2903 is a Polish-Japanese production starring Japanese actors in a futuristic romance that takes place in the title year, 2903. In an old-fashioned hotel with sweeping views of Tokyo, two strangers – a man and an actress – both bored with their reality, try to share intimate moments together. He wants her to portray a woman from his past, to recover feelings he has lost. She is open to experiencing more than just another emotional play. They provoke each other. There are just the two of them, a bed, a chair, city lights, long looks at the view outside the window, his drinks, her dress, and their sterile exchange of words. Wojciech Tubaja considers Tokyo to be the best backdrop to talk about emotions that are impossible to read or understand – that must simply be lived through.
Wojciech Tubaja studied at the University of Arts in Poznan and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In his work, Tubaja is interested in the study of the natural environment of modern man – his emotions, thoughts, and relationships with other people. He reaches for situations that change the perspective of those working with him. The main narrative objective of his work is to explore the boundary between fiction and truth. Tubaja’s films exhibit a type of video recording of shows or dramas; something between art video, theatre, and television. The artist often uses theatrical forms – thus his work is characterized by a limited range in time and space. The repetition of themes serves as an attempt to distill the true meanings of human emotions. His works are self-contained, yet still have an open structure – successive characters appear in the next film, compiling levels in the stories being told and emerging in subsequent viewings as the same/other characters.
2903 was not the first Polish production presented in Sapporo. Tomasz Śliwiński's documentary Our Curse shown in 2014 at the Sapporo International Short Film Festival was awarded Best Documentary in the "One Title" section. The international jury evaluating films in the competition comprised of: Koji Marimoto - director of animated films from Japan, Thomas Ian Nicholas - American actor, director, producer and musician, Erina Fujiwara - Japanese photographer, Jukka-Pekka Lasso - director of the Tampere Film Festival from Finland and Roy-kyoung Chun - producer from South Korea. Another Polish film shown as part of the competition at the Festival in 2014 was "The Big Leap" directed by Kristoffer Rus.
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