DOMINO EFFECT
POLISH TITLE: EFEKT DOMINA
Abkhazia is a forgotten war torn country close to Crimea-Ukraine. Perched on the shores of the Black Sea, the unrecognized splinter state used to be a beach getaway for lucky Soviets, but palatial hotels now sit in post-communist ruin. For Abkhazian Sports Minister Rafael, however, everything’s looking up. He’s hopeful that the mysterious Domino World Championship he’s organizing will finally put his beloved motherland on the world’s radar and madly in love, he’s willing to overlook that his dear wife is a foreigner. A proud Russian opera singer, Natasha gave up her home and custody of her Russian daughter to take a chance on a new life. But when locals won’t warm to her and troubles cloud Rafael’s “sports” event, their bright future and even national pride start to wobble.From the Oscar nominated team of “Rabbit à la Berlin” comes a visually stunning Black Sea black comedy - giving us a profound look at life under Russia’s spell.
- GENRE:
- documentary
- COUNTRY:
- Poland, Germany
- RUNNING TIME:
- 76'
- YEAR:
- 2014
- DIRECTING:
- Piotr Rosołowski, Elwira Niewiera
- SCRIPT:
- Piotr Rosołowski, Elwira Niewiera
- DOP:
- Piotr Rosołowski
- EDITOR:
- Andrzej Dąbrowski, Karoline Schulz
- MUSIC:
- Maciej Cieślak
- PRODUCTION:
- Otter Films, zero one film
Piotr Rosołowski »
A Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer based in Berlin. He graduated from the Katowice Film School and was awarded an Academy of Media Arts scholar- ship in Cologne. Piotr co-directed together with Elwira Niewiera already three successful feature documentaries: "Domino Effect" prized at the Krakow Film Festival and DOK Leipzig, "The Prince and the Dybbuk" awarded with the Lion for Best Documentary on Cinema at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and "The Hamlet Syndrome" honored with Grand Prix Semaine de la critique at the 75th Locarno Film Festival. Piotr also works as a director of photography, he shot many awarded feature and short films, among them: "On the line" dir. Reto Caffi - Academy Award-nominated short fiction, "Rabbit a la Berlin" dir. Bartek Konopka - Academy Award-nominated short documentary, and "Thewall of Shadows" dir. Eliza Kubarska - nominated for the German Camera Award and honored withthe annual prize of the Polish Society of Cinematographers.Elwira Niewiera »
Director and researcher. Her feature documentary debut, Bulgarian Stories was presented at a number of international film festivals and had art-house cinema distribution in Germany. Elwira worked also as first assistant director and researcher on the Academy Award nominated documentary Rabbit à la Berlin. Since 2008 she is Executive Director of the Polish-German cultural foundation Nowa Ameryka.- 11th Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, Lithuania, 2014 (screening)
- 52nd Vienna International Film Festival, Austria , 2014 (screening)
- 16th Bergen International Film Festival, Norway, 2014 (screening)
- 8th Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, Irland, 2014 (screening)
- IDFA 2014, The Netherlands, 2014 (screening)
- 14th International Film Festival Watch Docs, Poland, 2014 (screening)
- Documentary Fortnight: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, USA, 2015 (screening)
- 12th Neisse Film Festival, Germany, 2015 (screening)
- 21st Hot Docs - Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, 2014 (competition)
- Visions du Reel, Switzerland, 2014 (Interreligiuos Prize)
- 54th Krakow Film Festival, Poland, 2014 (Golden Horn, The Award of the Polish Society of Cinematographers , Golden Hobby-Horse)
- 11th Yerevan International Film Festival GOLDEN APRICOT, Armenia, 2014 (Silver Apricot Award)
- 28th Pärnu International Documentary and Antropological FF, Estonia, 2014 (competition)
- 13th DokuFest International Documentary and Short FF, Kosovo, 2014 (International Documentary Competition / Feature Dox - Winner)
- Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary, 2014 (Let Me Follow the Call section Winner)
- Astra Film Festival, Romania, 2014 (competition)
- 9th Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taiwan, 2014 (competition)
- 21st Golden Boll Film Festival, Turkey, 2014 (competition)
- Festival Ânûû-rû Âboro, New Caledonia, 2014 (competition)
- 57th DOK. Leipzig, Germany, 2014 (Golden Dove for an Outstanding German Documentary)
- 18th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia, 2014 (competition)
- DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Finland, 2015 (competition)
- International Film Festival Nancy - Lorraine, France, 2015 (competition)