it happen? Only one man knows the answer - Dylan, a boy with Down syndrome.

dir. Jakub A. Kozieł

26′dok2019

Albert used to be the king of life. He had a prosperous photo atelier in New York and led a playboy’s life. Today, he is a taxi driver in Tarnów, Poland. After many years, tired of provincial reality, he decided to go back to the US and close off some unfinished business.

dir. Dorota Bator

14′dok2019

The title of this documentary impression by Dorota Bator refers to a place in between civilisation and nature. An older couple lives in harmony with nature following its rhythm. Among green trees and singing birds they cultivate the land and keep bees on a bee farm in picturesque surroundings.

dir. Jonas Elmer

76′fab2017

In Polish version.

dir. Eva Marie Rødbro

76′dok2019

When you live in the suburbs of Colorado Springs, it is difficult to escape your destiny. The director observes three generations of women from up close and creates an impressionistic picture of daily life which also reflects the internal world of the characters.

dir. Andrej Kuciła

19′dok2020

A small hamlet lost in the endless Belarusian province. Walentyna, who is 92 years old, lives in a little cottage off the beaten track where she takes care of her daughter who was born paralysed. A frightfully beautiful film about limitless sacrifice, great power of imagination and poetry which can replace reality.

dir. Edmunds Jansons

70′anim2019

In Polish version.

dir. Mariusz Rusiński

17′dok2020

dir. Shoko Hara

15′dok2020

This is not yet another story about a psychopathic murderer and a rapist, although Richard Ramirez was definitely such a person. It is a story about women who were fascinated with him and with whom he maintained correspondence. The director, being one of them, gives them the voice employing the animated form.

dir. Jędrzej Michalak

25′dok2019

In his film, Jędrzej Michalak reveals a unique combination of music and politics. Poly-Rythmo is a popular band performing soul music combined with voodoo rhythms. In their memories, the musicians of the band return to the times of Mathieu Kérékou, "a rebel nationalist" who authoritatively rules in Benin.

dir. Péter Forgács

46′dok1997

An ironic take on Hungary in the era of real socialism which reveals the schizophrenic discrepancy between the official and private version of the communist reality. Lifeless ideological speeches illustrated with sluggish work of labourers on a large construction site and naked female bodies photographed from somewhere in hiding.

dir. Verena Wagner

21′dok2019

A glass plant in a border region comes to life with the arrival of its first employees. They are well-built, tattooed men from the Czech Republic and Germany. They live in symbiosis, communicate in both languages, but mostly they are focused on work. Thanks to their strong muscles, fragile beauty is created.

dir. Greta Stocklassa

87′dok2019

A feature-length debut of an artist with Swedish and Czech roots. Thanks to the former she went to eponymous Kiruna, a small town of a little under 20 thousand residents located behind the Arctic Circle. The iron ore mine expansion forced the local authorities to transfer a part of the town to a new location.

dir. Franciszek Dźwierżyński, Łukasz Stryjewski

5′dok2020

Kite surfers in the Hel Peninsula. The power of the element and people who can harness it with seemingly childlike carelessness. Breath-taking evolutions. And the passion which literally and figuratively lifts them into the air.

dir. Andrew Norman Wilson

33′dok2019

The story told by American artist Andrew Norman Wilson may appear incoherent and meandering at first. The spectator has to find himself the concealed relationships between pictures, archival photographs, films, advertisements, computer animations and fragments of stories told by two enigmatic protagonists. It is a fascinating reflection on the status of images and people in the society of late capitalism.

dir. Karin Kainer

62′dok2019

In Tel Aviv, one of the most secularised cities of Israel, there is a beach for Orthodox Jewish women. Fenced and marked, it attracts female beach-goers dressed in traditional clothes. It is a shelter and a meeting place for praying women of different ages. They swim, exercise, meditate and even surf under the watchful eye of lifeguards.

dir. Vladimir Kozlov

71′dok2019

In 1945, the USSR annexed the Kuril Islands. Soon after, the Japanese who had lived there for generations, were expelled and their culture was erased from memory. The current residents continue to find the traces of the Japanese past and are longingly looking forward to a better future.

dir. Klaudia Kęska

26′fab2020

A summer idyll in a thriving family vineyard is interrupted by an assault on Yana, one of its seasonal workers. The victim’s story can only be confirmed by one person, her friend Tosia. The teenager faces a difficult moral dilemma between justice and protecting her family. What will she choose?

dir. Michał Edelman

67′dok2020

Although they look almost identical in black balaclavas, they have arrived at extremely right-wing views along very different paths. For six months Michał Edelman accompanied the members of the National-Radical Camp from Łódź during rallies organised by them with the culmination on the Independence Day in 2019.

dir. Peter Hegedus

75′dok2019

The tempestuous history of the 20th century, three continents and three generations of abandoned women. Lili, who is Hungarian, has been living in Australia for many years. She left her homeland right after the revolution of 1956. Her elder child, little Lili, stayed in Europe. The abandoned daughter started a family, experienced a tragedy and left for Canada on her own.

dir. Joder von Rotz

8′anim2020

dir. Zuzanna Woźniczka

11′dok2019

dir. David Valero Simón

21′fab2019

The backlands of sunny Spain and an old-school band in its annual tour of festivals in small villages and towns. Shiny jackets and catchy songs. This time, however, the tour is different. The lyrics become lost, just like time and places. It is a journey towards the last great concert of life.

dir. Weronika Szyma

6′anim2020

A glance into the mirror encourages a young woman to gradually discover her carnality. She starts with uncertainty and distance to continue with increasing courage and interest. The bolder are the woman’s gestures, the subtler the animation. An erotic game employing visual understatement, body fragments and blurred contours begins.

dir. Marijana Jankovic

22′fab2018

A tender glance at immigration as seen by a child. Maja, together with her parents, moves from Serbia to Denmark where she has to learn overnight how to function in a completely new and foreign reality.

dir. Tessa Hoffe

15′fab2019

"Your son is Polish, too?", "He was born here. He is also Romanian", Sonia, a manager of a housing estate for seniors, answers the question which was definitely not asked for the first time. A complaint has just been filed against her. But neither she nor the leaking roof is a problem. The problem lies in the residents and their undisguised reluctance towards the immigrant.

dir. Martyna Majewska

29′fab2020

A story suspended between drama and grotesque, humour and philosophy. Maria is dead, but she remains alive. She committed suicide but remains in her live body for a few days. Not knowing how she killed herself, she is looking for the reasons of her own death. She does not remember them. She observes what the world looks like without her. What now?

dir. Péter Forgács

52′dok1994

This film, a product of editing amateur wartime footage, includes scenes from the occupied countries of Europe somewhere on the margin of history, far away from the main fronts of World War II. The world has gone mad, the disaster is just around the corner, but life goes on with its own momentum.

dir. Daria Godyń

8′anim2020

On New Year’s Eve in 1999 a man, who does not leave home that night, becomes by accident a witness to a murder. He begins a lonely investigation as if he were Humphrey Bogart of the 21st century. Alluding to cinema noir and Hitchcock’s thrillers, the film is a black comedy about millennial fear featuring plastic figurines of Virgin Mary, a blanket with the pope’s image and a grandma wearing a pink tracksuit.

dir. Péter Forgács

70′dok2006

Nostalgic memories, black and white emotions and the first signs of the upcoming catastrophe. Edited using unique archival footage from the period, the film tells the story of a Viennese beauty’s social advancement and great love on the eve of the catastrophe that will annihilate this world.

dir. Suela Bako

20′fab2019

A group of pickpockets robs the passengers of a city bus. Sonila’s purse is also stolen from her bag, which she refuses to ignore. She is convinced that she can recognise the perpetrators if the police help her. Minute by minute, this simple incident is turning into the Kafkaesque absurd.

dir. Ryszard Lenczewski

8′dok2019

Screening with Polish audio description only.

dir. Ryszard Lenczewski

8′dok2019

This documentary by Ryszard Lenczewski is an experimental take on his work and family life. A cinematographer and a co-author of pictures to ‘Ida’ by Paweł Pawlikowski, among others, this time he shoots the space permeated with the spirit of the past – his workroom and collection of photographs.

dir. Hristo Simeonov

20′fab2019

This example of small realism in cinema is an observation of a trapped girl, devoid of affectionate sentimentalism. How did Nina become deprived of the carefree joy of childhood so that she ended up in the care of a much older man in an unknown city, far away from her family? She makes her living as a pickpocket. She finds friendship in the company of an abandoned dog. During her next attempt she is caught red-handed, but her victim decides not to call the police and, instead, offers help. Will it be sufficient to escape to a better life?

dir. Peter Torbiörnsson

104′dok2020

What does a young girl dream of in a small village in Nicaragua? Prince Charming who will help her to get away from her poor home. Prince Charming will appear, but instead of happiness he will bring about violence and destitution. Twenty years will pass before Ninosca decides to leave her violent husband and set off for Spain to follow her dreams.

dir. Antonio Galdamez

29′fab2020

The sun will rise any minute now. A new day is about to start. Fishermen are returning to land with nets full of fish. Screams of seagulls wake up the inhabitants of a seaside metropolis and superintendent Delman is beginning another investigation. It may be the most difficult case of his life because he and the victim share a secret. A genre film with elements of social realism.

dir. Gwanjo Jeong

95′dok2019

As two Korean brothers find out, music may unite as well as divide people. One of them is a piano virtuoso with autism and the other remains within his shadow, both on stage and in the eyes of their mother, who raises them alone.

dir. Kijek/Adamski

4′anim2020

A woman is trying to have a dialogue with a man on a pedestal. She wants to tell him something using the sign language, while he remains silent, cast in stone. Only when the statue is hit by a rock and it begins to fall apart, is there a chance for the two characters to find understanding.

dir. Daniel Roher

102′dok2019

How did one of the most famous rock’n’roll bands come to life? It is hard to imagine The Band without Robbie Robertson who shaped the musical image of the group as its guitarist and author of lyrics. The film features, among others, Martin Scorsese, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

dir. Vuk Mitevski

11′anim2019

Macedonia, as a stop in the Balkan migration trail, is a direct witness to the suffering of thousands of people. “One of Many” shows a love story taking place in the background of the refugee crisis. Visual metaphors and abstract images make the story more poetic and brutality less literal.

dir. Renata Kijowska

60′dok2019

Please, meet the band On the Top made of rock ‘n’ rollers and rebels. Some members of the group are mentally disabled, some of them are residents of social welfare homes, but thanks to their great passion they do what they like best and they are really good at it.

dir. Ulaa Salim

8′fab2014

A relationship between a father and a son at the backdrop of generational and cultural differences. The father, born in Jordan, moved with his family to Denmark to have a better life. Now, his son needs to face all the prejudice directed toward his father.

dir. Shamira Raphaela

73′dok2019

He is a white middle-aged man, an exemplary husband and a father of a large family. His name is Constant Kusters. Currently, he is one of the most important Dutch politicians. His party, known for strong right-wing views, is gaining more and more popularity, while assimilated immigrants are watching all this with concern.

dir. Tessa Louise Pope

24′dok2019

Three girls tell their stories of taking the most important decision of their lives. Their faces shown in close-ups express more than words: pain, solitude and the overwhelming burden of responsibility. Even though all of them are convinced that they did the right thing, the experience of abortion will change their lives forever.

dir. Maryia Yakimovich

29′dok2020

A beautiful and moving film about a difficult love. Atmospheric, fleeting animations and VHS home video footage bring back careless moments of the past. But happy childhood is only an illusion covering up difficult memories: the father's mental illness, fear and the family breakdown.

dir. Martyna Holda

6′anim2020

In a "paper house" there lives a girl who has never been loved by her family. For her mother, she has always been a burden, a dispensable element roaming around. The girl has always had to play by herself, perform the scenes of a loving family using dolls and escape to the world of imagination. This black and white animation reminds us that childhood is not always colourful.

dir. Thanasis Neofotistos

13′fab2018

Face pace, suspense and one take. Thanks to its precise form, this seemingly trivial story grips the viewer as if it was a vortex. An actress is in a rush to a rehearsal when she discovers that her son stayed home alone. The woman must deal with the crisis situation using only her phone and fast pace while walking through a dangerous district of Athens. Grand Jury Prize at the Hollywood Film Festival.

dir. Pushpendra Singh

82′dok2019

The Manganiars are a Moslem community that lives primarily in the desert of Rajasthan and is famous for its musical heritage. Combining an ethnographic observation and a creative documentary, the film tells the story of the clash between tradition, cultivated for generations, and modernity.

dir. Boris Benjamin Bertram

78′dok2019

For 20 years, this famous Danish photographer has been documenting incidents of human rights violations and on-going conflicts where he has often found himself is the epicentre of war. But the greatest challenge he will have to face is at home.

dir. Péter Forgács

133′dok2016

A tribute to Mária Gánóczy – an excellent Hungarian painter who worked in post-war Hungary. The paintings and films from the protagonist’s private archives make the portrait of an artist who, in uneasy times, was able to combine her love for art and sacrifice for the family.

dir. Przemysław Jan Chrobak

83′dok2020

In this road movie four repeat offenders, who converted in prison, set off on foot to the Vatican, drawing a special trolley with a gift for the pope – a painting of Merciful Jesus. Four of them are tough guys badly bruised by life, while the fifth pilgrim seems to be a mismatch running away from his own demons.

dir. Tomek Ducki

7′anim2020

A secret garden hidden under the ground is managed by a lonely gardener. The place is bleak, suffocating and disturbing, yet magical. One day, a little boy with dangerous nails grows out of a pot instead of a plant...

dir. Paweł Ferdek

85′dok2020

It has been no secret that Hollywood was created by Polish Jews. A contemporary director from Poland is following in their footsteps, trying to pursue his own American Dream. The documentary focuses on the pursuit of dreams, which has always driven the film industry. But how to come up with a recipe for success?

dir. Natalia Durszewicz

5′anim2020

This eponymous "female portrait" is made of social expectations, stereotypes and cultural constructs. Finally, the woman decides to liberate herself from the surrounding limitations. Will she manage to escape? This animated interpretation of a poem by Wisława Szymborska, a Nobel Prize Laureate, was painted using the palette of red shades.

dir. Tomasz Wolski

15′fab2020

A single film shot and a single event that shakes up the everyday routine of people sharing the same backyard. Everyone is in a hurry, but an unconscious man is lying on the pavement – and he is the eponymous 'problem'. A short gripping fiction film revealing the director's documentary experience and realistic angle.

dir. Francesca Mazzoleni

98′dok2019

The local community of Ostia, despite constant changes in the neighbourhood, is not going to surrender to the marine element or human plans. The director observes with fondness the female community and the unique atmosphere of the place that may soon disappear from maps.

dir. Emil Langballe

60′dok2019

A few days in the life of the most laid back barber in Denmark. If you visit Quasim’s salon not only may you leave with the hairstyle like Will Smith or Mike Tyson but also have an opportunity to meet people and talk about love, politics or the longing for the homeland you left behind.

dir. Szymon Ruczyński

8′anim2020

A woman called a witch lives in a small town. People accuse her of casting spells on them, causing the death of seven cows, stopping the development of municipal investments and other misfortunes. Only one woman defends the witch. Will she also change her mind when a tragedy strikes her? Hate and double morality are an inherent part of this story about a witch hunt.

dir. Jiří Havlíček, Ondřej Novák

15′fab2018

Olda (17) is an accused waiting for his trial in a detention centre for juveniles. The monotone prison life is gradually intertwined with memories of a police reconstruction. It took one summer night for the holiday boredom to turn into a cruel fun that resulted in death.

dir. Michiel van Bakel

10′anim2020

"I like to visualise things that were not seen before and in this way enhance my experience of reality", says Michiel van Bakel and this is exactly what he does in his film. The photographer and filmmaker who also studied astronomy and psychology makes use of his competencies to evoke spectre-like pictures of the famous Dutch sanatorium.

dir. Tod Lending

80′dok2019

Both survived the Holocaust, live in the US and started a klezmer band a few years ago. Ruby and Saul’s biggest dream is to come with concerts to Poland – the country where they were born and experienced their greatest trauma.

dir. Catti Edfeldt, Lena Hanno

79′fab2016

In Polish version.

dir. Réka Bucsi

21′anim2017

"Solar Work" is an experimental and playful visual composition made by Hungarian-born Réka Bucsi. Space exploration pursued by the film protagonists is, according to Bucsi, a beautiful adventure, absurd and melancholic at the same time. The universe as animated by the artist reveals the face which is surprisingly friendly, if not human.

dir. Paweł Chorzępa

40′dok2019

A subtle story of difficult family relations. Marcin was taken away from his alcoholic parents when he was twelve and he spent the rest of his childhood in a children's home. After he comes of age, he comes back to his family home and tries to re-establish contact with his father. Yet alcohol addiction turns out to be more powerful.

dir. Michał Ciechomski

30′fab2020

A story of an angler who faces the end of the world. The ominous prophecy of Saint Ichthys begins an apocalyptic story about the bond between Nature and Man and about how easy it is to destroy the delicate balance between these forces. Intriguing and discomforting, the film is part of the discussion about ecology, not without humour.

dir. Mehrdad Oskouei

74′dok2019

Seldom can one pass through the gate of an Iranian prison with a camera, in particular when it is a facility for women. The film characters are inmates who are serving sentences for killing men – their family members. Their life behind bars is sometimes safer and freer than the one they had at large.

dir. Alexandru Brendea

82′dok2019

He is a man of passion, an enthusiast of knowledge and, above all, an erudite and an exceptional teacher. The protagonist of the documentary, who had become tired of railing against the Romanian system of education, took matters in his own hands and founded a school. At his own home, with passion, he teaches more than just maths to a group of students.

dir. Martyna Peszko

29′dok2020

A minimalist chronicle of everyday challenges that one needs to face when looking after a paralysed person. A daughter takes up efforts to talk, possibly for the last time, to her mother, who communicates with the world only through eye ball movements.

dir. Flatform

22′dok2019

A trance film made by the Italian-German artistic collective Flatform (Anna Maria Martena and Roberto Taroni). This perfectly edited sequence of intermingling takes is reflection on the age of man – the Anthropocene.

dir. Jakub Šedý

30′dok2019

‘I’m trying to live in a normal way for my family’, said one of the protagonists of the documentary about the everyday life in Kyiv, a city where the echoes of war can still be felt.

dir. Daniel Dencik

25′dok2019

Christopher is a young and well-read man whose passion is cycling. Although he regularly participates in competitions, he always loses. It is not just bad luck, but his conscious decision. Empathy and the need to be useful turn out to be essential.

dir. Jarosław Szmidt

91′dok2020

The author of the film observes seven-year-old Zuzia's struggle for life from up-close. The girl suffers from an extremely rare genetic skin condition. Her skin, as sensitive as a butterfly's wing,falls apart under the gentlest touch. The possibility to alleviate the girl's suffering is an expensive surgery in the USA.

dir. Jarosław Szmidt

91′dok2020

Screening with Polish audio description only.

dir. Federico Borgia, Guillermo Madeiro

78′dok2019

He is a former bodybuilding champion. He has been left with a serious kidney disease after his sports career, but Antonio Osta has not said his last word yet. The authors of the film capture his complex relationship with his son asking questions about the meaning of masculinity and strength.

dir. Daniel Vernon

77′dok2019

He was a man of many talents and what he went through would be sufficient for several biographies. He recorded his album "Changin’ Times" in prison, where he was serving a life sentence. Conflicting accounts reveal the portrait of an African American artist stigmatised because of his background and entangled in his own lies.

dir. Bogdan Mureşanu

23′fab2018

On the 20th of December, 1989, a few days after Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's bloody repression in Timisoara, a father’s quiet evening turns to sheer ordeal as he finds out that his little son has mailed a letter of wishes to Santa. As far as the child understood, his father’s desire was to see Ceausescu dead.

dir. Péter Forgács

60′dok1998

What links Slovak Jews, escaping through Romania to Palestine in August 1939, and Bessarabian Germans who were returning to their homeland they had never seen before one year later under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact? This masterpiece of editing brings nameless heroes of great history back to life.

dir. Tadeusz Łysiak

30′fab2020

Julia works at a roadside motel and is overwhelmed by the ubiquitous sense of rejection and loneliness. She is different and the society has made it very clear to her many times. She dreams of a relationship and physical intimacy with a man. Unexpectedly, she meets a handsome truck driver and her fantasies start revolving around him.

dir. Maija Blåfield

29′dok2020

Cinema is powerful, it affects the senses, stimulates imagination and, above all, influences what we think about the world. The protagonists of this documentary are refugees from North Korea who, on the basis of smuggled foreign films, shaped their vision of reality outside the borders of the closed country.

dir. Gleb Osatinski

9′fab2019

Andrei must sign documents in order to have his father disconnected from life support. This definitive decision triggers old memories in the man. "The Father" is a subtle story, full of tenderness, about the relationship between the father and the son, the most important things and moments that shape us as human beings.

dir. Pawlina Carlucci Sforza

28′dok2020

A terrifying story about the times of lawlessness and the fear which still helps to protect the identities of the murderers. Right after World War II, near Przeworsk, people returning from forced labour in Germany were killed by their neighbours in large numbers. The authors of the film have managed to reach bloodcurdling accounts of the people who as children witnessed the atrocities.

dir. Andrey Gryazev

70′dok2020

Contemporary Russia without censorship is captured in a YouTube kaleidoscope. Complaints and insults, recorded by desperate and frustrated individuals, pour out of screens. They are addressed to President Putin. The film title is a reference to the famous novel by Andrei Platonov.

dir. Alex Evstigneev

19′dok2020

This Russian school for cadets has frozen in time. Although the boys can use mobile phones to talk to their family members and surf online and the military drill classes include ballet exercises, the spirit and thinking about the power of the eastern empire seem to have remained unchanged for years. The camera patiently portrays students giving them an opportunity to speak about themselves and also captures them in various everyday situations. The documentary shows the picture of regular boys who have become entangled in dangerous mechanisms at a young age. The winner of the Silver Dragon Award for the best short documentary film at the 60th KFF.

dir. Joonas Berghall

85′dok2020

An alcoholic, a man struggling with depression, a former soldier, a father deprived of parental authority and a patient with a heart condition. All of them are the citizens of the world’s happiest country – Finland, just like the film director, who decides to take a closer look at his countrymen.

dir. Péter Forgács

60′dok1997

The footage used in the film was shot in Holland at the turn of the 1940s. The people captured in it are enjoying life: practicing sports, playing with their children and flirting. Although it is hard for us to bear that we cannot distinguish between them, they include both future victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust.

dir. Maria Stachurska

54′dok2020

The protagonist of the film is Stanisława Leszczyńska, a heroine of the wartime occupation who had worked as a midwife before the war and later helped Jews from the Łódź ghetto. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, where her mission began. She helped women to deliver their babies at the most sinister place on Earth.

dir. Alexandra Navratil

5′dok2019

The Swiss artist explores the history of such a fascinating medium as analogue photography, which has been enjoying a comeback. In "The Night Side" she refers to the unknown details of the technological process that accompanied the production of Agfa-Orwo photosensitive materials. What was the role of blind Gundula Brett in it 25 years ago? Is a picture born only at the meeting point between darkness and light?

dir. María Molina Peiró

20′dok2019

On 20 April 1972 Charles Duke made his first step on the Moon. At the age of 36, he was not only one of the youngest but also one of the last lunarnauts. On the surface of the Silver Globe Duke left his shoe tracks as well as a photograph, important for him, which became the subject of fascinating artistic and documentary deliberations of Maria Molina Peiro.

dir. Margreth Olin, Katja Hogset, Espen Wallin

70′dok2020

Lene Marie Fossen does not want to be the ‘icon of anorexia’, although photography is a self-therapy form for her. Her pictures, shocking and beautiful at the same time, become a recording of her desperate struggle against the disease and death.

dir. Bartosz Kozera

25′fab2020

There is a stone in the middle of the park. It is not a typical boulder. When a nun in a wheelchair touches it, she is healed. The abbess of her convent dreams of announcing the miracle but for the archbishop the stone is too secular, too common to be considered a miraculous object. The abbess does not want to give up. She comes up with another idea.

dir. Behzad Nalbandi

61′dok2019

Prostitution, drug addiction, violence and homelessness are everyday experiences of the protagonists of Behzad Nalbandi’s animated documentary. They are called cardboard box sleepers because cardboard boxes are their home before they end up in a shelter at the outskirts of Iran's capital city.

dir. Özgür Anil

30′fab2020

The court verdict for a rape on a 17-year-old girl during a young people’s party filmed by the perpetrator’s friend using a mobile phone does not close the case. The trauma of the victim as well as her family remains. It is the sigma that everyone will have to learn how to live with. Yet, its perception is different for everyone – the teenage girl, her brother and society.

dir. Maciej Cuske

59′dok2019

The tradition of whale hunting still remains alive among the residents of the Siberian frontiers. The hunting ritual provides people with food and enables them to survive in difficult conditions. The film contemplates the daily life of the Chukchi Peninsula and reveals the brutal aspects of the existence in this forgotten place.

dir. Henryk Dederko

50′dok2020

This blunt and naturalistic film is at the same time warm and extremely touching. The new picture by Henryk Dederko offers a closer insight into the phenomenon of a musical about menopause in which four eponymous "tigresses" - with a pinch of salt but without beating around the bush – tell stories and sing about their lives after menopause.

dir. Henryk Dederko

50′dok2020

Screening with Polish audio description only.

dir. Boaz Goldberg

70′dok2019

The figure of Charlie Megira has been shrouded in mystery until today. We know that his real name was Gabi Abudraham and that he was a colourful bird of Israeli underground who looked like a character from the early films by Jim Jarmusch. What demons were hiding behind Charlie’s stage mask?

dir. Chintis Lundgren

18′anim2019

A lost job makes Toomas look for another source of income. He starts as a plumber and ends up in Italian porn-westerns. He keeps his new occupation a secret from his pregnant wife. She has her secrets too... A risqué animation with wolves as the main characters leading up to an unexpected finale.

dir. Juliette Viger

8′anim2016

New York, jazz and… a wolf. A reticent teenager tries to tame her father who has turned into a wild animal. Lost in his musical madness, he becomes increasingly more distant from his daughter and cannot see the scale of destruction caused by his behaviour.

dir. Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, Kalp Sanghvi

11′anim2019

A dystopian vision of Calcutta flooded by water, inevitably rising due to global warming. Its residents, paddling in the flood, deprived of their homes, fight for survival with a pride of tigers. Who will win this battle? Who will have to be sacrificed to save others?

dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk

30′fab2018

Professional weightlifter Petro is preparing for an important competition. But before the competition, he receives tragic news that force him to make a difficult decision. Petro's inner conflict makes him into more than just a mechanical bundle of muscles.

dir. Katarzyna Warzecha

11′dok2020

A moving animated story about memory, loss and the search for one's roots. A story of the great love between a Polish student and an Iraqi Kurd interrupted by a war. It is also the chronicle of the generation growing up at the end of the communist era in Poland and of the gradual discovery of family secrets.

dir. Oleksandr Zaporoshchenko

80′dok2019

This extraordinary contemplative documentary shows the lives of several monks living at holy Mount Athos in the peninsula of Athos. Their everyday life is subject to strict rules. They pray devoutly and work tirelessly for their community from which women are excluded.

dir. Izabela Zubrycka

11′dok2019

dir. Tomer Shushan

21′fab2019

An ordinary situation transforms into a social drama. By accident, the protagonist finds his beloved bike which was stolen a month ago in the street. Trying to get it back, he launches a chain of events that will soon make him question his own actions. Who commits a graver crime here? The apparent thief or the noble and just man?

dir. Rubika Shah

81′dok2019

The London movement Rock Against Racism was born in 1976 as a protest against the radicalisation of nationalist attitudes. Its weapons included, above all, mass music concerts. The heated atmosphere of those events is recreated today by the co-founders and fans of the movement.

dir. Anders Østergaard

87′dok2019

A marriage of talented Jewish musicians escapes to the United States during World War II. Many years later their son reveals the details of the couple’s life in Nazi Germany in a conversation with his father.

dir. Péter Forgács

32′dok1992

An experimental film essay based on "The Logical Philosophical Treatise" by Wittgenstein. Juxtaposing archival, black and white photos from the early 1900s with oral and written quotes, Forgács illustrates the key concepts for the Viennese philosopher, such as logic, language and reality.

dir. Stephen Irwin

10′anim2020

There is a hunt in progress, more and more animals are falling dead. Only a little boy is resistant to the hunter's shots. A bullet doesn't kill him, but opens a tunnel to a magical forest in his belly. This is how a psychedelic journey in a time loop, full of bizarre animals, absurd events and surprising metamorphoses, begins.

dir. Aleksandra Potoczek

73′dok2020

An intimate portrait of a man on the road. The film shows a priest, aged 85, who can always find time for a meaningful conversation and, simultaneously, remains torn between his faith and concern about the condition of the contemporary Church, in particular in Poland.

dir. Aleksandra Potoczek

73′dok2020

Screening with Polish audio description only.

dir. Daria Kopiec

6′anim2020

Find a job, get married and get down to work – the slogans repeated by his parents make the character’s ears bleed. This animated caricature of a family dinner and a satire on the life in the shadow of social expectations is a drama in three acts. It includes two dishes and a dessert – topped with a religious sauce, spiced with choral singing and served on grotesque tableware.