POLISH FILMS WIN AT DOCUDAYS
13th edition of the Docudays festival in Kiev ended on March 31. The main awards went to the films "Call Me Marianna" by Karolina Bielawska and "The End of the World" by Monika Pawluczuk.
Docudays is an international documentary film festival, dedicated to human rights. During the festival, productions compete with each other in four categories. This year, in as many as two of them, the main awards went to Polish documentary films.
In the category DOCU/RIGHT, dedicated to feature-length documentary films, the winner was "Call me Marianna" by Karolina Bielawska. The jury appreciated the film for depicting determination in defending one's beliefs in spite of external and internal problems, in spite of physical pain and being rejected by everyone else.
Marianna, the protagonist of the documentary film by Karolina Bielawska, made a dramatic choice between living according to her identity and being with her family. Preparing for the sex reassignment surgery, she had to leave her home, and, in accordance with Polish legal procedures, sue her own parents. On the threshold of the new life, fate turned out to be extremely cruel to her. During the rehearsals of the play inspired by Marianna's story, the protagonist has to face the difficult experiences from her marriage once again.
In the category DOCU/SHORT, dedicated to the films not longer than 45 minutes, the main award went to "The End of the World" by Monika Pawluczuk. The jury emphasised that the emotional balance of the film and well-thought-out structure of the film perfectly tell the story about loneliness, longing, feelings and courage of living in a big city, and in addition, it is a strong voice in the discussion about the differences between humanity and the art of listening.
"The End of the World" is an intimate, art house documentary film, in which a couple of stories meet during one night. During this one night, similar to many others, people in a big city, tormented by loneliness, want to talk to someone. Some people call - often unnecessarily - the ambulance, others come for therapy at night, and yet others call the radio, where the host asks about the end of the world - what it means to each of us. They talk about tragic, painful matters, and sometimes petty, even funny ones. What is noticeable and moving is their great need for conversation, being heard out, the need to be together with someone. The radio is the motif which unites this night world - we hear it in the ambulance, in the taxi which carries the patient for the therapy, in the city monitoring, where we see the city night life on tens of screens. The radio is a bracket uniting the film and the source of the most important questions.
Also in the category DOCU/UKARINE there was a Polish feature. Special Mention went to the Polish-Ukrainian co-production "Reve Ta Stohne On Tour," directed by Nadia Parfan.
The full list of award-winning films is on the website of Docudays.