Krakow Film Festival International Doc Competition
The Krakow Festival – that runs its 60th edition online – announces its intl. documentary competition programme. I have taken bits and pieces from the press release:
”In this difficult time of quarantine the documentary competition will be your window to the world. It will take our audience to the faraway corners of the world and let them take a close look at the heroes from different cultures, their emotions and problems. Films from prestigious festivals as well as long-awaited world premieres will be competing for a Golden Horn and Silver Horns in front of the international jury. Three Polish productions are among them.
All quiet on the eastern front…
This year we have a considerable number of films from Russia and about Russia. Most of all they reveal a picture of Leviathan in the state of inertia, but the documentary filmmakers offer us also a completely different image of that country. And they do it by using a great variety of means, Anita Piotrowska, film critic and curator of the documentary competition, says.
Maciej Cuske’s film “The Whale from Lorino” is a unique journey nearly to the end of the world – to Chukotka. In order to survive, the local tribe is forced to whale hunt. A little bit farther south lies a small island of Kunashir, annexed by the USSR after the WW2. Japanese inhabitants, who had lived there for generations, were all forced to leave. The protagonists of the “Kunashir” documentary still to this day discover traces of the Japanese past while looking forward to a brighter future. “The Foundation Pit” shows uncensored present-day Russia through a YouTube video kaleidoscope. The grumbling and cursing, recorded by the desperate and frustrated, fills the screen. All messages are addressed to President Putin. At the same time the heroes of a Swedish documentary “Bitter Love” (PHOTO) by Jerzy Śladkowski sets off on a river cruise on the Volga to mend broken hearts, experience unforgetable love affairs and save struggling relationships.
The films are…
“Acasa, My Home”, dir. Radu Ciorniciuc, 85’, Romania, Finland, Germany
“The Self Portrait”, dir. Margreth Olin, Katja Hogset, Espen Wallin, 70’, Norway
“Sunless Shadows”, dir. Mehrdad Oskouei, 74’, Iran, Norway
“Kunashir”, dir. Vladimir Kozlov, 71’, France
“Bitter Love”, dir. Jerzy Śladkowski, 86’, Sweden
“I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die”, dir. Eva Marie Rødbro, 76’, Denmark
“The Painter and the Thief”, dir. Benjamin Ree, 102’, Norway
“Odmienne stany świadomości”, dir. Piotr Stasik, Poland
“Higher Love”, dir. Hasan Oswald, 78’, USA
“The Whale from Lorino”, dir. Maciej Cuske, Poland
“The Foundation Pit”, dir. Andrey Gryazev, 70’, Russia
“An Ordinary Country”, dir. Tomasz Wolski, 53’, Poland
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of the Academy Awards documentary feature qualifying events and the winner of the Golden Horn is shortlisted for the Oscar selection. KFF also qualifies short films (live action, animated, documentary) for the Academy Awards and recommends them for the European Film Awards.
The programme of the 60th Krakow Film Festival will be moved entirely online! The latest documentary, animated and short films from around the world, awaited Polish premieres and meetings with filmmakers will be available online, from the safety of your own home. The full festival programme will be announced mid-May.
