A story about hope, doubt and the longing for feelings, Małgorzata Szumowska’s In the Name of…, which opens the festival, was chosen Best Feature Film 2013 in the Teddy Award category at the 2013 Berlinale. The film’s protagonist is a lonely homosexual priest who lives in a small parish. He launches a help centre for troubled youth. Well liked by the community, he is nevertheless a lonely person because he keeps the details of his complicated past a secret. "He is a man struggling with loneliness. The subject of the film is faith, doubt and the longing for feelings," director Szumowska said in an interview. Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick said that "In the Name of ... is a very up-to-date commentary about the present situation in Church." "Małgośka Szumowska’s visually powerful film, charged with striking imagery from Christ’s Passion, dares to broach the still taboo topic of homosexuality in the priesthood", the Berlinale synopsis states.
"Far more than just another in the long line of films about teen pregnancy", as 37th Toronto International Film Festival programmers put it, Katarzyna Rosłaniec's Baby Blues portrays the essence of consumerist imitation, 21st-century illusions and the consequences of unmet childhood emotions. Seventeen–year-old Natalia roller-skates the sidewalks of Warsaw, pushing her pram in front of her, while the baby’s father is a pothead, video-game enthusiast and skater. At the Berlinale Baby Blues won the Crystal Bear for Best Film of the Generation 14plus section and received a Special Mention from the International Jury. Another film in the rich line-up is Leszek Dawid’s You Are God. Following the formation and rapid success of one of Poland's pioneering hip-hop collectives, Paktofonika, and the suicide of lead rapper Magik days after their first release, the film is about three young men from Mikołów and Katowice who changed the Polish music scene, becoming the voice of a generation at the turn of the 21st century.
The largest Polish film festival in Germany, running since 2006, FilmPOLSKA is organised by the Polish Institute in Berlin. Reaching 100 films, the screenings take place in different places in Berlin and Potsdam and offer a comprehensive insight into Polish cinema. The programme includes the most successful productions no older than one year, and lesser known films. Aside from film screenings, FilmPOLSKA2013 offers a retrospective, made in cooperation with the German Historical Museum created for the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Through Polish, German and Israeli paintings, the exhibition presents the difficult history. Festival guests include Leszek Dawid, Katarzyna Rosłaniec, Maria Sadowska, Witold and Piotr Sobocińscy.
Selected films from the programme:
Piotr Trzaskalski - My Father's Bike
Wojciech Smarzowski - Rose
Waldemar Krzystek - 80 Million
Tomasz Wasilewski - In a Bedroom
Jan Komasa - Suicide Room
Marcin Krzyształowicz - Manhunt
Jan Jakub Kolski - To Kill a Beaver
Laurent Bouzereau - Roman Polański: A Film Memoir
For the full programme see: FilmPOLSKA
Sources: Polish article for culture.pl, culture.pl
Editor: MJ, 28.03.2013