Jerzy Śladkowski: Bitter Love

This text is written by the Magnificent7 festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic:

The work of a great master of studies on the finest emotions, the master who charmingly and unobtrusively delves into the deep secrets of the soul, an author who superbly poetizes the cruel everyday life and transforms it into the magic of film.

Chekhov’s spirit is revived in a film about a group of people on a cruise in search of love. The bitter-sad, touching-comic atmosphere permeates the encounters of men and women who mourn love or long for it. Lost in the timelessness of the moment, between the beginning and the end of the journey through the gentle landscapes of the wide Volga, at one moment they are filled with hope, and at the next with its loss or reawakening. Extremely discreet, and most deeply connected with the heroes, the poetic camera of Wojciech Staroń, and the sense for understanding the most subtle human feelings of Jerzy Śladkowski, achieve a rarely seen fullness and persuasiveness.

A film that invites you to indulge in an enchanting cinema cruise imbued with music.

Sweden, Finland, Poland 2020, 87 minutes 

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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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