virtual Program 2021
The virtual segment of the festival runs for 3 weeks from November 7th through 30th and includes a collection of shorts, documentaries, and several feature length films. The full access festival pass includes all the virtual screenings as well.
WEEK 1: NOVEMBER 7 - 14
OF ANIMALS AND MEN / O ZWIERZĘTACH I LUDZIACH
70 min I Documentary I 2019
Directing: Łukasz Czajka
Written by: Łukasz Czajka
Editor: Jakub Piątek
Music: Marcin Masecki
Producer: Anna Wereda
Synopsis:
Every Zoo aims to protect animal species from extinction. During the Second World War, the Warsaw Zoo carried out its function in a rebellious manner. Once the war began, the Nazis killed some animals and transferred the others to the Third Reich. The abandoned enclosures were taken over by the species most endangered by warfare: the man. The Jews escaping the inevitable death and the Home Army soldiers found shelter in the empty stables, kennels, and aviaries as well as in the house of Jan Żabiński, the then Director. The Zoo offered a hiding place – sometimes for a day, rarely for a few months – to several hundred people. The exact number remains unknown. We try to tell this incredible story by means of metaphorical shots of animals, abundant archive footage, and interviews with the last living witnesses.
ALICJA AND THE FROG / ALICJA I ŻABKA (2020)
28 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing Olga Bołądź
Script: Olga Bołądź, Magdalena Lamparska
DOP: Piotr Niemyjski
Editor: Sandra Ksepka
Music: Mikołaj Dobber, Jan Królikowski
Production: Munk Sudio
Cast: Julia Kuzka, Agnieszka Suchora, Grzegorz Prasalski, Magdalena Boczarska, Łukasz Simlat
Synopsis:
A difficult topic stirring strong emotions is set against a surprising background. A story of growing up too quickly and facing tough decisions is the story of Alicja, a fourteen-year-old girl who accidentally gets pregnant. Terrified, she escapes into the world of her imagination. From then on, fantasy and reality intertwine. Not one person in the small town stands by Alicja and not one doctor is willing to carry out a legal abortion.
Awards:
2020 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia - LUCJAN BOKINC Award for the Best Short Film
2021 Two Riversides Film and Art Festival - International Short Film Competition
DO MONSTERS EAT KIWI / CZY POTWORY JEDZĄ KIWI
28 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Paweł Podolski
Script: Paweł Podolski
DOP: Maciej Miller
Editor: Piasek & Wojcik
Music: Michał Drabczyk
Production: TVN, Munk Studio
Cast: Gustaw Kramin, Mateusz Więcławek, Piotr Michalski, Justyna Bartoszewicz, Łukasz Gawroński
Synopsis:
Eight-year-old Tomek is in a tough spot. His mother is in the hospital, his older brother is stealing phones, and his father is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As if that were not enough, a monster has moved to the boy's wardrobe. And not just any old monster, but a menacing, mysterious and rather greedy one. Tomek has to figure out how to get rid of the unwanted guest before it gobbles up someone from his family or even him. But first he has to prove to everyone that the monster is real.
Awards:
2021 Short Fabular Film Debuts Competition - Jantar (nominee)
INTO THE NIGHT / CHODŹMY W NOC
26 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Kamila Tarabula
Script: Nina Lewandowska
DOP: Patryk Kin
Editor: Tomasz Mączka
Production: TVN, Munk Studio
Cast: Agnieszka Rajda, Nel Kaczmarek, Kamilla Baar, Filip Orliński, Krzysztof Oleksyn
Synopsis:
Krysia, a teenage girl, leaves her home for the first time in a week. Her mother has invited her to a party. She doesn’t want to be there, but she always does what others tell her to do. At the party, she runs into Majka. The two girls slip away and set off on a journey that takes on a dizzying pace. The emotionally wounded Majka tests how far she can go with her sexuality, while Krysia does everything she can to guess her secret. Will the new friendship heal Krysia?
Awards:
2021 Molodist International Film Festival - Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Best Short Film)
2020 Warsaw International Film Festival - Short Films Competition Award (Best Live Action Short)
THE STONE / KAMIEŃ
25 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Bartosz Kozera
Script: Bartosz Kozera
DOP: Tomasz Gajewski
Editor: Magdalena Chowańska
Music: Hubert Zemler
Production: TVN Film, Munk Studio
Cast: Katarzyna Herman, Irena Melcer, Andrzej Dębski, Andrzej Walden, Krzysztof Materna
Synopsis:
A paralyzed nun in a wheelchair touches a common-or-garden stone in a park and is cured. In the archbishop’s eyes, the stone is far too secular of an object for the Vatican to recognize the event as a miracle. The nun’s Mother Superior uses a bluff to save the day, convincing the archbishop to pass the matter to higher echelon by telling him that Saint Andrzej Bobola appeared to her and affirmed the stone’s divine origins. As bad luck would have it, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, who walks on crutches, sits down on the same stone. He, too, is miraculously cured. The priests are left in no doubt. They either have a shared miracle or no miracle at all.
Awards:
2021 Two Riversides Film and Art Festival - Festival Prize - First Place (International Short Film Competition)
YOUR OWN BULLSHIT / WŁASNE ŚMIECI
6 min I Animation, Short I 2020
Directing: Daria Kopiec
Script: Daria Kopiec
DOP: Daria Kopiec, Piotr Matysiak
Editor: Monika Sirojc
Music: Natalia Czekała
Animacja: Wojciech Sankiewicz, Piotr Ficner, Daria Kopiec, Sofya Nabok
Production: Munk Studio
Synopsis:
There's nothing more wonderful than a dinner with family. Even though it resembles a looped script that infinitely repeats itself. And even though not only do you have to swallow food, but also the words of your loved ones, sometimes bitter ones, sometimes so repetitive that you want to throw up. Words recited singingly for many long years.
Awards:
2021 SXSW Film Festival - Special Jury Award (Animated Short)
2020 Kraków Film Festival - Silver Hobby-Horse of Cracow (Best Animated Film)
2020 International Film Festival Etiuda & Anima - Grand Prix “Zloty Zmij”
ONE NIGHT STAND / NA JEDNĄ NOC
30 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Mally Yina
Script: Mally Yina
DOP: Szymon Kuriata
Editor: Konrad Śniady
Music: Julian Uhu
Production: Munk Studio
Cast: Paweł Dobek, Sylwia Boron
Synopsis:
Peter is thirty already, but he is still avoiding adulthood, and everything comes with it. He fills his life with partying and one-night stands, competing with his best friend, Krzysztof, to see who can score the most notches on the bedpost. Peter is under the impression that he is in control of time. He has a tried and tested strategy about girls: none of them gets to stay the night. Until the night he picks Wendy up and everything slips out of his control... Wendy... and time.
Virtual Streaming Available - November 11-14
WEEK 2: NOVEMBER 14 - 21
VENUS OF WILLENDORF / WENUS Z WILLENDORFU
23 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Zuzanna Grajcewicz
Script: Ewa Radzewicz, Zuzanna Grajcewicz
DOP: Ewa Radzewicz
Editor: Katarzyna Drozdowicz, Aleksandra Rosset
Sound: Rafal Nowak
Animation: Karina Paciorkowska, Anna Nowacka
Production: Łódź Film School
Cast: Justyna Wasilewska, Katarzyna Straczek, Jan Hrynkiewicz
Synopsis:
Young and ambitious Kamila lives in the world, where having surplus of weight guarantees success on all fronts of social life. When in short period of time both her employer and her boyfriend discover, that she only pretend to be overweight, she is fired from work and abandoned. She is forced to leave the disguise that makes her look fat and face the hostile reality. In order to put on some flesh, Kamila decides to attend the therapy in Fit&Fat Clinic. Will she manage to go through the therapy, put on weight and adapt herself to the standards?
ABOUT A MAN WHO BOUGHT MILK / O CZŁOWIEKU KTÓRY KUPIŁ MLEKO
27 min I Drama, Short I 2021
Directing: Jagoda Madej
Script: Jagoda Madej
DOP: Michal Sosna
Editor: Monika Sirojc
Music: Aleksander Brzeziński
Production: Munk Studio
Cast: Miron Jagniewski, Ewa Skibińska, Stanisław Banasiuk, Julian Swieżewski
Synopsis:
Maciek wanted to be a journalist, travel the world like Kapuściński. But adult life doesn’t always turn out the way we imagined, so in order to at least gain financial independence ,he accepted a job at a local municipal office. After all, the Independent Promotion Specialist is almost like a journalist. Then, strange things started to happen. With a help from his long-time friend, Maciek is trying to figure out what is going on and how to stay on top of things.
BEYOND IS THE DAY / DALEJ JEST DZIEŃ
25 min I Fiction, Short I 2020
Directing: Damian Kocur
Script: Damian Kocur
DOP: Damian Kocur
Editor: Paweł Laskowski, Damian Kocur
Sound: Jakub Jerszyński
Production: Tomcat, Kinghouse
Synopsis:
Paweł, a lonely man, works on a small river ferry close to his village. Day by day, he keeps doing the same things, taking the villagers to the other side of the river. Every day looks the same. One day he notices somebody swimming across the river. This person is Mohammad, an illegal immigrant. Paweł decides to help him. Finally, there is someone he can talk to.
Awards:
2020 Kraków Film Festival - Silver Hobby-Horse
2021 Trieste Film Festival, Italy - Best Short Film
2021 Terre da Film Festival, Italy - Best International Film
2021 Aye Aye VO, Nancy International Film Festival, France - Grand Jury Prize
2021 The Pigeon International Film Festival, Iceland - Best Cinematography
WE HAVE ONE HEART
11 min I Animation, Documentary I 2020
Directing: Katarzyna Warzecha
Script: Katarzyna Warzecha
DOP: Grzegorz Hartfiel
Editor: Piotr Kremky
Music: Adam Witkowski
Production: Munk Studio, Silver Frame
Synopsis:
After his mother dies, Adam comes across some letters exchanged years ago between his Polish mother and his father, a Kurd living in Iraq. This is an opportunity for him to find out more about his father, who he never knew. The combination of animated drawings with the archival material takes us nearly forty years back and lets us feel the emotions between the lovers who lived away from each other in different parts of the world. We also become privy to an extraordinary family secret.
Awards:
2020 DocsMX International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City - Best Short Documentary in Fragmentos Internacionale
2020 Central and Eastern European Film Festival CinEast, Luxembourg - Audience Award
2020 Chicago International Film Festival - Gold Hugo (Best Documentary Short Film)
2021 Flickerfest 30th international Short Film Festival, Australia - Special Mention for Documentary
DAD YOU'VE NEVER HAD
29 min I Documentary I 2020
Directing: Dominika Łapka
Script: Dominika Łapka
DOP: Weronika Bilska
Editor: Wojciech Jagiełło
Music: Tomasz Gąssowski
Production: Munk Studio
Synopsis:
A subtly and sensitively told story of a daughter’s complicated relationship with her father. She sets off on a journey to see the man who abandoned her in the past. Her father lets her into his flat and tries to answer her questions. Together, they pore over the letters they have written to each other over the years. She cleans his flat and sets both her father’s world and her own relationship with him in order. A difficult confrontation arises between them. It is a film about a daughter’s profound longing for her father and the acceptance of the fact that this longing may never be resolved.
TRANSMISSION / TRANSMISJA
26 min I Fiction I 2020
Directing: Jędrzej Michalak
Script: Jędrzej Michalak
DOP: Jan Grobliński
Editor: Anna Koc-Wittels
Production: Łódź Film School
Cast: Anna Bolewska, Agnieszka Mikulska
Synopsis:
Gigi is a 25-year-old charismatic youtuber. Her life consists mostly of drinking too much alcohol and writing rebellious poems. Gigi‘s ability to tell the difference between her crazy image of herself and her true self is fading away. Among viewers of Gigi’s channel there is Ala, a romantic girl in love with Gigi’s poetry. Ala is not a well socially adjusted person herself, but she manages to find Gigi and „come to her rescue“. Both girls have much in common, but the path to realize that is winding for both of them.
MARIA IS NOT ALIVE / MARIA NIE ŻYJE
29 min I Drama, Short I 2020
Directing: Martyna Majewska
Script: Martyna Majewska
DOP: Paweł Chorzępa
Editor: Michał Poddębniak
Music: Dawid Majewski
Production: Munk Studio
Cast: Małgorzata Gorol, Igor Kujawski, Małgorzata Witkowska, Małgorzata Foremniak, Davina Reeves, Popek Monste
Synopsis:
Maria is dead but she is alive. She committed suicide but for a few days she remains in her living body. She wants to know how and why she killed herself. She is observing the world without her in it. Preparations for her funeral, the autopsy, and disinfection of her flat are in progress. She is invited to a party for the dead. The family is upset that Maria is alive even though she died. In their opinion, she both lived and died badly. Maria wants to interrupt her own funeral. She starts to believe that she's dead, although she feels otherwise.
Awards:
2020 Short Fiction Film Debuts Competition in Koszalin - Jantar and Journalist Awards for Short
1800 GRAMS / 1800 GRAMÓW
Virtual Streaming Available - November 18 - 21
WEEK 3: NOVEMBER 21 - 30
PIANISTS - DEFINING CHOPIN
90 min I Documentary I 2006
Directing: Tomasz Magierski
Written by: Tomasz Magierski
Camera: Andrzej Adamczak
Editor: Tomoko Oguchi
Producer: Tomasz Magierski
Additional Music Performed by: Mei-Ting Sun
Synopsis:
An excellent documentary about the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw captures the joys and sorrows of music competitions. Focusing on the four American young pianists, the film shows how the competition challenges, thrills, and disappoints them during the thirty-day event. Issues of ethnicity, cultural pride and identity, and the process of self-discovery through discipline and education are central to the stories told in this film. It is a tale of victory and defeat, joy and disappointment, a great life experience and adventure, always with Chopin's magnificent music at its center. With its impeccable educational credentials,”Pianists - Defining Chopin” celebrates cultural diversity and the unifying force of beautiful music. It is a moving, poignant, and compelling tale of the desire of young musicians to achieve recognition at the highest international levels. Director of the film, Tomasz Magierski, comments “The audience makes the journey with them and experiences the individual highs and lows and the enormous psychological and physical toll they are required to endure. We learn what being a pianist really means.”
LAST CHANCE / OSTATNIA SZANSA
25 min I Documentary I 2021
Directing: Wiktoria Niewiadomska
Script: Wiktoria Niewiadomska
DOP: Monika Rakowska
Editor: Malwina Wodzicka
Production: Warsaw Film School
Synopsis:
Sara is a young woman who has been suffering from anorexia for eight years. She currently weights 36 kilos, which is her highest weight since a very long time. Her parents got divorced when she was three. As she says herself - she doesn’t remember her own childhood. She has always envied her brother for the care that was taken of him. Her illness has given her the ‘right’ to be weak and she says she has liked it because someone had to look after her. Sara’s life has always revolved around food. Time measured from one meal to the next. Obsessive calorie counting and weighing every little thing she ate has always been a major part of her life. Finally, because of her desire to start a family, Sara decided to begin treatment in a closed facility and has started a fight for herself and her own health.
FIRST… / PO PIERWSZE
27 min I Drama, Short I 2021
Directing: Adam Hartwiński
Script: Adam Hartwiński, Aldona Hartwińska
DOP: Michal Konopka
Editor: Maciej Gawda
Music: Andrzej Bonarek
Production: Warsaw Film School
Synopsis:
Marysia finally gets pregnant. However, her joy doesn’t last long. During a visit to the gynecologist, it turns out that the baby is suffering from a lethal defect and will die shortly after birth. Marysia and her husband Krzysztof are going to face most difficult decision in their lives.
PRINCE / KSIĄŻĘ
9 min I Drama I 2020
Directing: Filip Rembikowski
Script: Filip Rembikowski
DOP: Kacper Świderski
Editor: Aleksandra Wielgos
Music: Jan Lipiecki
Production: Warsaw Film School
Synopsis:
Konrad is an 8-year-old boy who lives with his mother and sister in Poland. Konrad spends a great deal of time dreaming; one of his favorite fantasies is going on adventures with his father who is a knight. He must draw a picture and present information about his family for a school assignment. Through this, he sees the vast range of families that his classmates have.
DISMAY / PRZESTRACH
26 min I Drama, Short I 2021
Directing: Joanna Szymańska
Script: Malwina Chojnacka
DOP: Przemysław Brynkiewicz
Editor: Łukasz Falkowski, Rafał Stolarczyk, Adam Cyran
Music: Jan Sanejko
Production: Warsaw Film School
Cast: Zoja Szcześniak, Mariusz Kiljan, Joanna Fertacz, Joanna Trzepiecińska, Dominika Pasternak, Karolina Gibowska, Andrzej Andrzejewski, Rafał Zawierucha, Aleksy Komorowski
Synopsis:
The magical beauty of the Masurian countryside set against the brutal reality is the background of this story about an extraordinary bond between a father and his 8-year-old daughter, Ula. The father, an organist in the village church, can’t pull himself together after his much younger wife left him and the child. He drowns his pain in alcohol. For Ula, a beautiful and extremely sensitive girl, an old house she shares with her father and a wild nature around are her refuge. Ula’s first Holy Communion is coming, a day very important to her, when she hopes to see her long-awaited mother. Little does she know that instead, a social worker will show up ready to take her away to an orphanage immediately. However, the girl will never allow anyone to take back what she managed to save after her mother left. Together with her father, against all odds, she believes her mother will come back. The joyful May day of the First Holy Communion will turn into a nightmarish triumph of the wild world of Masurian nature, which is the only ally of little Ula.
THE CRACKS / SZCZELINY
30 min I Drama, Short I 2021
Directing: Magdalena Gajewska
Script: Magdalena Gajewska
DOP: Adam Pluciński
Editor: Paweł Lichota
Music: Piotr Nermer
Production: Warsaw Film School
Cast: Jaśmina Polak, Maciej Miszczak, Justyna Wasilewska, Fryderyk Gnap, Sandra Korzeniak, Maciej Robakiewicz
Synopsis:
Teresa falls into postpartum depression. She and her husband decide to temporarily move to her childhood home in a small town. Teresa unexpectedly runs into her past love, Anna. Feelings between the two women are rekindled, which soon confronts Teresa with an extremely difficult choice. . .
7 WORDS ABOUT PASSING AWAY / 7 SŁÓW O PRZEMIJANIU
10 min I Documentary I 2021
Directing: Łukasz Iwanicz
Screenplay – Łukasz Iwanicz
Cinematography – Łukasz Iwanicz
Producers – Maciej Ślesicki – Warsaw Film School
Synopsis:
Black and white short documentary about how people's approach to death changes with age. It touches upon the fragility of human existence and points to what remains most important in the face of the inexorable passing of time. It shows the uncertainties and fears that accompany a person when reflecting on the subject of death.
RETURN TO LEGOLAND / POWRÓT DO TAMTYCH DNI
Virtual Streaming Available - November 26 - 30
104 min I Drama I 2021
Directing: Konrad Aksinowicz
Screenplay: Konrad Aksinowicz
Cinematography: Jakub Jakielaszek
Music: Marcin Mirowski
Cast: Weronika Książkiewicz, Maciej Stuhr, Teodor Koziar
Synopsis:
Tomek lives only with his mother, because his father, Alek, left for the USA to earn some money. Unexpectedly, the man arrives home with a bunch of presents but no explanation as to why he has come back. Everybody seems happy but something is in the air. As time goes by, it is noticeable that Alek struggles with a strong addiction to alcohol, which gradually destroyers Tomek’s family and his childhood. The boy needs to grow up very fast and face a reality that no child should have to endure.
