The 11th edition of the Kino Film Festival, now Kinofilm Manchester European Short Film Festival, will showcase a diverse mix of short films, highlighting talent from across the UK and Europe. Over six days Kinofilm 2010 will screen 200 shorts over 30 programmes, selected from over 1000 submissions from across Europe.
This year for the first time the festival will reach new audiences with a Polish cinema strand and a Polish Film Poster exhibition (the first of its kind to take place in the UK outside of London). There will be a special focus on New Polish Cinema.
Two programmes of short films from Poland - on April 29 and May 2, featuring some of the most outstanding recent Polish Shorts selected from the
Polish National Film School in Lodz, the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing presented by the Krakow Film Foundation; and a Polish Documentaries Programme on April 28.
Highlight of the Polish Focus is
Piggies / Świnki, on April 30, the controversial new film about today's youth selling their souls for their future, from award-winning director
Robert Gliński.
Kinofilm Polish Film Poster Exhibition - April 16 - May 16, 2010, Triangle Shopping Centre, Exchange Square
The exhibition, part of Polska! Year celebrations, features over 60 posters designs by some of the most famous Polish artists. Curated from the personal collection of Festival director, John Wojowski, the work features mainly 70s original movie posters but also includes examples of rarer posters from the 50s and 60s through to the late 80s. The Golden Age of Polish Film Poster art was influenced by early folk art, Cubism Constructivism, surrealism and art nouveau. The period celebrated the poster as an art form, while Polish society flocked to the movies and artists captured the essence of film as a visual metaphor.
Polish Documentaries Programme - April 28, 2010, 7:30pm
- Forum, dir. Peter Stasiak (59 min., 2009).
Documentary portrait of Polish people living and working in Lancashire. including their views on the UK, English people and quality of life. The story of their achievements and life style is set against the background of unrefined criticism on Polish forums by people in Poland. - Rabbit à la Berlin / Królik po berlińsku, dir. Bartek Konopka (39 min., 2009).
An Oscar nominated documentary uses the Berlin Wall rabbit population as a metaphor for the city's shell-shocked people. Thousands of wild rabbits lived in the Death Zone of the Berlin Wall. It was their perfect enclave - enclosed but secure. Unfortunately one day the wall fell down...
Polish Shorts Programme 1 - April 29, 2010, 8:15pm
- Grobari, dir. Bartek Cierlica (8 min., 2008).
Haunting depiction of Srebrenica, where the biggest genocide since World War II took place. - The Training / Trening, dir. Julia Kolberger (12 min., 2008).
Trainees are indoctrinated with sales techniques. - Significant Others / Małżonkowie, dir. Dara van Dusen (12 min., 2009).
A young couple adopt the role model parent status they never had. - 38.5, dir. Grzegorz Dębowski (10 min., 2009).
A young underweight boxer faces a difficult choice. - Take a Look / Popatrz, dir. Adam Palenta (4 min., 2008).
Two blind children investigate their world by touch sensing a painting-"The Universe". - PRL de Luxe, dir. Edyta Wróblewska (15 min., 2008).
Western travellers embark on the Skoda Bus "La Cucamber". - Nowhere Blues, dir. Bartosz Warwas (19 min., 2009).
A spirited eccentric painter finds romance on Facebook. - Just Like Heaven, dir. Filip Marczewski (25 min., 2008).
A couple attempt to face life without modern commodities.
Highlight of the Polish Focus - April 30, 2010, 8:15 pm - Regional Premiere
- Piggies / Świnki, dir. Robert Gliński (90 min., 2009).
Director Robert Gliński explores the difficulty and the reality of life on the social margins, 20 years after the change of the socialist system. Filip Garbacz shines in the role of 16 year old Tomek, a disillusioned youth who crosses Poland's porous border into West Germany to engage in prostitution. A lost generation experience life as a world without borders to countries or morality. "Piggies" is a film about young people who grown up in a world without borders. About kids who want to have everything here and now. Their dreams have no limits.
Robert Gliński is one of the most renowned Polish film directors and screenwriters today. His first feature Sunday Pranks / Niedzielne igraszki became famous long before its release and was awarded Gold Ducat and FIPRESCI Award at the Mannheim Film Festival. Born in Warsaw, Robert studied at the Lodz Film School (Film Directing). He has also worked in theatres and for TV. Many of his other films have won major awards at International Film Festivals including: Hi, Tereska / Cześć Tereska, Golden Lily, Best Film at Go East, Wiesbaden and Special Jury Prize 36th Karlovy Vary Film Festival; All That Really Matters / Wszystko co najważniejsze, the Grand Prix Golden Lions at Gdynia Film Festival, amongst many others.
Polish Shorts Programme 2 - May 2, 2010, 2:15pm
- Kids And Fish Have No Voice / Dzieci i ryby głosu nie mają, dir. Miron Wojdyło (33 min., 2008).
A daughter's return to her alcoholic and crippled father brings destruction, reconciliation and freedom. - A Woman Sought / Kobieta poszukiwana, dir. Michał Marczak (15 min., 2009).
A dating agency interviews several ideal women who begin to question the reason for the big search. - Mother / Matka, dir. Jakub Piątek (11min., 2009).
An elderly woman is faced with a dilemma by her sons prison move. - Destination: Iceland / Kierunek: Islandia, dir. Kalina Alabrudzińska (23 min., 2008).
A war veterans daughter embarks on the journey of a life time to decorate her fathers grave. - Street Feeling, dir. Kristoffer Karlsson Rus (19 min., 2009).
A frustrated designer is "pitching feelings and targets". Artistic credibility is at stake!
Source and a full programme:
www.polishculture.org.uk,
www.kinofilm.org.uk