Rafal Skalski: 52 Percent
Short documentaries of international quality are hard to find. The television stations have long ago given up slots for shorts, with a few exceptions like Arte, and the film institutes and the public funding systems do the same – because where can the films be shown?
But they are produced, in film schools first of all, and by young filmmakers who finance their films by themselves and put them online.
This Polish beauty, however, has made the festival circuit and wone the prizes it deserves. I have no objections at all to a film that has a title that refers to the ideal proportion of one’s leg length to height. One of the most important admission criteria set by the State Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, and the one that 11 year old Alla has to conquer. Look at the face of this girl, a perfect cast, conveyed with brilliant cinematography by Jakub Giza in a film that has the right rythm and duration and a universal appeal… we have all met these ”52 percent” in our lives.
The film was made under „Russia and Poland. New Gaze” project, 2nd edition. The project was realized by Eureka Media and Adam Mickiewicz Institute with financial support of Polish Film Institute.
Poland, 2007, 19 mins.
