61st KFF – 2021

dir. Tomasz Wolski

70′dok2021

Tomasz Wolski reveals the real dynamics of the events on the Polish Coast in December 1970. Combining archival footage with recently discovered transcripts of conversations between decision-makers, he creates an overall image of the protests. He pays tribute to the fallen but mostly sheds new light on actions of the authorities: recalls specific names and exposes mechanisms of repression and propaganda.

dir. Izabela Plucińska

5′anim2021

People applaud you because you are so strong that you can lift a 98 kilo barbell. They do not know that, behind the closed door, you use your strength to beat your wife. A terrifying animation about home violence and a complicated relationship that is difficult to get away from.

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. Joanna Quinn

16′anim2021

In ‘Affairs of the Art’ everyone seems to be a freak of a kind. The narrator thinks she is the only normal person in her crazy family. Is that really true? The animation uses black humour to show, in an exaggerated way, our obsessions and persistent pursuit of our dreams.

dir. Tomasz Knittel

52′dok2020

Free admission, limited number of seats. There are no real musicians anymore today. What is left is a handful of buffs cultivating folk sounds. Adam Strug, a performer and promoter of traditional music, is our film guide to this world.

dir. Lasse Linder

19′dok2019

Christian, a lonely middle-aged man, lives with his two beloved cats, Marmolada and Katyusha. As he wants to become a father, he decides to have Marmolada inseminated by a foreign cat, Hector. This subtle film shows an unconventional relationship between a human and an animal and the need of becoming close and developing a bond. European Film Award for Best Short Film in 2020

dir. Maciej Kowalewski, Piotr Konstantinow

83′dok2021

‘I have always had the curiosity to look further’ – admits one of the greatest Polish actresses. Barbara Krafftówna takes the viewer on a visit to her magical land, inhabited by ghosts of the past, the Elderly Gentlemen's Cabaret and, above all, by her unforgettable artistic creations.

dir. Javier Marco

18′fab2020

A surreal and poetic story about a couple that finds a hedgehog costume covered with asbestos at a scrapyard. The odd outfit introduces an element of a puzzle to their world. It provokes and observes the protagonists and the world immersed in pandemic loneliness. LONG:

dir. Andrzej Cichocki

19′dok2020

The family shown in the film inhabits their own microcosm. Even though the smokestacks of an agglomeration loom on the horizon, the family’s life follows a separate course, without any unnecessary words. It is determined, on the one hand, by modest financial means, on the other –the joy of freedom.

dir. Piotr Dumała

4′anim1986

The animator’s camera thoroughly penetrating the universe stops at one of the planets. It is inhabited by strange little people reminiscent of characters from famous fairy tales, but this is only an apparent association. In their behaviour, they manifest plenty of guilefulness, maliciousness, mutual hostility and a large dose of cruelty.

dir. Loris Giuseppe Nese

12′anim2020

Her mum makes 5 euro an hour. Sometimes a person dies in her presence, then she is in a bad mood. Her mum takes care of the elderly. Th film is a story about the repetitiveness of human life and death, as seen by a child.

dir. Diana Kadłubowska, Krzysztof Kadłubowski

15′dok2021

A tragicomic picture of the Polish society at the time of the first lockdown. Residents of a townhouse – each locked in their own apartment – are trying to adjust to a new situation. The majority remain at home and their only point of contact with the outside world is via a balcony and a common backyard.

dir. Magnus Skatvold, Gregory Mallozzi

75′dok2020

In the 1970s New York detective Bob Leuci infiltrated his colleagues who were implicated in criminal activity. For exposing corruption he was branded a traitor. Who was he really? Employing sensation and film references, the documentary presents the man’s unambiguous portrayal.

dir. Andreas Voigt

97′dok2020

After thirty years Andreas Voigt returns to the region along the Oder and the Neisse Rivers to check what inhabitants of the Polish and German borderland – old and young, locals and exotic new arrivals – think about the borders, the transformation and their neighbours today. Some are nostalgic about the Cold War times of glory, others are looking for their own place in a borderless Europe without any complexes.

dir. Ákos K Kovács

20′fab2021

In the early 1990s Yugoslavia, the country divided by a bloody conflict, is falling apart. At that uncertain time a young nurse, Branka, starts to work at hospital. Soon, she discovers that the drama is not only outside its walls. New-borns are dying at the obstetric ward.

dir. Tomasz Stankiewicz

80′dok2021

An exceptional story of a 10-year-old Wiesio, one of thousands of Polish children who were saved from the hell of World War II by an Indian Maharajah. In the Easter of 1940 the boy, together with his mother and brother, was arrested by NKVD and deported to Siberia. He shared the dramatic fate of thousands of Polish deportees. His rescue arrived from the least expected direction. This multimedia webdoc tells an authentic story of Wiesław Stypuła using comic strips, animation and archival materials.

dir. Tomasz Stankiewicz

30′dok2020

In this unique combination of documentary narration and magic realism, the authors present poignant accounts of those who witnessed the Warsaw Uprising as children. Halinka was saving cats and dogs. ‘Kazimierz’ was watching American B-17 Flying Fortress bombers fly over the city. ‘Hipek’ was a member of the scouting team of canal rats. Jureczek was 9 and he was the youngest soldier sworn in by the Home Army. He served in the district of Mokotów and was hiding in cellars after its defeat.

dir. Olga Stefanova

78′dok2020

The eponymous island, an icebound cold land that not many have heard about, is off the Antarctic coast. For many years it has been investigated by Polar explorers for whom a stay on the island was a breakthrough event.

dir. Arne Lindtner Næss

74′fab2013

Together with his family, Kacper has just moved to a new house and he is very concerned about the start of his kindergarten education. The first person he meets there is Emma, who will soon celebrate her 5th birthday. The children and their fluffy companions, Leo and Mrs Rabbit, spend every free moment together and, thanks to their adventures, find out what friendship is. Interlaced with songs and animated fragments, ‘Kacper and Emma’ is a tale not only about friendship but also about hardships in the lives of 5-year-olds.

dir. Gorki Glaser-Müller

99′dok2021

Patricio Galvez’s daughter was an ISIS bride. After her death her father starts the fight to recover his seven grandchildren who are staying in a refugee camp in Syria. The film, reminiscent of a thriller at certain moments, is a recording of a bravado action and the enormous determination of a man who wants to pluck children out of hell. FIPRESCI Award at the 61st KFF.

dir. Maja Markowska

18′dok2020

During the first Easter in the pandemic a young woman, closed in the walls of her home, is taking care of her seriously ill grandfather. They spend time talking, eating together and playing poker. What joins them is genuine closeness as well as one guilty pleasure – they both like to smoke.

dir. Ilir Blakçori

10′anim2021

People exiled from their homes, deprived of money and valuables, sent to prisons – that is how they are treated during a war. A witness to these dramatic events is a German mark banknote with a portrait of Clara Schumann, passed from hand to hand.

dir. Vladimir Leschiov

8′anim2021

A little boy dreams of becoming a professional hockey player. Unfortunately, one day he is forced to give up on his passion. A hockey game to the rhythm of the Russian ‘Kalinka’ song is not only about dreams but also about building a relationship between a father and a son.

dir. Marieke Elzerman

26′fab2020

Sam is a shy and sensitive animal care worker at a dog shelter in Ostende. She prefers to hang back and perform her duties. Koen, a behaviourist, works with new dog owners. When a neurotic owner of a Belgian shepherd appears at the shelter, Sam decides to help her.

dir. Karolina Anna Kuta, Patrycja Skorupska

27′dok2021

In defiance of the war in former Yugoslavia and ethnic and religious antagonism, which is still alive, women from Bosnian Rogatica who belong to different nations, denominations and generations live together in an old house.

dir. Aliaksei Paluyan

90′dok2021

For many months we have been following the events in Belorussian streets after the presidential election. Three actors from the underground theatre in Minsk are trying to find themselves in this chaos. They used to protest against the authorities through art and now they have decided to join the crowds. Their courage will be tested.

dir. Piotr Dumała

30′anim2000

A young man decides to rob and kill an old usurer. In this screening of a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, suggestive graphics are emphasised by expressive music by Janusz Hajdun. It is an adaptation of a literary work without a single word where the music determines the narration flow to a large extent.

dir. Per Anders Rudelius

59′dok2020

dir. Per Anders Rudelius

59′dok2020

dir. Jan Vardøen

66′dok2019

In 1986 Philip Glass composed music on the basis of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe about one of the strongest ocean currents in the world. Several decades later, a Norwegian orchestra performs this music live at the place described by Poe.

dir. Michalina Musialik

12′anim2020

When an elderly woman unexpectedly falls to the floor, her pets are left on their own. Two dogs, a cat and a bird have to fend for themselves, which gets more and more difficult when food becomes scarce.

dir. Piotr Dumała

8′anim2010

Full of absurd humour, the film is a pastiche of popular television shows from the past such as ‘Tele-Echo’ hosted by Irena Dziedzic who conducted about 12 500 interviews with interesting personalities in this first talk show in the history of Polish television.

dir. Piotr Dumała

8′anim2012

Two years after making an effective pure nonsense animation Dr Character Presents, a pastiche of talk-shows with interviews with interesting people, Dumała returned to his protagonist. This time, the eponymous doctor invites even weirder guests.

dir. Piotr Dumała

87′fab2015

The second feature film made by the master of animation. ‘I have dreamt about the starting point for the plot: at someone’s home someone is taken for someone else than they really are’ – says the director. As it may happen in dreams, the protagonist’s behaviour is far from any cause and effect logic.

dir. Karen Winther

85′dok2018

At the age of 16, Karen Winther, the film director, joined an extremist movement. At present, she meets with former extremists to talk with them about the reasons of her worldview transformation.

dir. Catherine Harte

82′dok2020

Free admission, limited number of seats. It was Romani music that joined them when Faith came from the United Kingdom to Serbia to learn to play the accordion. For seven years, the camera accompanied the couple of musicians torn between two countries. Will they manage to save their love thanks to the passion they share?

dir. Robin Jensen

11′anim2019

[18+] A man has to save his woman and a herd of reindeer which disappear from his farm one day. He discovers that an ecological restaurant is a front for a slaughterhouse. An obscene production, in which a farse turns into a horror with elements of porn.

dir. Julia Sergina

85′dok2021

‘It’s better to be a clown than an intelligent slave’- thinks Viktor Toropcev, a youtuber from Khabarovsk Krai in the eastern corner of Russia. The protagonist starts a fight with Leviathan – local corruption, omnipresent hopelessness and the intimidation of anarchists trying to wake up Russian society from slumber. The winner of the Golden Horn at the 61st KFF.

dir. Silvia Giulietti

79′dok2020

This special treat for the fans of Italian cinema, in particular the aficionados of Federico Fellini, is a documentary journey through the sets of his greatest films as well as a remarkable, sentimental meeting with collaborators and friends of the eminent director.

dir. Piotr Dumała

9′anim2009

People appear in the rippling field of wheat. In this unique animated ballet one can recognize figures from the paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Francisco de Goya, Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet. Pictures in a loop are accompanied by expressive music of an excellent Romanian composer, Alexandr Bǎlǎnescu.

dir. Nastazja Gonera

24′fab2020

In the world destroyed by an environmental disaster, a secret military base somewhere at the coast carries out experiments on people. There is a way to transform recidivists into animals from endangered or extinct species. The process is cruel, but love and rebellion arise even at such a place and time.

dir. Piotr Dumała

8′anim1984

An impression on the walk of a couple in love, full of subtle poetry. Embraced, they are walking slowly and a starry sky is above them. Suddenly, a violent storm breaks, tree branches are being snapped and the lovers are showered with silver needles weaving into their hair.

dir. Piotr Dumała

16′anim1991

Dumała’s plasterboard animation films abundantly draw on literary classics ranging from the world of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the internal landscapes of Franz Kafka. This one, made in the convention of an animated documentary, focuses on the life and work of a genius from the early 20th century Prague.

dir. Piotr Dumała

10′anim1988

The protagonist of this perverse animation falls into pieces during his dream. The individual fragments of his body disperse around the bedroom and start their independent existence. In the morning, at the sound of the alarm clock they return into place in bed, except for the leg that chose liberty and left the room.

dir. Krzysztof Kasior

85′dok2021

Ola is dreaming about a career of a professional fighter. Eventually, she would like to get out of her provincial high-rise estate, leave local pathologies behind and start to live on her own. How much will she be able to sacrifice to earn a highly coveted master belt?

dir. Aslaug Holm, Sigve Endresen

101′dok2021

Four women that survived a terrorist attack on the Norwegian island of Utøya in 2011 decide to turn their traumatic experiences into activism for better future for the next generations.

dir. Adrien Mérigeau

16′anim2019

Reine, a young and fragile loner, is going through a difficult period in her life. One night, everything around her becomes surprisingly metaphysical. Walking through a city, the girl somehow enters into interactions with other loners and notices touching unity amidst urban chaos. Will this evening bring answers to the questions about existence and the need of transformation pestering her? EFA nominee at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg

dir. Jayil Pak

30′fab2020

When the police refuse to investigate the suicide of a young girl, a victim of rape, her desperate parents decide to seek justice in a different way. They prepare a unique protest. An example of the cinema of the #MeToo era, sensitive to social inequalities.

dir. Raluca Lupascu

27′dok2020

‘God arrived at Maglavit and made miracles’. This extraordinary story from more than eighty years ago is unique heritage of the people living in the south of Romania who are proud that the Lord spoke to shepherds.

dir. Karolina Kajetanowicz

8′anim2021

Black figures are dashing through green, evenly-mowed lawns, turning into animals. Calming sounds of nature – flowing water, chirping insects, singing birds – hum in the background. This animation looks like a meditation session and draws the viewers’ attention to human interference in the natural world.

dir. Federico Urdaneta

53′dok2020

Green Bank, a small town in West Virginia, in the 1950s became home to one of the biggest radio telescopes in the world. It is also a mecca for those who consider themselves sensitive to electromagnetic radiation because the area surrounding Green Bank is the National Radio Quiet Zone.

dir. Victor Kossakovsky

93′dok2020

Kossakowski’s camera is capturing their first weeks of life from up close: clumsy climbing on their mom’s enormous body to reach a nipple full of milk, shoving at breakfast and joyous dabbling in mud. A one-eyed rooster looks out of the fence with longing, a wimpy piglet always stays behind, a cow keeps smelling the leaves of a young birch tree – each of the creatures has its own character, temperament and a fascinating story.

dir. Barna László

71′dok2020

Free admission, limited number of seats. Csángáló had been a violin virtuoso in the Roma Szászcsávás Band, but because of Parkinson’s disease he was dismissed from the group. Instead of undergoing a brain surgery, he prefers to pass his bow on to his grandson and wait for a miracle.

dir. Jalal Maghout

13′anim2020

Damascus, in the midst of war, chaos and disintegration, becomes a bleak scenery for an animation about a life underpinned by fear and helplessness. The protagonist living in Syria knows that here a bomb may destroy his house any minute. ‘Have a Nice Dog!’ shows an apocalypse happening directly in front of our eyes.

dir. Jakub Prysak

24′fab2021

Immersed in an industrial landscape, the film is a harsh story about two loners. The protagonists want to get out of the world that is stifling them. Eryk works at the Milky Paradise cooperative, while Marissa is a prostitute at a crummy night club. What separates them from a different life is a ticket to the unknown, but to get it, they need more than money.

dir. Daniel Gray

11′anim2020

One, two, three – let’s play hide-and-seek! What if you hid so well that no one would ever find you? One of the brothers comes up with such an idea during a hide-and-seek at home. Closed in a wardrobe, he has been observing the life of his family through a crack in the door for years.

dir. Barak Heymann

71′dok2020

This film, full of a wry wit, is a warm and touching portrayal of Dani Karavan, a world-famous Israeli sculptor who is best known for his impressive monuments in public spaces. Despite his advanced age, he is bursting with energy and makes brusque comments about various aspects of reality.

dir. Piotr Dumała

12′anim2014

Naked women are bathing with their children in the river. This idyllic scene is observed by a group of intrigued men. They decide to approach them. Their meeting takes on an unusual course, full of dramatic tension. Suspense and the atmosphere of danger is emphasised by Alexander Bǎlǎnescu’s expressive music.

dir. Raffi Movsisyan

19′fab2020

A bitter film in the style of cinematic realism about the disintegration of family ties. Hayk comes home to spend Christmas in Armenia. He brings a lot of presents and smiles for his family members. Gradually and painfully, he finds out how much his wife and children have become distant from him. :

dir. Hong Kong Documentary Filmmaker

85′dok2020

dir. Tom Koliński

83′dok2021

The filmmakers accompanied Joanna Jędrzejczyk – a multiple UFC champion, who at her time conquered the world of female MMA – for four years. In order to stay on top, she has to constantly confront consecutive opponents, her own limitations and her body, forced into superhuman effort all the time.

dir. Cristèle Alves Meira

27′fab2019

Duarte is an older blind man who, on his birthday, decides to find his friend from Cabo Verde, Leandro, who mysteriously disappeared. Regardless of Lisbon summer heat, Duarte walks around his neighbourhood getting to know the city residents from different social strata, but it turns out that no one has seen or remembers his friend. Eventually, his mission will lead him to the place that might reveal his secret. EFA nominee at Clermont-Ferrand

dir. Aleksandra Sykulak

32′dok2021

They are unable to live together, but they also cannot live in complete separation from each other – this is the picture of the grandparents that their granddaughter is trying to put together standing behind the camera. They split 30 years ago. He stayed in Warsaw and she moved to Berlin. How is it possible that they have remained in close contact?

dir. Mehdi Zarei

12′fab2020

In the middle of the night in Southern Iran a family calls a doctor to an emergency case of pneumonia. These 12 minutes, which are impossible to forget, present a harsh picture of oppression and enslavement in patriarchal society. LONG

dir. Jakub Ciosiński

30′dok2021

These intimate situations were recorded with a phone, registered on a VHS tape or filmed using a digital camera. Jakub Ciosiński shows the life of a three-generational family in the context of love failures and problems with relationship building.

dir. Mili Pecherer

29′anim2019

God, Abraham, Isaac, a lost shepherdess and a herd of antelopes (in the rile of the Ram) appear in this ancient tale which has been transposed to a new digital world; a world in which no one is innocent and where the things which we search for – and eventually find – are destined to be lost again.

dir. Amar Chebib

16′dok2020

A documentary portrait of Joe Buffalo, an indigenous Canadian and a legendary skateboarder. His path in life was difficult and complicated, yet skateboarding has always been his greatest passion. When he was addicted to alcohol and incarcerated – it was actually his last resort.

dir. Zuzanna Gorczycka

19′fab2021

On a beautiful sunny day, among lush greenery, singing birds, humming grasses, buzzing insects, there are the two of them – two women of a different age. So much divides them and, at the same time, so much attracts them to each other. They know each other so well. What is the secret behind their bond? Where are they heading pushed by ‘one more moment’? This subtle, tender cinema unfolds in a serene and lazy holiday rhythm.

dir. Arman Gholipour Dashtaki

30′dok2020

The eponymous children are two brothers and two sisters – now four elderly people who never got married or started their own families. This does not mean, however, that they are lonely – they create an exceptional community marked by mutual closeness but also a sense of separateness.

dir. Wiktoria Niewiadomska

25′dok2021

Sara says that anorexia took away 8 years of her life. And she is aware that this is the last moment when she can really change something. At a facility for girls with eating disorders she tries to recover so that she can continue her life and fulfill her dreams about her private life.

dir. Ofer Freiman

86′dok2021

Cleo fulfilled his dream: to leave the big city with his wife and fifteen children, to establish a family commune on a farm in Brazil. Exploring their family-roots leads the children to discover their surprising heritage, which undermines the existence of the communal paradise.

dir. Kevin Macdonald

87′dok2021

Free admission, limited number of seats. Yet another edition of a global film project which includes over 300 thousand recordings from across the world presents more of new protagonists and different stories which are random chronicles of events from one day, 25 July 2020.

dir. Renato Borrayo Serrano

80′dok2021

The eponymous protagonist is a true strongwoman. This young mother of five children belongs to a nomadic community living in tundra. Unable to count on her husband – an alcoholic, Ivanna dreams about giving up her nomadic life in severe conditions. Moving to a city, however, signifies a radical change and a violation of tradition.

dir. Renato Borrayo Serrano

80′dok2021

The eponymous protagonist is a true strongwoman. This young mother of five children belongs to a nomadic community living in tundra. Unable to count on her husband – an alcoholic, Ivanna dreams about giving up her nomadic life in severe conditions. Moving to a city, however, signifies a radical change and a violation of tradition.

dir. Mayye Zayed

92′dok2020

A desolate, cluttered square somewhere in the outskirts of Alexandria is used by teenage Zebiba to practice for the Olympics. If it were not for enormous determination, talent and continuously reproving trainer, the teenage weightlifter would not have a chance for success.

dir. Monika Proba

27′dok2021

‘True male friendship’ – this is what they say about Vitali and Łukasz. They have graduated from an Orthodox seminar and keep living together, but in order to be ordained as priests, they have to get married first. Will the bond between the protagonists turn out stronger than their religious obligations?

dir. Annie St-Pierre

18′fab2021

It is Christmas, 1983. Children are only children and they are being extremely mischievous. Adults cannot control everything in the holiday chaos. The father is waiting outside to take the kids over from the mother. He is alone. They are all together. There are lights and Christmas trees. A strange evening, it is just like in the past, but so much different.

dir. Piotr Dumała

5′anim1983

Full of suspense and black humour, this pure nonsense story is a bloody variation on a popular fairy tale about the Little Red Riding Hood. Unlike in the story, the eponymous hero is not very polite this time and, what is more, has a ravenous appetite. Award in Varna (1983), honourable mention in Huesca (1984).

dir. Pepe Andreu, Rafá Moles

95′dok2020

A family restaurant in the fishing town of Grindavík is a small centre of the world. It is here where old sea dogs and local misfits meet. But the world is moving forward and changes are becoming increasingly painful for the eatery’s regular clients. This Islandic town in the shadow of volcanos attracts tourists and big business.

dir. Julien Goudichaud

24′dok2020

A documentary elegy for the poor, destitute and homeless. The protagonists of the film are three people without a place to live, forgotten by the welfare system and the society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when European cities were deserted, their lives became even more unstable.

dir. Joonas Neuvonen, Sadri Cetinkaya

99′dok2020

[18+] This film is a drug trip, a criminal puzzle and, at times, a pornographic recording. The filmmakers follow into the footsteps of their two mates who disappeared during their trip together to Thailand and Cambodia. It was to be an extreme adventure, but an attempt to solve the puzzle becomes increasingly similar to entering an abyss.

dir. Valentin Riedl

81′dok2020

Scientist and artist Valentin Riedl returns to the protagonist of his beautiful short film ‘Carlotta's Face’. In this hybrid documentary combining a rational and emotional order, he presents the internal world of a person with a visual perception disturbance - prosopagnosia. The impossible becomes possible, not only thanks to the sensitivity of the director but also of the author of animated sequences - Frédéric Schuld.

dir. Rasmus A. Sivertsen

80′anim2018

Spunky Solan is a champion in many sports disciplines. Be it ice skating, high jump or checkers – he is always the best. A tie is a word that could not exist for him. Only success is important and he always wins. Certain of his victory, he lines up for a great race with cheese. If he wins, he will get yet another champion’s title; if not, he and his friends will lose a roof over their heads. There are many hazards on the way. His opponents set traps (anything goes). Will Solan and his team win?

dir. Tomasz Siwiński

12′anim2021

Zbyszek, overwhelmed by the cold and his work in a mine, attempts to commit suicide. Only a voice-over from the TV and love for a mine crane operator keep him alive. A dark and disturbing animation with elements of fantasy, in the style of socialist realism posters.

dir. Piotr Dumała

3′anim2012

Despite the fact that Krzysztof Komeda died a tragic death 50 years ago, films devoted to this artist are still being made. Natasza Ziółkowska-Kurczuk’s documentary Komeda, Komeda… (2012) includes an animated piece which makes a beautiful illustration of the famous lullaby from Rosemary’s Baby by (1968) Roman Polanski.

dir. Piotr Dumała

5′anim1981

Lykantrophy is a night transformation of a man into a wolf-like creature that returns to the human shape before dawn. A man is a wolf to another man. A gloomy tale about false wolves or people dressed in wolf skins who become, sooner or later, exposed and devoured.

dir. Brindusa Nastasa, Jialu Zhang, Annabella Stieren

29′dok2020

The documentary presents an intriguing project: every ten years five friends stand in front of the camera. Their group photo is an excuse to confront the recent decades of Chinese history and present various points of view.

dir. Mordechai Vardi

63′dok2020

They all had a ceremonious, traditional wedding, a wife and a child. All was according to religion, but not necessarily in accordance with oneself. The documentary protagonists are homosexual Jews who, for the sake of their community, resigned from their desires.

dir. Bruno Collet

13′anim2019

Recently, Louis has been experiencing strange incidents. He keeps forgetting things and his world is becoming less and less real. At a slow pace, furniture, items or even people are losing shape, becoming damaged or sometimes simply fall out. The aging painter and his wife find it more and more difficult to deal with the man’s progressing dementia. This stop-motion animation won an EFA nomination at the Tampere Film Festival.

dir. Piotr Szczepański

77′dok2021

What does it mean to be a Jew in Poland now? In his documentary, Piotr Szczepański reveals yet another surprising piece of the cultural mosaic of Łódź. The protagonists’ lives prove that close ties to their religion and history do not exclude their relationship with counterculture and propensity for creative provocation.

dir. Alexey Evstigneev

8′dok2021

Lisa lost her hair as a child. When all methods of treatment have failed, her mom decides to create wigs for her daughter, made of her own hair. Soon, the hair donated by her mother becomes more and more of a burden.

dir. Subarna Das

5′anim2020

Unexpectedly, joyful scenes of children playing and dancing turn into an account of traumatic memories from the past. Mother, who was once circumcised, must perform the same procedure on her daughter. Will she be able to defy the tradition?

dir. Anita Killi

12′anim2020

An exhausted girl, trying to isolate herself from the reality, hides in an abandoned, huge silo. The silo is a metaphor of childhood depression, frequently unnoticed by parents. Is there anything that will lend meaning to her life?

dir. Suzanne Raes

55′dok2019

Unique for documentary cinema, the film is an in-depth dialogue between a scientist and an artist who share one passion in life – the mysterious disease of multiple sclerosis. For him, a neurologist, it is an exhausting professional challenge. For her, an author, it is a severe personal tragedy. They both share frustration. Two languages of description and two perspectives become intertwined in a poignant but scientifically sound report on the status of helplessness.

dir. Daniel Suberviola

26′dok2021

The Free Zone in Western Sahara is a deserted, inhuman land where huge areas of the desert are riddled with anti-personnel mines. The protagonist of the film works in a brigade neutralising explosives and personally comments on this almost Sisyphean task.

dir. Kuba Januszewski

30′fab2021

In a modern villa, among jars with tomato paste, a mother and a son are playing a strange game of appearances. The woman wants her adult, 21-year-old son to move out, but she is unable to express it. She tries to stop her only child using other, sometimes quite absurd, methods.

dir. Olga Lucovnicova

20′dok2021

A starting point for the shocking self-documentary by Olga Lucovnicova is her homecoming to Moldova. The house is filled with memories, yet everyone around her seems to idealise the past which hides a trauma.

dir. Marek Gajczak

54′dok2021

dir. Marek Gajczak

54′dok2021

The protagonists of the film are scientists, artists and enthusiasts who are related to nature on very different levels and present the relationship between man and nature from a completely novel perspective. What can we learn from plants and animals for which the waste we produce has become the natural environment?

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. Angelo Madsen Minax

86′dok2021

When the author of the film visits his Mormon family in Michigan it has been exactly three years since a great tragedy. This return also has a concealed aim – Angelo would like to find out how his family members, in particular his parents, understand his transgender identity. Will the camera become a family psychotherapist?

dir. Michał Kawecki

75′dok2021

Mishka is a boy of many faces – a petty criminal and a promising alpine skier who enjoys life to its fullest despite his physical disability and difficult living conditions. He is captured at a key moment when he enters adulthood and receives the last opportunity to take part in the Paralympics.

dir. Ali Parandian

28′fab2017

After a long separation, three friends meet over a river to have a drink together and go for a swim. Their carefree time is interrupted by a man who appears claiming that his name is Jesus and he is coming with an important message.

dir. Monika Meleń

50′dok2020

Małgorzata and Krystian are an exceptional couple. She was born with progressive muscular atrophy, and he loves riding a motorcycle. But who says they cannot fulfil their dreams? Together with the protagonists, the spectators are setting off to search for adventure but also to face the inevitable and the final.

dir. Zofia Kowalewska

58′dok2021

A journey in search of childhood memories. A ninety-year-old man sets off with his granddaughter on a trip to Kazakhstan, where he was in exile as a child in the 1940s. The story captured in several faded photos will turn out extremely difficult to present.

dir. Zbigniew Czapla

5′anim2021

Timetables flashing at a dizzying pace are juxtaposed with Hokusai’s drawings – this is a story, set in Japan, about travelling and the world rushing ahead faster and faster. The spirit of Bashō’s poetry is permeating the whole animation, setting the tone of philosophical reflection to this visually intense film.

dir. Andrei Kutsila

43′dok2021

Once he wanted to be a soldier and today he is a rural doctor and a hard-working farmer. He is also a lonely guardian of the memory of this land’s Jewish inhabitants whose only reminder is an overgrown cemetery. A bucolic landscape over the Neman River preserves the traces of the deceased.

dir. Jonas Ulrich

10′fab2020

On a sunny and lazy afternoon in Zurich a businessman is lying on a bench in the middle of a crowded square. At a different location a teenager is longing for recognition. A traveller is struggling with a ticket machine. The film shows 10 scenarios of everyday situations in the city. The people in them must face little or big problems and each of them is like Sisyphus rolling his or her small stone of everyday life up the hill. EFA nominee at Locarno.

dir. Mateusz Kudła, Anna Kokoszka-Romer

75′dok2021

After several decades, they finally met in their hometown. Two artists, photographer Ryszard Horowitz and film director Roman Polański, are wandering around Kraków along the pathways of their wartime experiences.

dir. Katarzyna Agopsowicz

16′anim2020

Not-So-Little Prince and Prickly Pear are having a philosophical chat about happiness in a magical café which, out of the blue, is transformed into a forest full of miracles. Their conversation is accompanied not only by doughnuts and rum balls, but also pets and forest animals. A charming, fairy-tale seance.

dir. Jessica Nettelbladt

90′dok2021

Erik is on the road. He is walking from Rosengård in Sweden to Camino de Finisterre in Spain. His pilgrimage has a very symbolic dimension. The boy is carrying a baggage of difficult experiences that he might be able to shed soon and start a new life with his beloved Martyna.

dir. Firouzeh Khosrovani

81′dok2020

dir. Cecylia Malik

57′dok2021

A river is a woman, or rather it has the face of many women that form a Polish collective saving natural watercourses. The River Sisters campaign arouses social awareness about such natural treasures as the Vistula or the Tarnawka Rivers.

dir. Christian Lo

94′fab2018

dir. Roser Corella

73′dok2020

Contemporary slaves are servants who work in rich countries of the Middle East. Usually, they come from Kenia, the Philippines or Ethiopia. Their wages are meagre and they have no prospects for the future. They no longer want to be victims of capitalist exploitation and begin to fight for themselves. Thanks to mutual support, they can regain their voice.

dir. Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson

13′fab2020

dir. Nari Jang

7′anim2020

What is a greater offence? Stealing a chocolate bar or molesting kids in front of the school? While adults hurt children with impunity, a little girl trying to steal sweets is caught red-handed in a shop. She leaves the shop with a sense of guilt, chased by remorse.

dir. Katya Ustinova

80′dok2020

A nostalgic story woven of the longing for the lost world of Jewish shtetls. The majority of their pre-war inhabitants have been living in the US and Israel for decades, but the memory of their forlorn homeland is still very much alive among them.

dir. Arild Østin Ommundsen, Silje Salomonsen

78′fab2020

dir. Kaitlyn Schwalje, Alex Wolf Lewis

12′dok2020

Snowy is a turtle. Snowy is a pet and not a particularly mobile member of the family. Snowy lives in the cellar and has a solitary lifestyle. Can Snowy be happy? Numerous people, more or less close to the turtle, express their opinions on Snowy’s wellbeing.

dir. Adam Żądło

18′dok2021

‘This is a film about Mirek Lech, a visionary, inventor, extreme traveller and a champion of renewable energy sources’. The portrait of an unconventional protagonist takes on an unconventional form: a parody of a documentary essay with elements of friendly 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. Dorian Jespers

20′fab2020

On the longest night of the year, Fedor, a young locksmith, takes his time to walk from client to client in the darkness of the freezing Russian Arctic. With every order, he seems to be losing himself even more to the world of dreams until surreal meetings reach a culmination point and a fascinating optical phenomenon can be seen on the horizon. EFA nominee at Rotterdam.

dir. Filip Jacobson

22′dok2021

What was to be a coveted tour of a Japanese group around Europe had a tragic end. The 1979 events are remembered by a couple who went on their honeymoon at that time.

dir. Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda

24′dok2020

A night, a lake and a stone in the water. The mysterious opening of the film leads to Anaben Pawar, an elderly woman whose life in a small village in India is filled with syncretic rituals. The old lady lives in harmony with nature, yet she is under constant threat from an oppressive, patriarchal culture.

dir. Christoph Schwarz

15′dok2019

A young man is sitting in a rusty hangar and playing the guitar. A desolate wooden church will be transferred to the outskirts of an urban expansion zone to be used for cultural purposes. Kindergarten children sitting on chairs arranged in a circle are telling the entire group what they do not do. This film essay presents many perspectives on Vienna’s urban expansion. They all share the sentimental criticism of growth and the refusal to progress in the face of an inevitable environmental disaster.

dir. Mikołaj Piszczan

18′fab2020

Jan Pampuch, a modest toy seller, may not break the daddy’s word given to his daughter. The problem is that her drawing unexpectedly causes a heated conflict of views. Jan must do everything to settle the dispute because his company and the future of the entire family are at stake.

dir. Gunhild Enger, Jenni Toivoniemi

13′fab2016

In this satirical take on international relations representatives of three Nordic nations meet to discuss the creation of an art work that will symbolize their transnational alliance and friendship.

dir. Alexis Chartrand

17′fab2020

You never know what to expect from a barber. You do not know what he may be thinking when all day he is observing life in the street or what he will do when he notices a shadow of a threat. In this crazy game with the cinema, the theatre and the comic strip, a revolver that has been pointed once will certainly shoot in the end.

dir. Władysław Jurków, Gerburg Rohde-Dahl

53′dok2020

She was a senior supervisor in Nazi concentration camps, but directly after the war she managed to get away from a prison in Krakow. The documentary investigates the most mysterious thread of the escape: how did it happen that a group of Polish female inmates from Ravensbrück helped the former SS woman?

dir. Marc Isaacs

75′dok2020

When a Columbian cleaner, British workers, a homeless man from Slovakia and a neighbour from Pakistan meet at the director’s house, the situation gets out of control. Full of invention, Isaac’s performance, which blurs the boundary between the documentary and fiction, is amusing and disturbing at the same time.

dir. Piotr Dumała

76′fab2009

Dumała’s feature debut. This story about the search for mutual understanding, overcoming of barriers, trust, feeling and the need of closeness impresses us with it contemplative narration, careful composition and the story development based on images above all. Words, which only complement the message conveyed by the photographs, are applied economically.

dir. Piotr Dumała

12′anim1985

Graphically impressive and full of psychological depth, the film is a vision of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short story. It is a suggestive study of jealousy and hatred emphasised by the unconventional animation technique and the subtle music by Zygmunt Konieczny. These are not words but images and music that lead the narration of this poignant story.

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. Michelle Kranot, Uri Kranot

14′anim2021

A pregnant woman bolts the door, a man goes to sleep among flying bombs, a father is playing with his daughter – each of them is caught in an intimate, emotion-laden moment. We are peeping at them, like at the hangman from Carl Sandburg’s poem – what is the hangman thinking about when returning home from work?

dir. Katariina Lillqvist

7′anim2020

When bullfighting was banned in Spain and arenas, used in the past for corridas, were transformed into supermarkets, all that unemployed toreadors could do was pose to photos for tourists. Yet the protagonist of the animation has come across an unexpected customer – Vladimir Putin himself.

dir. Adrian Apanel

30′fab2021

‘I’m here because of the add’ – a boy in foggy glasses explains the reason for his unexpected visit to an irritated landlady. When it turns out that he is solvent, the woman invites him inside. Is it really the room he was looking for? Or, maybe, it is a trap out of which he will not manage to get out?

dir. Piotr Dumała

13′anim2019

On a night train there are Jesus and 12 apostles. They are sitting over the last supper, just like in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting. Suddenly the picture becomes alive. The jurors of the Animated Film Festival in Poznań awarded Dumała with the Crystal Animusz for the ‘universal language and brilliance in developing narration’.

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. Oan Kim, Brigitte Bouillot

79′dok2020

dir. Marion Neumann

88′dok2021

Hidden and inconspicuously beautiful, mushrooms seldom play main film parts. It is regretful, as they may serve as an excellent example of how to enter into successful alliances or life giving symbioses and fruitful collaboration in delicate ecosystems. Seemingly frail, they are immortal and eternal. Separate, they join forces to form a gigantic network and become omnipresent.

dir. Sylwia Zawiła

7′anim2020

A mother lives with her three kids in a stark, concrete building. The children’s only food is their mother’s milk. What will happen if it is gone? Will a fig tree become their tree of life? A terrifying, surreal animation referring to the biblical motif of the paradise and the forbidden fruit.

dir. Joonas Berghall

88′dok2021

Disinformation, indifference and, above all, unimaginable suffering has been the fate of the film director since he fell ill with borreliosis. Visiting different countries he reveals controversies and myths surrounding Lyme disease and the global interests preying on them.

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. Laura Carreira

9′fab2020

Anna takes her dog on a morning walk before she goes shopping. At the supermarket the woman is trying to find the cheapest items and gives up on little pleasures. When she is close to the checkout counter, she gets a phone call from work. It turns out she has lost her job. The film shows a difficult situation of a temporary employee as seen by a young woman who is hopeless when her life falls into pieces within one moment. EFA nominee at Venice.

dir. Zuzanna Solakiewicz

75′dok2021

A beautifully illustrated story of a contemporary village and its unconventional dwellers who are of different age but have one thing in common – their strong attachment to folk culture. In this film, music is as important as images, since it accompanies the protagonists during key events in their lives.

dir. Mateusz Jarmulski

7′anim2021

Among the noise of barking dogs, shouting hunters and sounds of gunshots, there is a running, terrified chimpanzee. When she looks back, she sees a tropical forest on fire. Finally, quite exhausted, she reaches an abandoned colonial villa. Something totally unexpected is waiting for her inside it.

dir. Boris Van der Avoort

75′dok2020

Manifestly inspired by the achievements of surrealists, the film is a recording of a private investigation in which the director is looking for the causes of a mysterious condition – insomnia. In a brilliant form, it is a beautiful metaphor on the path between reality and a dream, on what is a product of science and what is a sensation. What is a dream and what role does it play? Is there any inter-species dreaming community? In his intimate visual diary, Boris Van der Avoort records the states of mind and body suspended between light and darkness.

dir. Nomin Lkhagvasuren

52′dok2020

Why are there so many suicide attempts among the inhabitants of Mongolia today? Showing different stories the film focuses on experiences and emotions that accompanied such desperate gestures. In most cases it is impossible to reverse the tragic course of events. Both the lives of those who survived and of the mourning families must go on.

dir. Misha Wessel, Thomas Blom

69′dok2019

Founded in 1930, the Institute for Advanced Studies was to be an idyll with its employees and fellows relieved of any duties but one - thinking unique thoughts. Is this last harbour of Albert Einstein implementing this aim or has it become a utopia where the unspoken pressure of society becomes a reason for obsession?

dir. Edward Hancox

13′fab2018

For Jak, the bathroom is a refuge where he can exist without the need to wear a mask that he presents to the world every day. Here, he performs the rituals of styling, cleansing and finding comfort. Here, he discovers his queer identity. But when he is raped by his new lover, his sense of personal autonomy is crushed. The film explores the issues of loneliness, sexual uncertainty and expectations. EFA nominee at the Cork International Film Festival

dir. Kinga Syrek

16′anim2021

The protagonist of the animation is a model, actress, star of Andy Warhol’s films and his partner, Edie Sedgwick. The main axis of the film, however, is not her relationship with the American artist, but the relationship with her toxic father. Difficult childhood has cast a shadow on her adult life, soaked with alcohol and filled with drugs.

dir. Alicja Jasina

7′anim2021

How to find an ideal boyfriend? The Turbo Love application comes to rescue – you may create a man of your dreams there and design a perfect date. A funny animation, a parody of the blogosphere, which shows that the front of a perfect life in the social media often hides falsehood and loneliness.

dir. Regina Pessoa

13′anim2019

This story is presented in the form of a letter written to the uncle of a young woman, a neurotic outsider obsessed with numbers. All the time the girl considers him fascinating, unique and trustworthy. Black and white images supplemented with a shade of red revive the past. Regina’s memories are a tribute to Tadeusz and an expression of her faith that you do not need to be ‘someone’ to become exceptional for someone else. EFA nominee at the Riga International Film Festival

dir. Dorota Roś

16′dok2021

There is a national festival, ‘In the Land of Dumplings’, in Bychawa. This peculiar event and a spectacular photograph of a NASA astronaut have a common denominator – a small commune in the region of Lublin. The view is beautiful from afar, but what do little homelands look like from up close?

dir. Thea Hvistendahl

17′fab2018

Issi, who is 14, and her friend Astrid are spending final days of their holidays at the seaside. This evening they have one aim – to find a boy for Issi with whom she will be able to experience her first time.

dir. Tomasz Wysokiński

84′dok2021

Children routinely disappear in South Africa. Organised business, local conspiracy of silence and blood clotting stories often stand behind it. Jerry, who has been fighting his demons since childhood, makes an attempt to find a girl who was kidnapped a few years ago. His investigation leads him to the very heart of darkness.

dir. Piotr Dumała

8′anim1987

Electrifying expression and the gloomy Kafkaesque atmosphere of entrapment mark this sombre story about a man and his disconsolate life. The protagonist is imprisoned in a room without windows or doors. His eyes are closely watching the walls, his ears catch every murmur. The chances of breaking free are nil.

dir. Andrei Kutsila

17′dok2020

The eponymous walls belong to a grey prison building – a symbol of cruel, yet fearful rule of President Lukashenko. Families of the detained are standing in front of the building, they are mostly women supporting political prisoners: their husbands, brothers and sons.

dir. Tommy Gulliksen

102′dok2020

A group of modern artists from different countries of Western Europe and China take part in an intercultural exchange project in North Korea. Their task is to present their work to North Korean artists.

dir. Yenni Lee

10′fab2017

How to behave in the situation when none of the witnesses of an event reacts to the violence which occurs? A discussion of elementary school students about violence, power and responsibility takes an unexpected turn.

dir. Marina Thomé

86′dok2021

Free admission, limited number of seats. Alzira Espíndola, a vocalist, guitarist and a poet, is a live legend of Brazilian music. Many years later, she reminisces about her roots and arrival at São Paulo, where she continues to challenge musical and patriarchal traditions as an independent woman and an innovative artist.

dir. Jay Rosenblatt

30′dok2021

An archival educational film and an accidental meeting with a friend from school bring back memories from the 1960s when the director was in the fifth year of elementary school. At that time he participated in a shameful incident. Together with other students, he tormented mentally and physically a class scape goat. What do they remember from those years?

dir. Egil Håskjold-Larsen

71′dok2019

A timeless portrait of the relationship between man and nature. In a small hut, in the northernmost outpost of Europe, there lives Steinar who chose lonely existence in an ice desert far from civilisation.

dir. Daniel Howald

101′dok2020

Is it a stirring psychological drama or a suspenseful investigative documentary? Daniel Howald’s film combines both. It is a poignant story of a son who tries to understand his parent’s behaviour after their deaths and, also, confront their tumultuous wartime past.

dir. Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh

93′dok2021

Contrary to stereotypes and preconceptions, against the caste system in India and a crisis in journalism, a group of female residents of Uttar Pradesh create their own independent newspaper. Rising violence against women and the radicalisation of the political stage in India make the publishing of the newspaper increasingly riskier.

dir. Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh

93′dok2021

Contrary to stereotypes and preconceptions, against the caste system in India and a crisis in journalism, a group of female residents of Uttar Pradesh create their own independent newspaper. Rising violence against women and the radicalisation of the political stage in India make the publishing of the newspaper increasingly riskier.

dir. Orkhan Abulov

24′fab2020

A subtle melodrama in the old style about youth, memories and the first infatuation. It is a story about the encounter between two separate universes, of a Russian student and an American researcher, in a tent in nature amidst stunning landscapes of the Caucasus. It begins well and ends well, too.