Still from Małgorzata Szumowska's "In the Name of...", photo; Anna Wawrzycka-Atach.
Małgorzata Szumowska's portrait of loneliness, In the Name of..., and Katarzyna Rosłaniec's Baby Blues, the lauded director's look at teenage pregnancy, receive two festival prizes - the Crystal Bear and the Teddy Award respectively.
Małgorzata Szumowska's film is story about hope, doubt and the longing for feelings. The protagonist of In the Name of... is a lonely homosexual priest in a small parish who launches a help centre for troubled youth. The good priest is well liked by the community, yet 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. The script was written by Szumowska and Michał Englert, who is also the movie's cinematographer.
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. The film was chosen Best Feature Film 2013 in the Teddy Award category.
Katarzyna Rosłaniec's Baby Blues presents its daring take on teen pregancy in two sections, Generation 14plus and Panorama. Rosłaniec portrays the essence of consumerist imitation, 21st-century illusions and the consequences of unmet childhood emotions. "Far more than just another in the long line of films about teen pregnancy", as 37th Toronto International Film Festival programmers put it during the film's world premiere. 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. Baby Blues wins the Crystal Bear for Best Film of the Generation 14plus section and a Special Mention from the International Jury.
The Berlin International Film Festival also screens a Polish-German co-production, in its Forum Section. Marcin Malaszczak’s Sieniawka is a film that traces personal connections of the Berlin-based director of film and video to a mental-health institution in Sieniawka, the Polish village where he grew up. The Hospital for the Mentally / Nervously Ill and Alcoholics serves as a point of departure for the film; it was founded in 1964 on the site of a German sub-concentration camp for labour built in the village.
Sieniawka becomes a metaphor for insanity as the film explores marginalised humanity in post-communist Polish society. "I wanted to make a film that is a journey through memory and the imaginary in a world that resembles our own, but is not necessarily ours", Malaszczak is quoted on the film's official website.
The International Berlin Film Festival dates back to 1951 and is among the world's prestigious film events. It's film selection is known for addressing social problems and presenting realistic representations of the world.
Sources: Bartosz Staszczyszyn's article for culture.pl, PISF, Project Room Centrum Berlin, Mengamuk Films, OffPlus Camera, Film New Europe, Berlinale Synopsis, Variety
Editor: Marta Jazowska