KFF 2025

Actor/director/producer Dawid Szurmiej presented his doc project that tells the story of the eponymous Polish luminary, the only actress from behind the Iron Curtain to be nominated for an Academy Award, but who was forced into exile at the height of her career as anti-semitic riots swept across Eastern Europe in 1968. “Ida Kaminska went from being the cornerstone of Yiddish culture before the war, to becoming the bridge of a lost culture of 300,000 Jews of Warsaw and the 3 million Jews of Poland,” Szurmiej said of her legacy.

“Jakub Jakubik is a director of remarkable sensitivity—he listens carefully to his characters and the spaces they inhabit,” says Polish producer Michał Sadowski ahead of the KFF Industry Docs to Go presentation of his latest project. In the film, yet another person has drowned in the river near the synagogue converted into a liquor store. Waldek, a long-time teetotaler, the homeless Marek, and the Polish Jew Dawid must confront what more and more is being to resemble a curse.

Ukrainian Sergiusz Bażenov’s feature project tells a story that should never have had to be told. It tells of a filmmaker who becomes a military paramedic in a team with a Dutch volunteer. Together, they witness how war changes people — and themselves. “I’m aiming for a more universal message about war itself, and how it transforms people,” the director tells BDE. “I was certainly transformed by it, and I believe that in today’s world, no one is truly safe, that war can reach anyone. That’s why I want the viewer to imagine themselves in our place. To feel that every death, however distant, diminishes us all.”

Polish Mariusz Biernacki’s feature doc debut The Herd takes on the thorny issue of what it means to be a man in the 21st Century. “Unlike women, who have had clear directions for change through feminist movements and numerous support networks, men today frequently lack guidance,’ the director tells BDE. “Many feel lost, and this has contributed to the rise of phenomena such as incel communities and broader issues of male isolation and frustration.”

Maestra tells the story of the legendary Lidia Grychtołówna who, at the age of 96, remains the world’s oldest active concert pianist. But now she is preparing for her final concert. “What begins as the story of a quiet, nearly forgotten woman becomes a powerful portrait of a radiant artist reclaiming her place in the spotlight,” says producer Iwona Harris. “Her transformation into the vibrant, commanding maestra is the emotional core of the film.”

When journalist Lina Vdovîi, estranged from her violent father, agrees to help him expose the injustices perpetrated by previous employer, the process reopens the wounds of their past relationship. Nevertheless the experience also proves to be cathartic. Making the film convinced her that “running away” from him wasn’t “healing the wounds from your past,” she tells BDE. She was, instead, giving herself a chance to make peace with him.

Yes, Gar O’Rourke did himself try the mud treatment when he was preparing his new feature doc Sanatorium (selected for Documentary Competition at KFF and sold by MetFilm Sales). He has also done the salt pools the electro-massages and everything else between. Many docs have been made in Ukraine since the invasion but this is surely the gentlest, funniest and most surprising. O’Rourke gets the full treatment from BDE.

Although the events of Hide Me in the Light are set in Ukraine, the film does not focus directly on the war. Rather, it is a character-driven documentary centered around the story of childhood friendship. Nevertheless, the theme of loss is very much in evidence. “Told from the children’s perspective, the story is emotional and deeply moving,” producer Kateryna Ptashka tells BDE. “Viewers can connect with these children because they will recognise something of their own childhood in them."

The doc component of KFF Industry kicks off in earnest May 28 with the presentation of nine Polish ‘Docs to Go,’ These are films on the cusp of completion and roll-out to the international doc community. May 29 will see the presentation of 14 new doc projects, while the CEDOC market embraces docs from the wider CEE region. Industry Head Katarzyna Wilk fills in BDE on this year’s KFF professional sidebar.

On the eve of the 65th Krakow Film Festival (25 May to 1 June), outgoing director Krzysztof Gierat and Krakow Film Foundation president Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła sat down with Business Doc Europe to preview this year’s event and to reflect on Gierat’s 25 years at the helm. “Documentary filmmaking has changed radically, so much so that my own perception of it has changed,” he tells BDE of the ever-evolving doc sector.