Jakub Piątek: Pianoforte

fot. Darek Golik

This text is written by Magnificent7 Festival founders and organizers Svetlana and Zoran Popovic introducing the opening film of the 20th edition of the festival:

A masterfully created documentary that in one fell swoop won over audiences at festivals in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. From Sundance to Copenhagen and Munich, from Tel Aviv to Bali, this stunning film has captivated so many different audiences alike with its superb music and glorious behind-the-scenes reveal of the world’s biggest music competition.

The legendary “Frederic Chopin” International Piano Competition has been held in Vršava every fifth year for almost a century. Rightly called the pianist’s Olympics, this three-week competition brings together the world’s best young pianists who, through incredibly demanding and exhausting tasks, compete to win the title of the best. That prestigious title brings a reputation that introduces them to the world of brilliant virtuosos, and for some of prominent pianists from Vladimir Ashkenazy and Martha Argerich to Ivo Pogorelich that was the way to have come into the spotlight of the world public. In this unique framework, Jakub Piątek creates an exceptional film composition ranging from a brilliantly playful musical film to a superb drama in which fantastic dreams collide with reality burdened by countless external and internal demands and pressures. While in front of us, two basic streams excitingly intertwine – the skill and beauty of playing and the dramatic anxiety regarding the outcome of the rounds of the competition through which a smaller and smaller number of participants pass, the director almost imperceptibly develops and builds a new surprising essayistic layer that introduces us more and more intensively into a wider dimension of questions about the meaning of competition that tests and exhausts all our strength, and the meaning of victory itself opposes the meaning of art.

A masterful film achievement that enchants us with virtuoso interpretations of music combined with fears, dilemmas, ups and downs of the best young pianists!

Poland, 2023, 89 mins.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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