Still-frame from B. Konopka's Fear of Falling
A special section of eight major Polish films from the past year are on the programme at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, one of Asia's biggest cinematic events
This year marks the 36th edition of the festival, presenting over 300 films from 50 countries. Poland is in the spotlight as one of the main sections of the festival, with some of its best films of the past year, many seen for the first time in Asia.
Oscar-nominated In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland, and Lech J. Majewski's award-winning picture The Mill and the Cross are at the top of the list, both films presenting impeccable camera work and directing to tell, on the one hand, a heart-wrenching story of a family hiding in the sewers of Lviv during the Holocaust, and on the other, the multi-layered story of a dramatic painting that serves as a metaphor for suffering through the ages. Charlotte Rambling, who plays Mary in Majewski's and a role in Angela Maccarone's The Look, is among the guests at the festival.
Wojciech Smarzowski's award-wining feature film Rose tells the turbulent tale of not-so-neighbourly relations on the new Polish territories following World War II. Antoni Krauze's Black Thursday (FIPRESCI Prize at the Montreal WFF) also revisits the political tragedies of the past, this time at the Gdynia shipyard in 1970, when labour uprisings were violently suppressed by the government. Poland's animation industry is represented by the controversial cartoon George the Hedgehog. Directed by Tomasz Leśniak, Wojciech Wawszczyk and Jakub Tarkowski, it's a boisterous romp through so many societal layers of contemporary Poland.
Greg Zgliński's Courage is a finely-tuned moral tale of two brothers who witness a crime and the implications when one intervenes and the other turns his back. Bartosz Konopka's Fear of Falling is an intimate portrait of a family whose perfect life is rattled by a grandfather's illness, only to fall back into place thanks to courage and risk. It Looks Pretty from a Distance is a debut film from artists Wilhelm and Anka Sasnal, a closer look at a rural village that becomes a simmering cauldron of violence and crime.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival opened on the 21st of March with a screening of Love In A Puff directed by Pang Ho-cheung and will close with Wang Quan'an's White Deer Plain, winner of the Silver Bear at the recent Berlinale Festival. Films also compete in five sections - Asian Digital Competition, Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries, FIPRESCI, SIGNIS and Fresh Wave Short Film Competition. Workshops and seminars round out the festival programme.
Wstaw podpis tutaj
The event is organised and financed by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, in cooperation with the National Film Archive, as part of the institute's Project Asia Initiative aimed at spurring interest in Polish culture across Asia, particularly China, Japan and Korea. See more on Project Asia at azja.iam.pl.
See the full Poland in Close-Up programme at www.hkiff.org.hk
- Rose, director: Wojciech Smarzowski - screenings 24.03, 27.03
- It Looks Pretty From a Distance, director: Wilhelm Sasnal - screenings 24.03, 28.03
- George the Hedgehog, directors: Tomasz Lesniak, Wojciech Wawszczyk, Jakub Tarkowski - screenings 25.03, 27.03
- Fear of Falling, director: Bartosz Konopka - screenings 26.03, 30.03
- In Darkness, director: Agnieszka Holland - screenings 28.03, 31.03
- The Mill and the Cross, director: Lech Majewski - screenings 30.03, 2.04, 5.04
- Black Thursday, director: Antoni Krauze - screenings 1.04, 4.04
- Courage, director: Greg Zglinski - screenings 3.04, 5.04
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: azja.iam.pl, hkiff.org
Thumbnail credit: Courage, director: Greg Zglinski