POLISH DOCUMENTARY’S TRIUMPH AT HOT DOCS!
“At the Edge of Russia” by Michał Marczak was listed among the winners of Hot Docs in Toronto – one of the global leading event devoted to documentary films.
Although the festival in Toronto has not been finished yet, the winners have already been announced. The award ceremony was held on May 6th, at the Windsor Arms Hotel, where Polish documentary filmmaker, Michał Marczak, was given the HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award for his film “At the Edge of Russia”. This is his second, such an important festival prize this year – after successful Visions du Réel in Nyon.
One of the main character, Alexei, is a nineteen year old recruit being flown in to perform his military service on the frontier of Northern Russia. The base is one of few such outposts remaining on the Arctic Ocean guarding a vast border on the remote fringes of the great Russian state. There are five other seasoned and long serving soldiers stationed here, each with their own personal story or secret that has caused them to retreat from the real world. Their training and breaking in of the new arrival is sometimes humorous, at times harsh. Gradually, each of them reveals something about themselves in their daily interactions and private moments as they continue their absurd duty in this snow covered no man's land, hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement.
It is worth to add that apart from Marczak’s “At the Edge of Russia” three Polish documentaries have competed at this year’s Hot Docs: “Out of Reach” by Jakub Stożek, “Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Paweł Kloc and “That’s life…” by Daniel Zieliński.
Hot Docs will last till 8th May.
More about the festival on: www.hotdocs.ca.