The Montreal International Film Festival lineup also includes Lęk wysokości (Fear of Falling) by Bartek Konopka (nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject category in 2010 for Rabbit a la Berlin), screening in the First Films World Competition (also a world premiere), and Księstwo (Heritage) by Andrzej Barański, screening in the Focus on the World section of the festival.
{mosimage}Black Thursday is the story of workers' strikes in December 1970 that were met with a brutal reaction from the communist authorities. The film is based around a Gdynia shipyard worker named Brunon Drzywa, who died during the riots after having been shot in the back at a local train station. Black Thursday received support from Agnieszka Odorowicz, General Director of the Polish Film Institute, and from Wojciech Szczurek, mayor of Gdynia.
The film features a leading cast of local actors from the Gdansk area: Marta Honzatko, Marta Kalmus-Jankowska, Michał Kowalski, with Wojciech Pszoniak, Piotr Fronczewski and Witold Dębicki in supporting roles.
Since the film's premiere in February 2011, Black Thursday has received wide acclaim from audiences, with over 672,000 admissions to date. This places the film fourth on the list of the most watched Polish films of the year.
As director of Black Thursday, Antoni Krauze received Special Recognition of the international jury at this year's Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Black Thursday was produced by the Gdynia-based production company Nordfilm. Jacek Petrycki was the film's director of photography, while Michał Lorenc composed the score.
{mosimage}Fear of Falling previously won awards at the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (Award for Best Film by a First-time or Second-Time Director), and at the 38th Ińsko Film Summer (Best Polish Film). The screenplay written by Piotr Borkowski and Bartosz Konopka received an award in the Hartley-Merrill screenwriting competition in 2009. Fear of Falling is the first full-length feature film produced by Munk Studio of the Polish Filmmakers Association. The film's artistic supervisor was Agnieszka Holland.
International sales of Fear of Falling will be handled by Wide Management (the Eye on Films Label, established in January 2011). The film's production was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
Bartosz Konopka, a graduate of the Jagiellonian University, also a graduate of film directing at the Radio and Television Department of the University of Silesia and of two courses at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the young generation. His film Królik po berlińsku (Rabbit a la Berlin) received awards at multiple film events, including Hot Docs in Toronto, and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject category in 2010.
{mosimage}The Mole is a feature debut of Rafael Lewandowski and the cinematographer credit goes to Piotr Rosołowski. "The Mole" was produced by Metro Films and co-produced by KUIV Productions, Silesia-Film, Non Stop Film Service, Le Frensoy - studio national des arts contemporains, Vertigo, Trafik. The film received the financial support from the Polish Film Institute and City of Bielsko-Biała.
It tells the story of Paweł (played by Borys Szyc) who is the son of a 'Solidarity' activist. His wife is Ewa, the daughter of a miner who had been killed during mine strike riots under communism. One day a photo of Paweł's father (Marian Dziędziel) is published in a paper. He is accused of having collaborated with the communist secret police in the 1980s (with "The Mole" as his code name), and of having informed on his collegues during the strike.
The film was screened in the main competition of the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and Marian Dziędziel won an award for the Best Actor In Supporting Actor. The film also stars: Wojciech Pszoniak, Magdalena Czerwińska, Sławomir Orzechowski and Bartłomiej Topa.
{mosimage}Heritage by Andrzej Barański was recently shown at the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and Karlovy Vary Main Competition, marking the film's international premiere. The film was supported by the Polish Film Institute. It tells a story of Zbyszek who is a promising football player, until a knee injury sidelines his career. He decides to become a poet, but takes a job at a liquor warehouse in the meantime. Dividing his time between work and writing, he falls behind on his law studies. When his knee heals, he is offered a position on a good football team. Unfortunately he will not make it to the tryouts - the local farmers just happened to form a road blocade...
The film stars: Rafał Zawierucha, Michał Anioł, Aldona Jankowska, Henryk Gołębiewski, Jan Wojtyński.
The Montreal International Film Festival runs from August 18 through August 28, 2011.
