The director observes his protagonists in intimate everyday situations. Staroń is not interested in grand history nor in sentimental journeys into the past. He is interested in the ‘here and now’, in small, everyday rituals. He describes two men, so close to each other and at the same time so different. One is a little melancholic, the other has a positive attitude to the world. One is romantic, while the second – a pragmatist. They have spent their entire lives together and now, together, face death. Piotr Czerkawski wrote in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna:
Staroń’s documentary is also fascinating as a tale about old age presented with dignity, but also without false beauty. The director indicates that the passing time stigmatises the protagonists physically and mentally.
Brothers, awarded at 68th Locarno Film Festival, is a sensitive documentary. We look into the intimate world of the protagonists, but thanks to the director’s empathy, we are not intruders, but guests. Brothers is one of the warmest and most moving films from the past year.
Close Ties by Zofia Kowalewska
She is 21 years old, has only one film under her belt, and stands a strong chance of winning an Academy Award. Zofia Kowalewska, student at the Directing Department of the National Film School in Łódź, made her debut in great style. Her Close Ties was awarded at the most important film festivals in Liepzig, Amsterdam and Kraków…
…And rightly so. Kowalewska’s documentary is a wonderful mixture of comedy and drama, personal but at the same time very universal. The protagonists are the director’s grandparents. Close Ties is a story about a marriage with a 45-year-long history and a turbulent past. A few years before filming, Zdzisław left his wife Barbara and moved out to start a new life with his lover. After falling ill, he returns to their once shared apartment. Barbara and Zdzisław try again to answer the question of who they are to each other. The approaching anniversary of their marriage is an opportunity to understand their new relationship.
In her film debut, Kowalewska turned towards her family. She observes their relationship, shows their loneliness and emotional complications. Her Close Ties is moving in its realism and at the same time, very humorous. This is why in 2016 it was placed on the Oscar shortlist for Best Short Documentary. The director deserves attention and congratulations, even if her film ends up without the award, as Close Ties is a harbinger of a great film talent.
Icon by Wojciech Kasperski
Wojciech Kasperski, creator of the famous The Seeds, returns to Russia in his latest documentary. Icon is about a psychiatric hospital located somewhere in distant Siberia. Once again, Kasperski shows that he is a master of laconic storytelling.
Awarded at the 56th Kraków Film Festival, Icon is an outstanding film, rooted in uncertainty and curiosity, posing questions but not hinting at easy answers.
Initially, it was meant to be the story of doctors working with terminally ill patients. Together with his crew, he travelled four thousand kilometres across Russia, documenting. That’s how they found an old mental hospital, where for 1,500 patients there are five doctors. As well as those who are seriously ill, there are people who are not needed any more by anyone. In an interview for the Polish Filmmakers Association, Kasperski said that:
It is a dump where society discards those whom it doesn’t know what to do with.
Icon tells their story. Kasperski also asks philosophical questions. Is a man’s soul located in the heart or the brain? How can we specify where illness begins? What allows us to consider some things normal, and others a deviation that needs to be eliminated? In Icon these questions are not annoyingly banal or superficial. The director of The Seeds creates a meditative, subtle, and ambiguous film. Magdalena Felis from Stopklatka wrote about Icon:
Icon tempts you to close your eyes, not to see it, not to touch it. What are we looking at? Kasperski managed to make a humanistic film in an inhuman place. About what is beyond the horizon of the imagination, consciousness, knowledge, and will. You have to go through that with your eyes wide open.
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You by Paweł Łoziński
This brave and wise documentary by Paweł Łoziński is a story about psychotherapy as the art of disarming words. Łoziński observes the story of a mother and daughter’s psychotherapy treatments, who try to understand where the misunderstandings between them come from. Their journey to mutual acceptance is full of painful words and hidden emotions and resentments.
For Łoziński, You Have No Idea How Much I Love You was a continuation of his previous film. In Father and Son, one of the best Polish documentaries of the past decade, Łoziński filmed himself and his father. The film was supposed to serve as a means to purify their relationship. But artistic fulfilment does not not always go hand in hand with therapeutic success. They decided to create two separate works. Janusz Wróblewski wrote in Polityka:
To feel and fully understand the original concept of this experiment you have to carefully read the final credits. It gives the film meaning and encourages the viewer to rethink the entire story.
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You can be placed in the therapeutic trend in contemporary documentaries. It isn’t autobiographical, like the excellent Forget Me Not by David Sieveking or the films of Polish director Marcin Koszałka which deal with his family matters. Nevertheless, Łoziński’s work has an intimate tone and viewers can feel that by talking about other people, the director is also saying something important about himself, his emotions, and his comprehension of them.
Communion by Anna Zamecka
Anna Zamecka’s debut documentary is a sensation at international festivals, winning at Locarno, Amsterdam, and Liepzig. This painful, beautiful film is one of the most awarded documentaries of the past few years. Communion tells the story of Ola, a 14-year-old head of a family. Her father does not know how to take care of them, and their mother has left them for another man and is to have a baby with him. Ola takes care of the family and believes that her mother will soon return home. Nikodem, her younger brother, is to receive his first communion soon. For Ola, the celebration is a chance to reunite her parents.