Berlinale Shooting Star Agnieszka Grochowska, still from "Shameless", photo: Akson Studio
Alongside the stodgy win for Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness and Marcin Krzyształowicz’s war-themed Manhunt, young directors scored special awards from the jury for controversial new films Secret and Aftermath
Anca Damian’s Crulic - The Path to Beyond receives the jury's Special Award for "courage in the choice of form and the subject of the movie and for its unique artistsic value" and Leszek Dawid is recognised as the Best Debut with his film You Are God. Przemysław Wojcieszek's Secret and Władysław Pasikowski's Aftermath received an honourable mention for "courage in touching upon sensitive topics, which so far have not been potrayed in Polish cimena".
Fourteen films competed in the main category for the Golden Lion, their common theme: young people’s struggle to choose and embark on their own life path. Seeking to claim their right to freedom, the protagonist all seem to be incapacitated by family burdens. In Sekret/Secret, Ksawery learns of a crime committed by the only relative he has ever felt attached to – his beloved grandfather who murdered a Jewish family trying to return to their home at the end of World War II. Secrecy seems to be a recurring issue for the family as Ksawery is secretly a drag queen. The movie was also on the programme in the Forum section at the 62nd edition of the International Film Festival in Berlin.
In Tomasz Wasilewski’s W Sypialni/ In a Bedroom a 40 year old woman runs away from her home village, penniless, night after night shesleeps in the flats of men met over the internet after sedating them. The film is about decisions being tainted by past experiences and behaviours predated by emotional burdens. Tomasz Wasilewski is a young filmmaker with considerable experience, who worked with Lars Von Trier on the Antichrist, with Per Fly on The Woman That Dreamed About a Man and assisted Małgorzata Szumowska with 33 sceny z życia/ 33 Scenes From Life.
Still from "Aftermath", photo: Gdynia Film Festival
Władysław Pasikowski’s film Pokłosie/ Aftermath exposes the secret of the town of Jedwabne. Based on real-life events from 1941, the films two protagonists brothers Franek and Józek discover that during the German occupation, Polish Jews were killed by their Polish neighbours.
After a sudden separation and seventy-year-old Włodek’s subsequent heart attack, three generations of men in Piotr Trzaskalski’s Mój Rower/ My Father’s Bike attempt to fix the strains on the family relationship which determine the lives of the grandfather, son and grandson. The motion picture receives the Best Script Award in Gdynia. In Filip Marczewski Bez Wstydu/ Shameless Tadek and his sister discover a difficult, incestuous love developing between them impeding their personal development.
Also contending for the Golden Lion in the Main Competition were: Małgorzata Szumowska’s Elles, Maciej Żak’s Supermarket, Waldemar Krzystek’s 80 million, Marek Koterski’s Man, Chicks Are Just Different, Maria Sadowska’s Women's Day.
SECRET trailer from Przemek Wojcieszek on Vimeo.
Poland’s biggest Film Festival – the Gdynia Film Festival, running since 1975, showcases the year’s best movies, best directors and hottest topics. It juxtaposes generations of filmmakers and creates a dialogue between historical truths and contemporary views.
Sources: Gdynia Film Festival, Film New Europe, Polish Film Institute
Author: Marta Jazowska