Escape to the Silver Globe by Kuba Mikurda
At IDFA 2020 the Poles have four docs in official selection, a bagful of films in Docs for Sale and a project in Forum. What’s more, Polish Docs will present four new projects at the online Industry Hub 20 November. The new projects are “very diverse and that is their strength,” says company MD Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła.
Two Polish films compete in official selection at IDFA 2020. These are A Little Bit of Paradise by Andrzej Cichocki in Short Film Competition and Hello Grandma by Kamila Chojnacka in Student Competition.
A Little Bit of Paradise is described as a film about a Silesian family who, in an out-of-the-way corner of a metropolis, reveal their world to the watcher and share moments from their lives, which are inextricably bound up with the nature around them.
The COVID-themed Hello Grandma, made in quarantine, is a frank and intimate portrait of a family trying to move forward together at a time of sometimes absurdist isolation, with the world at a strange standstill.
Orlicz-Szczypuła reflects on the impact of coronavirus on her industry sector over coming years. “Of course, COVID has influences on Polish film production, also in the field of documentary films. But it is not a big collapse rather a matter of postponing or extending the productions,” she says.
“The numbers of films in 2021 might be a bit lower mostly because of changes in the production period of each project,” she continues. “What’s interesting, though, is that the filmmakers are trying to catch the reality of 2020 and tell about what’s going on around. So, we think that there will be a lot of interesting documentary observations of the lockdown time during the next two years.”
The two other Polish films in official selection are in non-competing sections, Tomasz Wolski’s archive-based film on historical state surveillance An Ordinary Country is in Best of Fests while Jerzy Śladkowski’s hilarious Bitter Love, in which lonely hearts try to discover love on a Volga three-week cruise, is in Masters.
Of the new projects presented at the Industry Hub 20 November Orlicz-Szczypuła observes how, “Polish directors pay big attention to the visual side of their films, so whether it is the story of [70’s maverick director] Andrzej Żuławski told in archive, or a family story, or the tale of an unusual friendship between an immigrant and a nationalist, the visual side will always be excellent.”
Escape to the Silver Globe by Kuba Mikurda tells the fantastical story of potentially the greatest sci-fi film of all time, if only it had been made. In Until the Wedding
Daniel Stopa conducts a very personal investigation into the business of love and matrimony focussing on his brother’s upcoming wedding and that of his parents, captured on camera over three decades before.
In The Daughter of Fuji it is time for traditional dance teacher Keiko to pass the mantle to a successor, but does not want to impose restrictions, similar to those that she suffered, on the new candidate. In deciding whether to wait for the new candidate to reach 18, therefore allowing her to make up her own mind, Keiko risks destroying a 300-year old tradition. Meanwhile in I Am One Of Them by Nadim Suleiman, when a Syrian immigrant shoots a film about a Polish nationalist, the film becomes an excuse to bring the two people together, telling the story of an almost impossible friendship.
At IDFA Forum 2020 is Lili, directed by Sylwia Rosak and produced by Tomasz Morawski for HAKA Films, which tells a heart-warming tale of a precocious, 8-year-old girl exploring the world with her globetrotting father and growing up in an unconventional family.
Meanwhile, Polish Docs has a full seventeen projects in Docs for Sale.
In terms of the business of selling and promotion, the pandemic has changed everything, Orlicz-Szczypuła observes, noting that hers is now a more or less online existence. “We take part in the online festivals, especially in the parts addressed to film professionals where we can connect with festivals, broadcasters, distributors,” she says. “Also, we intensified our online activities – we organise Polish delegations at the most important international film events, like at Sunny Side of the Docs, Cannes, DOK Leipzig or IDFA which is running now.”
“We’d like to support Polish filmmakers to present their projects internationally in order to find the partners, co-producers etc,” she adds. “Also, we still organise screenings of Polish documentaries around the world – mostly online but also at the physical festivals.”
“So, life is going on… with the hope that 2021 will be better. As for the benefits, we think that one of them is that we could connect to the new industry people from non-European markets whose online availability is better.”
