WEEKEND FULL OF AWARDS
The last weekend has ended with great success for Polish documentary films. Our compatriots have won awards not only in Leipzig, Germany, but also in Belgium and France.
Besides two prizes at 54. DOK Leipzig (Silver Dove Award for Wojceich Staroń’s “Argentinian Lesson” and Honorary Mention for Paweł Kloc’s “Phnom Penh Lullaby”), Polish filmmakers were given two additional awards during last Sunday. Krzysztof Kadłubowski’s “Returns” was announced as the best documentary film at International Short Film Festival in Lille, France, while Marta Prus’s “Vakha and Magomed” won the Prix Roger Closset at FIDEC - Festival International des Ecoles de Cinéma in Huy, Belgium.
About the films:
“Argentinian Lesson” is the cinematic journey that follows the filmmaker’s 8-year-old son from Poland to Argentina as he becomes acclimated to his new home and develops a friendship with a young girl that is both joyous and sorrowful. The film skillfully pushes the boundaries between fiction and documentary. Its filmmaker demonstrates a high degree of craft regarding the composition of his images and the rhythms of narrative editing. His finely-etched characters stay with us long after the movie’s final, surprisingly humorous image [DOK Leipzig].
“Phnom Penh Lullaby”accompanies an unequal couple on the fringe of Cambodia's society in a striking and feverishly nervous way. It offers a few certainties only, but rather guides us in an area of a mysterious foreboding. Although the film subjects our current notions about partnership and parenthood to a radical stress test, it captures, again and again, fleeting moments of love, care and tenderness. The feeling of instability in the terrain, where the protagonists act, is transferred onto the viewer of this challenging work – we experience a documentary film as transgressive, subversive art [DOK Leipzig].
“Returns”, a short black-and-white film by Krzysztof Kadłubowski, is a record of events that took place after 10 April 2010, one of the most important dates in modern Polish history. On that day, 96 people, including the Polish president and government representatives died in a plane crash near Smoleńsk, Russia. We observe all the intricate choreography, which turns out to be a rehearsal for the ceremony. On their shoulders the soldiers carry invisible coffins in front of invisible spectators and carefully place them on special racks - all to the rhythm of Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’.
„Vakha and Magomed” by Marta Prus is a short documentary which portrays an everyday struggle of the two immigrants from Chechenya, Vakha and his son Magomed. The audience is given an opportunity to observe an everyday routine of the couple where, between the mundane chores, proofs of the true affection and care are exposed. Apart from depicting harsh reality of the newly arrived immigrants and their life in Warsaw (Poland), what is the most important one can see how the bond between the father and the son deepens and how, despite of the circumstances, they attempt to retain their identity. The life story of Vakha and Magomed is never fully told, it simply runs in the background and that's what helps to place some universal values up front.
More at:
www.dok-leipzig.de
www.fidec.be
www.festivalducourt-lille.com