Magdalena Berus and Jakub Gierszal in Jacek Borcuch's "Lasting", photo: Kakow Festival Office
Danny, a young Norwegian, sets out on a search for like-minded people, he ends up in a place like a fairy tale, among people who want to save the Amazon. Like the seemingly well-organised world of Michał, whose romance with Karina is broken up by a dramatic event, for Danny there are no easy answers. Three Polish films take part in the 42nd International Film Festival in Rotterdam.
Danny in Michał Marczak's Fuck for Forest despises big corporations and doesn’t want to be part of the rat race. Raised in a secure environment, surrounded by luxury, he doesn’t want to take any responsibilities. In Berlin, he comes across the controversial organisation Fuck for Forest whose 1,300 members make pornographic material or have sex in public to raise money for worthy causes.
"Two years ago I read a short article about Fuck for Forest," the documentary’s director, Michał Marczak, told culture.pl. and, "I came home, bought a monthly subscription and started watching their videos. I asked myself whether the members were doing it mostly for the forests, to be in front of the camera or to be a part of the group." Marczak mixes his sense of empathy with strong imagery to show how the young people rebel against consumerism while depending on the sale of sex. In Rotterdam, the documentary screens in the Bright Future section.
Part of the same category, Michał and Jerzy Skolimowski's Ixjana takes the viewer on a journey about betrayal, friendship and the importance of women in a man’s life. "The film draws its inspiration from Sigmund Freud's books, Greek literature, Dante, Goethe and contemporary literature," Michał Skolimowski said during a press conference organised at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome during the 7th International Film Festival, where Ixjana screened. The film received mixed reviews from Polish critics, who were drawn to the film as a unique experiment for homegrown cinema and dismissive of it as a "failed parody of the devilish motifs in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita" (Marek Sadowski for the newspaper Rzeczpospolita).
The screening of Jacek Borcuch's Nieulotne / Lasting in the Spectrum section marks its European premiere, after its world premiere during the Sundance Film Festival 2013. The film is a Polish-Spanish co-production featuring actors from both countries. Polish actor Jakub Gierszał (Poland 2012 Shooting Star as one of Europe’s Best Young Actors, awarded by the European Film Promotion organisation) plays alongside Magdalena Berus (considered one of the year's discoveries) and Spanish actors Angela Molina and Juanjo Ballesta.
Twenty-year-old Michał (Jakub Gierszał) and Karina (Magdalena Berus), two Polish students, meet in Valencia, Spain, while on a summer job, and fall head over heels for each other. Their holiday romance is broken up by a dramatic event that changes their lives irrevocably. Provoked into a fight, Michał kills a man. Their idyll turns into a nightmare, and their feelings are put to the test. Nieulotne / Lasting is a love story that shows "Through the eyes of young people [...] the collapse of their seemingly well-ordered world," as director Jacek Borcuch told the Polish Press Agency.
The Rotterdam International Film Festival has been taking place since 1972 and is one of Europe's biggest film festivals. Promoting independent cinema from around the world, the festival aims to support young new talents. Its main prize is the Tiger Award.
Sources: PISF, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Bartosz Staszczyszyn's article for culture.pl, culture.pl
Editor: Marta Jazowska