Films awarded at the 62nd Krakow Film Festival
22 filmy
Adamiani
dir. Hirotoshi Takeoka
dok2021
The Kists are Georgian Chechens who live in the Pankisi Gorge. The local men are known for their bravery but also infamous for being ‘terrorists’. The documentary is a multi-threaded story of inhabitants of a little known place in the Caucasus.
Read moreAwards:Special Award
All That Breathes (Wszystko, co żyje)
dir. Shaunak Sen
dok2022
Against the darkening backdrop of New Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protecting one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite.
Read moreAwards:Silver Horn
A Dead Marriage (Martwe małżeństwo)
dir. Michał Toczek
fab2022
Sometimes we get beguiled the most by simple unassuming stories, little gestures and timid words. A man and a woman meet on a film set. Filip is a middle-aged man and Łucja is a woman who runs a café and is renovating her flat. Together, they are playing a dead couple.
Read moreAwards:Silver Hobby-Horse
A Goat's Spell
dir. Gerhard Funk
anim2022
The plot starts out perfectly normal: a boy eats breakfast and goes to school. When the kid returns home and smashes the sky into a million glass pieces using a goat’s milk, we already know that nothing will be predictable from now on. This surreal, twisted animation takes us on a psychedelic journey through the author’s imagination.
Read moreAwards:Special Mention
Boylesque
dir. Bogna Kowalczyk
dok2022
Lulla la Polaca is the oldest Polish drag queen, fighting for the right to individual expression. The film shows Lulla’s more private side: the one of a sensitive dreamer treating his presence in front of the camera like another virtuoso performance.
Read moreAwards:Silver Hobby-Horse / Special Award
Cesária Évora
dir. Ana Sofia Fonseca
dok2022
In the mid-1990s, she became a singer recognized in different parts of the world. In Cape Verde, where she came from, she still enjoys the status of a queen. The films portrays a woman painfully treated by fate and an artist paving the way for other female musicians.
Read moreAwards:Special Mention
Fragile Memory (Крихка Пам'ять)
dir. Igor Ivanko
dok2022
In a dacha near Odessa, the film’s director has found old photographic films that belonged to his grandfather Leonid Burlaka, a Ukrainian filmmaker. Using the photos and footage shot by Burlaka throughout several decades, the documentary aims to save his life from oblivion.
Read moreAwards:Special Award
God and Lunaparks' Warriors (Bóg i Wojownicy Lunaparków)
dir. Bartłomiej Żmuda
dok2022
A son, overwhelmed by a religious zeal, embarks upon a crusade to convert his father. The neophyte’s fervour will be put to a test by the unapologetic, sharp-tongued anticlerical.
Read moreAwards:Special Award
Hardcore
dir. Adán Aliaga
dok2022
‘Pass me a joint’, says Rafa to his mother. The man has been bedridden for over 15 years, which has not stopped him from skydiving, making music or watching pornography. Rafa seems to be doing very well despite his paralysis, but chronic pain is increasingly getting to him.
Read moreAwards:Special Mention
How Do You Measure A Year?
dir. Jay Rosenblatt
dok2021
Ella is the daughter of Jay Rosenblatt, a director known for his documentary experiments. At the same time, Ella is the protagonist of the film, who answers a few simple questions every year from her second to her eighteenth birthday. How do her answers change over time?
Read moreAwards:Golden Dragon
Impossible Figures and Other Stories I (Figury niemożliwe i inne historie I)
dir. Marta Pajek
anim2021
The third and final part of Marta Pajek’s series shows the protagonist walking through a deserted city. Empty streets stretching endlessly create a labyrinth of figures and geometric shapes. The city absorbs us, frightens and evokes anxiety and only the wrinkles on the characters’ faces remind us that life once flourished here.
Read moreAwards:Silver Hobby-Horse
Kapr Code (Kaprkód)
dir. Lucie Králová
dok2022
The biography of this Czechoslovak composer could not be recounted in a good old-fashioned way. Sung by a contemporary choir, it shows off the musical legacy left by Jan Kapr and his abundant private archives. Employing comic means, the film presents the artist navigating his life in a destitute time.
Read moreAwards:Golden Heynal
Love, Dad (Milý tati)
dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen
anim2021
After 15 years, Diana finds the letters her father used to send her. Will she forgive him for leaving their family? The author uses a collage of old letters, archival films and photographs as well as children’s drawings and cut-outs to recreate the past.
Read moreAwards:Silver Dragon / Nagrody specjalne
Maldita. A Love Song to Sarajevo
dir. Raúl de la Fuente Calle, Amaia Ramirez
dok2022
Let yourself be seduced by the timbre of his voice and his extraordinary personality, which defies all categorisation. A beautiful image of a free, talented person who, despite people’s prejudices, is able to look at the world with great kindness and understanding.
Read moreAwards:Silver Dragon
Parizad
dir. Mehdi Imani Shahmiri
dok2021
The element of Mehdi Imani Shahmiri’s film is a story. The story is told by the protagonist, an old woman named Keshvar Jafari, and interwoven with threads of an intricate carpet being made in her hands. It tells about the wind, boundless meadows and mountains of Iran. Its focus is attachment to a place and tradition, which includes customs older than Islam.
Read moreAwards:Special Award
The Cathedral (Katedra)
dir. Denis Dobrovoda
dok2022
An idealist driven by his faith for some and a madman full of sinful pride for others, Justo Gallego started erecting a huge cathedral 60 years ago. He invested his own funds and built it almost entirely with his own hands. But what will happen to it after the builder’s death?
Read moreAwards:Golden Horn
The Hamlet Syndrome (Syndrom Hamleta)
dir. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski
dok2022
‘To be or not to be’ – these words take on new meanings in wartime conditions. A few months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a group of young people prepare a play in which Shakespeare will voice their own doubts, fears and dreams. Life, theatre and cinema blend into one for a moment turning into a thrilling psychodrama.
Read moreAwards:Golden Hobby-Horse / Special Mention / Nagrody specjalne
The Rocking Horses (Koniki na biegunach)
dir. Marcin Lesisz
dok2022
A touching, warm and painfully accurate portrait of a person with mental disability. Animation brings Ewa’s drawings to life and helps us to see the world though her eyes. We may realise what kind of problems she faces and notice the person, not the illness; the person who has the right to be who she wants to be.
Read moreAwards:Silver Hobby-Horse
The Swarmers (Schwarmtiere)
dir. Alison Kuhn
fab2022
A prestigious boarding school, the anxieties of adolescence, competition and a teenager who refuses to be a victim. At the Sankt Severin school, even more problems are hiding under the surface and the game of appearances keeps going on. This non-obvious film was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s short story ‘Die Turnstunde’.
Read moreAwards:Special Mention
The Voice (Głos)
dir. Dominika Montean-Pańków
dok2022
The Jesuit Order novitiate is a severe form of a trial. During two years of isolation from society and the comforts of civilisation, young men have enough time to ponder the question: Is the religious life for me?
Read moreAwards:Nagrody specjalne
Tolyatti Adrift
dir. Laura Sistero
dok2022
Bojewaja Klassika is a group of young people who practice illegal drifting. They drift in old cars, Ladas, which once made their hometown of Tolyatti famous. We can see another lost generation of Russians in the city in ruins.
Read moreAwards:Silver Horn
Victoria
dir. Karolina Porcari
fab2022
Amelia feels that her marriage of almost 30 years lacks passion. Her husband is more fascinated by armour and reconstructions of medieval battles than by her body. One day, tired of her daily routine, she finds a pink parcel at the door of her flat with the contents that will change her life.
Read moreAwards:Silver Dragon