Urszula Antoniak is a master of allusions and film experiments, a star of Polish arthouse and the most erudite among Polish filmmakers. Her films were screened at the most important European film festivals: in Locarno, San Sebastian and Cannes. She started and pursued her career in the Netherlands and that is why in her films she tackles the topics of encounters with foreignness, of multiculturalism, otherness and the process of identity shaping. Watching her films poses an intellectual and aesthetic challenge, but gives a lot of satisfaction. That is because on screen she holds a dialogue not only with the masters of the cinematography but also with great thinkers, such as Kierkegaard, Barthes and Lacan.
She graduated from the Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia and the Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academie (NFTA) in Amsterdam. In 1988 she moved to the Netherlands. She did not know Dutch, but she decided to study at the Netherlands Film Academy.
After graduation, she carried out her first artistic projects in television. She made TV films and documentaries. She also wrote scripts to films directed by others (she invented the story for the film Planet Single and created the family film Het leven volgens Nino). In 2004 she filmed the romantic comedy Bijlmer Odyssee for Dutch television. It narrated a story of two young lovers living on the outskirts of Amsterdam. In 2009 she made the short film Dutch for Beginners in which she shared her observations on identity of an immigrant who feels rooted in native culture of the homeland and struggles with alienation in the new place of life.
Nothing Personal
Her full-length feature debut, Nothing Personal, was one of the most interesting European films of 2009. Antoniak told a story of a young woman (Lotte Verbeek) who left her life behind so as to go on a journey around Ireland on her own. Her path intersects with the one of a lonely elderly man (Stephen Rea).
Nothing Personal turned out to be a big festival hit. During the festival in Locarno it was awarded with six prizes, such as the Silver Leopard for the actress Lotte Verbeek, the FIPRESCI award and the Ecumenical Jury's award. The film also received four Dutch film prizes and became one of the most widely presented Dutch films of the year (it was acquired for distribution in 16 countries).
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