Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Tomorrow Will be Better
{mosimage}Dorota Kędzierzawska's Gdynia competition film Tomorrow Will be Better tells the story of three homeless Russian boys who travel to Poland in search of a better life, with the universal hope that life is different and better somewhere else.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Rite of Passage
{mosimage}In Rite of Passage, director Janusz Majewski creates an image of turbulent events in post-WWII Poland, seen trough the eyes of boys on the verge of their adult life.
Rite Of Passage is a coming of age story evolving around Ludwik, a fourteen year old who arrives in newly freed Cracow with his sister and parents right after the end of WWII. The boy is enrolled in a good gymnasium where he makes new friendships and meets his new role model, sixteen year old Marek.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Million Dollars
{mosimage}With his Gdynia main competition film Million Dollar, Polish director Janusz Kondratiuk crafts a fast-paced comedy about contemporary Poland with people adrift following the transformation of the country.
The story follows Bożena, a pregnant official in a big bank, who is convinced that there is no real life without shopping. Surrounded by the glamorous and fake reality of her work place, she is disappointed with living in an old apartment house in Gdańsk. Her husband, an unsuccessful klezmer saxophonist, also doesn't match the lifestyle that she dreams of for herself while watching commercials. When she discovers that her neighbor, an old and recently widowed lady, has inherited one million dollars, Bożena and some neighbors set out to intercept the small fortune and make their dreams come true.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Silence
{mosimage}Based on a true story, Sławomir Pstrong's debut film Silence explores the lives of families who lost their children in a tragic accident. The film will premiere at the Gdyia festival (www.fpff.pl) before going on to other film festival screenings.
In 2003, a group of Polish high school students set out to fulfill their dream of climbing Mount Rysy when a surprise avalanche killed eight members of the excursion. The film looks the parents who had lost their children, and the emptiness and above all the struggle to live "after". Each of them has a different way of coping with the suffering, as they unknowingly drift apart.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition Three Minutes. 21:37
{mosimage}In Three Minutes. 21:37 director Maciej Ślesicki explores the image of contemporary Poland in the moment of grief after the death of Pope John Paul II. The cast of popular Polish actors, some from the director's previous commercial successes, includes Bogusław Linda, Piotr Adamczyk, Marcin Dorociński, Andrzej Grabowski, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Cezary Pazura and Marian Dziędziel.
Three minutes. 21:37 looks at Poles joined by faith a week after the death of the Pope, when millions of lights were turned off across the country as a manifest of unanimous grief. The plot covers four parallel stories of people who will unconsciously impact each other by their behaviour and actions.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: If You Go Away
{mosimage}If You Go Away, the feature film debut from Ewa Stankiewicz, is the emotional story of two people who struggle to find themselves after personal loss. Stankiewicz,a graduate of Łódź Film School, co-directed Touch Me (with Anna Jodowska), which was awarded the Best Independent Film Award at 2003 PFP in Gdynia (www.fpff.pl).
In If You Go Away, A young woman and an ex-friar meet in a hospital while carrying for dying loved ones. Despite the apparent attraction the two fail to make a connection and even get into a conflict. After a year she fails to cope with her suffering after the death of her mother and sets out to the city, where he accidentally saves her life. The night that they spend together gives them hope to get their lives back on track.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Joanna
Feliks Falk, one of the masters of Polish cinema, returns with Joanna, a moving story of love and courage set during WWII.
{mosimage}Joanna is a story of a young Polish pianist who has to cope alone while she waits for her husband to come back from the front. She meets a little Jewish girl named Rose whose mother was taken by the German soldiers and decides to take care of her. Joanna knows that she cannot keep Rose with her as she is already under observation, but she fails to find a hiding spot for Rose and is forced to become the lover of a German officer in return for protection. Her Polish family and members of the fighting underground decide to punish her for fraternizing with the enemy.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Little Rose
{mosimage} Director Jan Kidawa-Błoński's Little Rose is a story about a dangerous love triangle set in the Poland of the 1960's, where betrayal could have a political context. The script, by Kidawa-Błoński and Maciej Karpiński, is based on the character of Paweł Jasienica, a famous writer.
He marries a younger, beautiful "girl from nowhere" despite the indignation of his colleagues. Blinded by love, he doesn't suspect that his controversial relationship is not accidental. His new wife is secretly involved with a government agent and informs on her husband under the code name is "Little Rose." The co-operation with the agent turns into passion, but she realizes that she is just a tool in a political game.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Venice
Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish master of magical realism, enters the main competition at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival with Venice, a coming-of-age tale of a journey that never took place.
{mosimage}Venice is the story of an 11-year old Marek, whose dreams of a summer trip to Venice are brutally cut short by the outbreak of war in 1939. To escape the cruel realities of the world the boy hides in the basement of his aunt's villa. When one night the basement is flooded during a storm, the woman decides to distract the Marek's imagination by building a replica of Venice underneath her house. Kolski combines the brutal images of war with the dream-like qualities of a child's sensitivity and need for magic.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Erratum
{mosimage}In his feature film debut Erratum, Marek Lechki explores the issues of reliving ones past and changing the present.
Michał, age 34, is leading a prosperous, well-rounded life with his wife and son, a nice apartment, and a job in a big accounting office. The film starts when he is organizing his son's first communion. Michał would like to take a couple of days off, but his boss asks him to go to Michał's home town to collect a car imported from USA. He obediently fulfills the order, but a delay keeps him in the little town a couple of days longer. He meets people who were once close to him and stumbles upon familiar places, drawn to past feelings he had forgotten but tries to fight.
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Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Mystification
{mosimage}Father and son Jerzy and Maciej Stuhr star in Mystification, a film about the mysterious "supposed" death of Polish artist Stanisław "Witkacy" Witkiewicz.
The movie explores the controversial case of a suicide committed by the Polish artist in 1939, which was frequently disputed due to several pieces of mystifying evidence. In 1988 an exhumation proved that the supposed body of the painter and writer was replaced by the remains of a 30-year-old woman, and several new works of art contributed to Witkacy, as well as letters dated after his death, kept appearing over the years.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Flying Pigs
After a promising debut, Anna Kazejak comes back with Flying Pigs, a moving story about honor and friendship tested in the brutal world of soccer fans.
Flying pigs is a story of four characters who center their lives around supporting the local soccer club. When the team ceases to exists, their world is turned upside down. Oskar, a former hooligan and a strong leader in the circle of the local soccer fans, is forced to change from sweats into a suit and get a job with the owner of another club. His new post tests his loyalties, forces him to develop another outlook on life and grow up. Meanwhile he finds himself in the middle of a love triangle with his brother and his girlfriend. Kazejak presents a rough and energetic vision of a community where brutality and raw emotions are mixing with cold business and calculation.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Made In Poland
{mosimage}Przemysław Wojcieszek creates a moving image of Poland in the adaptation of his highly successful play Made in Poland.
In the film, 16-year old Boguś, a former altar boy, acts out on his disappointment with God. He tattoos obscenities on his forehead, arms himself with a metal rod and sets out to start a revolution on his block and look for new spiritual guidance. The story was initially a film project, but Wojcieszek decided not wait for funding and first created a theater play in 2004, which turned out to be a spectacular success. The play was strongly praised by critics and is considered one of the most significant plays in Poland in the last decade.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Trick
Trick directed by Jan Hryniak is a brilliant and intelligent crime drama that has been nicknamed "the Polish Ocean's Eleven."
Trick is a prison break story about two intellectuals, a talented forger and an elderly "professor," who make an attempt to escape incarceration and use their fake money to ransom a deputy kidnapped in Afghanistan. Hryniak gathered an all-star Polish cast including Piotr Adamczyk, Andrzej Chyra, Robert Więckiewicz and Marian Dziędziel - all creators of highly praised male roles in Polish movies during the 2009/2010 season.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: The Christening
{mosimage}Marcin Wrona's second film, The Christening, earns a spot in the Gdynia Polish Film Festival's main competition.
The Christening (Chrzest) is the story of a criminal who betrays his accomplices and moves to Warsaw, where he starts a new business and a family. He invites his brother to the baptism of his child in order to persuade him to fill in as father and husband when revenge comes.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Wonderful Summer
{mosimage}Gdynia competition film Wonderful Summer is a dark romantic comedy set against the world of funeral services, where the real world mixes with the mystical beyond.
The plot follows the typical outline of a romantic comedy but the setting of funeral homes and cemetaries gives it a dark atmosphere. The lead character Kika has a peculiar gift: she can communicate with the ghost of her dead mother. The mother visits her on a mission to make sure her daughter does not miss out on true love for the boy next door. The ghost will leave only when Kika makes the right choice.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Mother Teresa of Cats
{mosimage}In his new drama Mother Teresa of Cats, Paweł Sala presents a moving image of a contemporary brutal crime that shocked Poland.
Based on the true story of two brothers (ages 12 and 22) who murdered their mother, Mother Teresa Of Cats begins one year before the killing, and details the last days and the investigation leading to the arrest of the boys. The film recreates the atmosphere in the family home, with psychological portraits of the brothers and their mother, who appear to be a normal and modest family with nothing to indicate the impending tragedy.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Lullaby
{mosimage}One of the most popular Polish directors and a master of Polish comedy Juliusz Machulski tackles the horror film genre in his new film Lullaby.
A series of mysterious events take place in a small, picturesque town where the visitors and habitants suddenly start to disappear. The atmosphere thickens and tension grows as two policemen investigate. The trails lead nowhere, and innocent victims still disappear without a trace. The action is swift and full of sudden turns as the mystery is revealed bit by bit as a peculiar vampire family enters the picture. The plot is conveyed with a strong dose of humor, a trade mark of the director.
Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition spotlight: Fenomen
{mosimage}Fenomen, a directing/screenwriting debut from Tadeusz Paradowicz, is a crazy comedy about the search of the ultimate perfect man.
Fenomen evolves around the lives of three heroines: an eccentric film star, the spoiled daughter of a millionaire, and her loyal, big hearted but small-minded best friend. Despite their differences, they are all after the same thing: the perfect man. They come across a real gallery of choices including a mama's boy-celebrity, a handsome Italian archeologist, self-confident biker, a determined but unsuccessful actor, an extremely fertile screenwriter and even a couple of Polish rap artists, who also contribute to the music score to the film. Each one of them can turn out to be the perfect candidate.
