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Polish films at 55. KFF!

Films which will participate in three competitions and non-competing screenings

On April 13 of the current year, the names of all Polish films, which will be shown at the 55th Krakow Film Festival, held from May 31 to 7 June 2015, were announced.

Polish films will participate in three competitions: international short film competition, international documentary competition and Polish film competition. There will also be non-competing screenings titled "Panorama of the Polish film."

Documentary film is often based on an interesting main protagonist, and it is similar this year, the documentary film makers will make us acquainted with well-known personages: Elżbieta Czyżewska ("The Actress," dir. Kinga Dębska, Maria Konwicka), Piotr Łazarkiewicz ("(Non)-attendance." dir. Magdalena Łazarkiewicz), Jerzy Kukuczka ("Jurek," dir. Paweł Wysoczański), Andrzej Gołota („Endrju," dir. Tomasz Blachnicki, Robert N. Wachowiak) and protagonists unknown to a wider group, discovered by the documentary film-makers. In this group, we will get acquainted, among others,  with 11-year-old Denisa, a deaf gypsy girl, whose passion is music and choreography from Bollywood ("The Queen of Silence," dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka) and a 16-year-old apprentice of the art of haircut, who dreams about great love ("Love, Love," dir. Grzegorz Zariczny). The protagonist of the film "Mów mi Marianna" ("Call me Marianna") by Karolina Bielawska undergoes the process of sex change operation, which complicates her relationship with the family, and in the film "Raj na ziemi" ("Paradise on Earth"), the performer Cecylia Malik looks tenderly at her neighbours – goldbricks, a homeless couple from Krakow. 

The festival will not lack films with historical, reckoning context, asking questions, such as "The Dybbuk. A tale of wandering souls" by Krzysztof Kopczyński about Uman in Ukraine, a pilgrimage destination of Hassidic Jews and the place of expansion of Ukrainian nationalists. Bogdan Dziworski, last year’s winner of the Dragon of Dragons, the eminent documentary film-maker, will show his first film in 25 years, entitled "Plus and minus, or the fly trips to the East" – a phantasmagoric diary of a journey in the footsteps of… Joseph Stalin. The respected documentary film-maker Tomasz Wolski looks at family relationships in his short feature film called "The Daughter" with Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska and Katarzyna Krzanowska, in the poignant "Casa Blanca" by Aleksandra Maciuszek we get acquainted with the story of the ailing, 76-year-old Nelsa and her son Vladimir, thirtysomething with the Down’s syndrome, who share one room in a ruined tenement house in a fishing village in Cuba, Grzegorz Jaroszuk tells about loneliness among the close ones in his peculiar, absurd way ("Jak gdyby nic").

There is also a strong representation of films about sport at this year’s 55th Krakow Film Festival. Tomasz Blachnicki and Robert Wachowiak managed to approach Wisława Szymborska’s favourite athlete, heavyweight champion Andrzej Gołota, Bartosz Kowalski achieved a perfect drama in "Niepowstrzymani" by juxtaposing totally different protagonists, their story and family relationships as well as the passion they share – American football. How does it feel to be the worst football team in Poland and not to lose heart? The film "Biało-czerwoni z Chrząstawy" by Krystian Kamiński shows, in a warm and charming way, the dreams about great football of LZS Chrząstawa team, playing on a football pitch which was rooted by wild boars, whose masseur has do go somewhere and did not come back. Piotr Bernaś, the author of the famous film "Paparazzi," will show his new documentary film "Life of a Butterfly" – about a competitor in MMA – fighting arena where no holds are barred.

Mountain-climbing enthusiasts will be certainly happy to watch two films: reminiscent "Jurek" by Paweł Wysoczański, about the most famous Polish Himalayan mountaineer Jerzy Kukuczka, and the long-expected film by Eliza Kubarska "K2 – Touching the Sky," which asks what is the price of passion. Three young people embark on a K2 expedition in the footsteps of their parents, who undertook this challenge in the past and never returned from this expedition.

As usual, animated films are strong during Krakow Film Festival. In the short film competition, there are 11 animated films made by Poles. "Signum" by the master Witold Giersz, impression on cave painting in "Blue Room" by Tomasz Siwiński, painterly study of the protagonist’s memories, very good school "Dokument" by Marcin Podolec from Lodz and equally interesting film "Domestication" by Sylwia Gaweł (Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow). In the film "Matrix," Tomasz Bochniak and Sławomir Shuty call up the Slavic creation myth and tell it using the composition of colourful glasses.

In total, at the 55th Krakow Film Festival, there will be 60 films from among 268 submitted titles, including 36 documentary films, 10 feature films and 14 animated films by Polish directors.

List of films: 

International feature-length documentary films:
Casa Blanca, Aleksandra Maciuszek, 60’
Dybuk. Rzecz o wędrówce dusz, Krzysztof Kopczyński, 85’
Królowa ciszy, Agnieszka Zwiefka, 80’
Mów mi Marianna, Karolina Bielawska, 75’
Plus minus czyli podróże muchy na Wschód, Bogdan Dziworski, 48’ 

International short film competition:
Córka, Tomasz Wolski, 26’
Jak gdyby nic, Grzegorz Jaroszuk, 18’
Obiekt, Paulina Skibińska, 15’
Signum, Witold Giersz, 14’
Udomowienie, Sylwia Gaweł, 6’
Love, love, Grzegorz Zariczny, 22’

Polish film competition:

Agfa 1939 Podróż w czasy wojny, Michał Wnuk, 54’ 
Ameryka, Aleksandra Terpińska, 30’ 
But she’s nice…, Tomek Pilarski, 6’ 
Casa Blanca, Aleksandra Maciuszek, 60’ 
Córka, Tomasz Wolski, 26’ 
Dokument, Marcin Podolec, 7’ 
Dom, Agnieszka Borowa, 14’ 
Druciane Oprawki, Bartosz Kędzierski, 14’
Dupek, Krzysztof Komander, 19’
Dwa żywioły, Małgorzata Pakalska-Bosek, 8’ 
Dybuk. Rzecz o wędrówce dusz, Krzysztof Kopczyński, 85’ 
Endblum, reż. Wiola Sowa i Dorota Krakowska, 11’ 
Endrju, Tomasz Blachnicki, Robert N. Wachowiak, 40’ 
Figura, Katarzyna Gondek, 9’ 
Gdzie się podziały duchy?, Łukasz Biernat, 9’ 
Jak gdyby nic, Grzegorz Jaroszuk, 18’ 
K2. Dotknąć nieba, Eliza Kubarska, 72’ 
Koniec świata, Monika Pawluczuk, 40’ 
Kreatury, Tessa Moult-Milewska, 10’ 
Królowa ciszy, Agnieszka Zwiefka, 80’ 
Love, love, Grzegorz Zariczny, 22’ 
Macierz, Tomasz Bochniak, Sławomir Shuty (Mateja), 7’ 
Moloch, Szymon Kapeniak, 30’ 
Mów do mnie, Marta Prus, 42’ 
Mów mi Marianna, Karolina Bielawska, 75’ 
Niebieski pok&oa
cute;j
, Tomasz Siwiński, 14’ 
Niepowstrzymani, Bartosz M. Kowalski, 73’ 
Obiekt, Paulina Skibińska, 15’ 
Piano, Vita Maria Drygas, 45’ 
Plus minus czyli podróże muchy na Wschód, Bogdan Dziworski, 48’
Raj na ziemi, Cecylia Malik, 52’ 
Signum, Witold Giersz, 14’ 
Ślimaki, Grzegorz Szczepaniak, 35’ 
Thumbs up, Stefan Łazarski, 30’ 
To, czego chcę, Damian Kocur, 30’ 
Udomowienie, Sylwia Gaweł, 6’ 
Wyspa, Natalia Krasilnikova, 18’ 
Z łóżka powstałeś, Bartosz Konopka, 23’ 
Życie motyla, Piotr Bernaś, 44’ 

Panorama of the Polish film:
Aktorka, Kinga Dębska, Maria Konwicka, 72′ 
Aram, Krzysztof Talczewski, 56′
Biało-czerwoni z Chrząstawy, reż. Krystian Kamiński, 53′
Big Man, Jędrzej Michalak, 19’
Chwila, Piotr Domalewski, 15’
Ciało, Paulina Majda, 5’
Egzamin dojrzałości, Filip Gieldon, 45′
I am Kuba, Norwegia, Polska, Niemcy, Åse Svenheim Drivenes, 60’
Jurek, Paweł Wysoczański, 73’
Miejsce, Julia Popławska, 14’
Nie(obecność), Magdalena Łazarkiewicz, 67’
Niepamięć, Piotr Brożek, 45’
Oczy mojego ojca, Bartosz Blaschke, 26’
Pieśń pamięci, Polska, Belgia, Francja, Nathalie Rossetti, Turi Finocchiaro, 77’
Razem, pisane osobno,  Anna Kasperska, 16’
Susza, Sara Divjak, 6’
Tableciarze, Bartosz Staszewski, 76’ 
Ta cholerna niedziela, Przemysław Kotyński, 16’
Test, Teresa Czepiec, 26′
The return, Adam Zucker, 83’
TOTART czyli odzyskiwanie rozumu, Bartosz Paduch, 80’
Trampkarze, Marcin Filipowicz, 26’