"Młyn i krzyż"/"The Mill & the Cross", directed by Lech Majewski, source: www.lechmajewski.art.pl
Director Lech Majewski's latest feature film, The Mill and the Cross, is to enjoy its world premiere at the world's largest independent cinema festival. It is one of two Polish productions on the programme at Sundance - Jakub Stożka's short documentary film "Out of Reach" is to be presented within the documentary showcase
The Mill and the Cross is featured in the programme of the New Frontier Film category, which highlights innovative and original work that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and the moving image to promote cinematic innovation. The section presents media installations, multimedia performances, panel discussions and a selection of 5 feature films, including director Lech Majewski's latest production. The Mill and the Cross, featuring Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling and Michael York, is inspired by Pieter Bruegel's 1564 epic masterpiece, The Procession to Calvary. The painting portrays Jesus staggering to his crucifixion, lost in a panoramic landscape crowded with hundreds of villagers and red-caped horsemen. Through the depiction of Jesus' plight as one among many vignettes while soldiers on horseback loom threateningly, Bruegel boldly transposes Christ's passion and death to sixteenth-century Flanders, a time when the Belgian people were suffering terribly under brutal Spanish occupation.
Lech Majewski has undertaken the daunting task of translating these images onto film. The filmmaker mischievously invites the viewer to live inside the aesthetic universe of the painting as one watches it being created. As various lives unfold within the film frame, Bruegel himself appears as one of the characters of the film, capturing once again the shards of those desperate stories on his canvas-in-the-making. Considered as one of Poland's most adventurous and inspired filmmakers, The Mill and the Cross has been described by the festival organizers as "a vibrant meditation on art and religion as ongoing, layered processes of collective storytelling and reinterpretation (...) a feast of stunning visual effects and a provocative allegory". The film is a Polish and Swedish production co-financed by Silesia Film, TVP and Bokomotiv Filmproduktion.
Also featured in the programme of the 2011 Sundance film festival is Jakub Stożka's documentary short Poza zasięgiem" / "Out of Reach. Presented within the Documentary Showcase section amongst 80 other productions, Stożka's piece was the winner of the 2010 International Short Films Competition at the recent Kraków Film Festival. The documentary follows the path of sisters Karolina and Natalia as they seek refuge from their domineering father and reminiscence about their sad childhood without a mother. Out of Reach was produced by Darklight Film Studio.
The previous edition of the Sundance festival presented several Polish productions, including Wszystko, co kocham"/"All that I love directed by Jacek Borcuch as well as two student debuts from the Filmmaking school in Lodz: Echo by Magnus von Horn and Birthday by Jenifer Malmqvist.
The Sundance Film Festival was created by Robert Redford as part of the Sundance Institute. Since its creation in 1984 as the Labs, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent film, theatre, and music artists. The programme of the Sundance Institute includes the annual Sundance Film Festival held in and around Park City, Utah, at the beginning of every year. Widely considered the premier platform for American and international independent film, the Festival has introduced audiences to some of the most original fictional and non-fictional stories of the last three decades including Reservoir Dog, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Splendor, An Inconvenient Truth, Little Miss Sunshine and The Cove. Sundance also organises film and scriptwriting workshops, provides a fund financing documentary films and it is behind the Sundance Channel, a TV station dedicated to art and independent cinema in 1996.
The Sundance film festival runs between January 20 - 30, 2011.
The Mill and the Cross - Screenings
Sunday, January 23, 12:00 - Yarrow Hotel Theatre
Tuesday, January 25, 19:30 - Broadway Centre Cinemas IV
Wednesday, January 26, 19:15 - Egyptian Theatre
Thursday, January 27, 11:59 - Holiday Village Cinema II
Friday, January 28, 21:00 - Broadway Centre Cinemas VI
Out of Reach - Screenings (as part of the Short Films Showcase I)
Friday, January 21, 9:00 - Temple Theatre
Saturday, January 22, 13:30 - Broadway Centre Cinemas IV
Sunday, January 23, 15:00 - Redstone Cinemas 8
Thursday, January 27, 21:30 - Holiday Village Cinema II
Saturday, January 29, 22:30 -Broadway Centre Cinemas IV
For more info about the festival, see: www.sundance.org
Source: pisf.pl, www.sundance.org