Still-frame from We Will be Happy One Day, dir. Paweł Wysoczański
Two award-winning Polish short documentaries are on the programme at one of Europe's premier documentary festivals
Kacper Czubak's Hermits (2011, 26min) is the story of Marian, who leaves his family to seek solitude. He decides to build a hermitage on the edge of a forest. Some years later, when Grzegorz is thrown out of his monastery, he decides to do the same. He sets up his hermitage right next to Marian’s, claiming it is easier to live alone when you have a little company. The arguments continue to this day.
On a different note, We Will Be Happy One Day by Paweł Wysoczański (2011, 42 min) is set in Lipiny, a soot-blackened industrial area reputed to be the poorest city in southern Poland. Here, everybody knows the basic truths: "films are better than life" and "dreams are not important, as they never come true". But Daniel won’t let small-town malaise crush his dreams. With a mobile phone camera in hand, and carrying the advice of his spirited grandmother, he roams the streets asking locals questions about their dreams. But will they ever come true?
Over the last few years, Polish documentaries have been making waves in some huge ponds, especially those produced by the Andrzej Wajda film school. Screenings of films by graduates of the school are also on the Open City programme. The city's Darwin Theatre (UCL/Torrington Sqaure, London WC1) also hosts a screening of films to mark the 10th anniversary of the Wajda School. The three films are by some of the school's most promising recent graduates. Łukasz Borowski's 3 Days of Freedom (2011, 27 min) is a film about Piotr, who after fifteen years behind bars, is granted a three-day pass. During this time he will have to decide what is most important in his life. Decrescendo by Marta Minorowicz (2011, 23 min) describes the friendship which blossoms between a young psychologist and his elderly patients, while Piotr Bernaś's Paparazzi (2011, 33 min) is a nerve-racking daily existence of a Polish paparazzi photographer.
The London Open City Short Documentary Festival 2012 takes place between the 21st and the 24th of June 2012. The films Hermits and We Will Be Happy One Day are being screened at 12 pm on the 23rd of June at Cinema Tent, UCL/Torrington Square, London WC1.For more information, see: www.opencitydocsfest.com.
Editor: Roberto Galea
Source: Press information