Short but sweet
Can you tell a complex story in less than 30 minutes? The films showcased in the short films competition prove that it is possible. Documentaries, animations and features are all fascinating stories from around the world, presenting different genre conventions: from love stories through dark comedies to suspense filled thrillers.
Documentary films: a trip to the inside of a family and other extraordinary places
The ten short documentaries that havebeen invited to the competition are both intimate portraits of heroesas well as films showing the problems of the modern world. Thefrighteningphenomenon, widespread in the environment of computergame lovers, is the topic of “Swatted”, whose heroes sendspecial SWAT units to their friends from the Internet for fun, justso that they can watch a live stream of brutal police operations.
Connected, dir. Aleksandra Maciejczyk
Short documents, however, are primarily intimate, family stories. In the film ”Dandelion Mum”the director follows the struggle of her mother with cancer, while in the ”Greykey” a daughter tries to revive memories of her father – a black participant in the war in Spain who goes to the concentration camp at Mauthausen. The family of Syrian immigrants living in a Dutch town is the hero of the documentary ”Like them“, and the film “Milady” presents the experiences of people adopted in their youth by foster families. Norwegian teenagers from the movie ”Viva Løten!“ also have to overcome a difficult past. The complex relationship between two people is shown in the documentary ”When the Dragon came“. The heroes got married very young, have eight children and live together, but somehow they are apart. Wiola and Krzysztof from the film “Connected” are the complete opposite -Krzysztof’s illness and their feelings make them almost inseparable.
Animated films: playing with the audience
– One of the questions we ask ourselves during the selection is the question about the audience: will viewers open to animated worlds dictated by the subversive anti-logic of sleep, desire, experiment? Our choice is based on the idea of a balance between traditional narrative films, inviting “beginner” viewers of animation to recognize the aesthetics and codes of the medium of animated film, and forms aimed at mixing genres, games with perception or film narration – says Olga Bobrowska, the selector of the Krakow Festival film.
Crème de la crème of international cinema
Sundance, SXSW, IDFA – the winners of the most important film festivals in the world are coming to cinema screens in Krakow as part of a speciel „Festival award winners” section. The KFF audience will have a chance to see twelve film productions that have already been recognized by international juries.
– You do not need to get on an airplane or train, just need to go to any of the films from the section “Festival award winners” to embark extremely exciting journey that will take you into two directions. One will transfer you to the most important festivals in the world, and the other to distant film lands. It is a lot of fun to check what has delighted other viewers and jurors in the last 12 months and let yourself be seduced by excellent, award-winning cinema – says Magdalena Walo, coordinator of the “Festival award winners” section.
Los Reyes, reż. Bettina Perut, Iván Osnovikoff
Two loveable dogs, Chola and Football are the heroes of the documentary “Los Reyes”, awarded at the IDFA festival. Quadrupeds living in the skate park are random listeners of conversations of young people, who are wat too familiar with drugs, quarrels with their parents or threats of being thrown out of the house.
The motels in the suburbs can also be involuntary witnesses of not always legal business dealings. They are hiding places for murderers, pit stops for lost travelers and hide-aways for surreptitious lovers. In the “Vacancy” awarded in Jihlava, viewers will get to know their real inhabitants – people who dream less and less of an American dream.
The 59th Krakow Film Festival will take place on May 26 – June 2, 2019
Follow our news on the website and in the social media: Facebook, Twitter i Instagram.
