POLISH DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION AT KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL

From among hundreds of titles, which came to Krakow from all over the world, the selectors, under the leadership of Krzysztof Gierat, the director of the Festival, selected the best films which will compete for the Golden Horn statuette in the international documentary film competition at the 57th Krakow Film Festival. Among them, there are three Polish productions.

The opening film is the motion picture “The Beksinskis” (dir. Marcin Borchardt). It is a feature-length documentary film, made out of sound, film and photography archival materials, most of them come from the private archive of Zdzisław Beksiński and have not been shown publicly before. Almost fifty years long, the painter meticulously documented his life and the life of his closest family. From these materials emerges an extremely complex image of the relationships between the artist and his wife Zofia and his son– the charismatic radio journalist and translator – Tomasz. 

In the international competition, two Polish productions will participate. “Opera about Poland” is the latest documentary film by Piotr Stasik, a very personal story about contemporary Poland and its inhabitants, combining two genres: documentary film and opera. The plot of the film revolves around the music, written specially by Artur Zagajewski, which is illustrated by documentary images, fragments of radio broadcasts, poetry, prose and even classified advertisements from local newspapers. In turn, the film “Desert Coffee” (dir. Mikael Lypinski) is set in “the last bastion of freedom” in the USA, where in the Sonoran desert in California, Rob runs a peculiar cafe for rebel inhabitants of an anarchist city in the wilderness.

 

Films participating in the International Documentary Film Competition:

“95 and 6 to go”, dir. Kimi Takesue, USA, 85’

“The Beksinskis”, dir. Marcin Borchardt, Poland, 80’,

“Close Relations”, dir. Vitaly Mansky, Latvia, Germany, Estonia, Ukraine, 112’

“The Rebel Surgeon”, dir. Erik Gandini, Sweden, 52’,

“Saint Lazarus’s Miracle”, dir. Nicolas Muñoz, Spain, 57’

“Desert coffee”, dir. Mikael Lypinski, Poland, 53’

“Dum Spiro Spero”, dir. Pero Kvesić, Croatia, 52’,

“The General and Me”, dir. Tiana Alexandra Silliphant, USA, Vietnam, Poland 97’

“The Woman and the Glacier”, dir. Audrius Stonys, Lithuania, Estonia, 57’,

“Opera about Poland”, dir. Piotr Stasik, Poland, 60’

“Adriana’s Pact”, dir. Lissette Orozco, Chile, 96’

“Almost There”, dir. Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland, 80’,

“Off The Tracks”, dir. Dieter Schumann, Germany, 85’,

“Plasticine Family”, dir. Moriya Benavot, Israel, 56’

“School Life”, dir. David Rane, Neasa Ní Chianáin, Ireland, Spain, 100’

“One Ticket Please”, dir. Matiss Kaza, Latvia, USA, 52’, 

“Ultra”, dir. Balázs Simonyi, Hungary, Greece, 81’, 

 

57th Krakow Film Festival is held from May 28 to June 4, 2017.

A detailed programme will be published in the first days of May.