Bartek Konopka, photo: VIPHOTO/East News
The Cannes Film Festival's Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award 2013 for Best Eastern and Central European Script goes to Bartosz Konopka and Przemysław Nowakowski for their film script for The Mute
A story set in the early Middle Ages somewhere in the East, The Mute deals with the confrontation between Christianity and paganism. An old missionary is saved from death by a young hermit. Together they embark on a voyage, seeking to convert people. The difficulties start when they discover their differing approaches.
The ScripTeast Award, one of the most successful scriptwriting training programmes in Europe, is the culmination of a programme to support the production of films from Eastern and Central Europe. For 2013, "The prize is awarded to an extremely original script, which confronts spirituality, loyalty and family structure against the backdrop of the Middle Ages", the Award's Artistic Council says of their choice.
At the same time it talks about a fascinating and thought provoking personal conflict shown in the context of the confrontation between early Christianity and paganism. The Artistic Council is certain that the strongly dramatic potential of this involving story will flourish into a high quality film with an international public.
ScripTeast 2013 was the seventh edition of the programme in Cannes, and saw the scriptwriters of 12 scripts from 8 countries: Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Serbia. The seven-day programme included meetings with producers, sales agents, festival consultants, head of film foundations and distribution representatives.
The award bears the name of the Polish filmmaker because, as the organisers explain,
Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of the rare examples of filmmaker from our region whose films were widely seen, understood and respected in all of the parts of the world. He managed to tell simple stories on the complexity of our existence, and give them universal and deeply humanistic dimension while retaining his own, individual style. Our dream is to help discover Krzysztof Kieslowski's worthy successors.
For more information on ScripTeast see: ScripTeast website
Sources: based on the Polish article for culture by DB, FilmNew Europe, ScripTeast
Editor: MJ 27.05.2013