This section of the festival presents documentary productions from Central and Eastern Europe. Bartosz Konopka, the director whose Rabbit à la Berlin was nominated for an Academy Award, takes the viewer back in time to the year 1980. Poland is struggling with an economic crisis, all stores are empty and grey is the dominant colour. A group of visitors from Haiti comes to Poland at this time, invited by Jerzy Grotowski – the now-iconic revolutionary and a legend of European theatre.
The young vodoo priest Amon Frémon is among them, and it turns out he has ancestors from Poland who settled in the New World in the early 19th century. And, when on the 13th of December 1981, martial law is officially imposed in Poland, Amon conducts rituals meant to cast the evil powers out of the soul of the Polish leader, General Jaruzelski.
Directed by Konopka, and shot by Rosołowski, the film is an ironic study stretching between the absurd, the dream-like and a documentary reconstruction. The two have very skilfully intertwined archive material with contemporary footage shot in Poland and in Haiti, painting an unobvious portrait of Poland under communist rule. It is an image devoid of sentimentalism and quite ecquivocal.
The Art of Disappearing crowns a series of documentary films entitled Guide to the Poles, meant to acquaint foreign audiences with the phenomena of Polish creativity and a national love of freedom. The series is produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Otter Films.
Other Polish titles presented in Jihlava include Amdo After Harvest by Adam Ruszkowski, Punkt wyjścia / Point of Departure by Jagoda Szelc and Rogalik from Paweł Ziemilski.
Running alongside the festival is also the 10th edition of East Silver Market fair, presenting more than 50 Polish titles. 15 of these are nominated for the Silver Eye award for short and full-length feature films. Winning the award and special mentions of the fair ensures a support for international promotion and distribution of the films.
The 17th International Festival of Documentary Films takes place in Jihlava between the 24th and 29th of October. More information is availabe on the official website of the festival:
Editor: Paulina Schlosser
sources: PISF, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, 23.10.2013