STUDENT FILM IN THE COMPETITION OF 54TH KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL

During this year’s 54. Krakow Film Festival we will get to see ten remarkable short feature films in national competition. Among them, three student etudes: Fragments (2014), Light in August (2014) and, qualified for international competition, You keep an eye on us (2014) – films, although highly differentiated, draw an original portrait of Polish society. Izabela Pamuła reviews the top student films of the Krakow Film Festival competition.

Agnieszka Woszczyńska (Polish National Film School in Łódź) in her "Fragments" dissects the saccharine image of young 30-something-year-olds living in large cities – an image that is multiplied in nearly all TV series produced in Poland. Anna’s (Agnieszka Żulewska) world is hollow. The woman lives in an emotionless relationship with her husband (Dobromir Dymecki) among white walls of her sterile apartment.  Cheating, in their relationship, is nothing more than a social faux pas after which comes the time to do the dishes. Porcelain, doll-like mask with dead eyes is permanently glued to Anna’s face. Even when she cries, her facial expression is gawky, for her muscles have forgotten how to move and her body – react. Its memory froze in the emptiness that Anna not only lives, but also sells, as real estate agent, along with the most expensive apartments of Warsaw’s high-rise residential towers.

Matiej Bobrik’s (Polish National Film School in Łódź) "Light in August" is a heartwarming, though ironic, tale of provincial infatuation. Kuba (Bartosz Bielenia), lumberjack from Olszówka is a classic dodger type, who meets a girl (Marta Kurzak) from nearby village during an overwhelmingly alcoholic afternoon. The same night his friend Jurek (Marcin Włodarski) goes missing. Both events force the character to take an effort which he is not used to doing, for his village, amazingly portrayed by the director, is effete and unchangeable: the local brass orchestra is heard more often than a harvester’s engine, and a funeral is an entertainment more engaging than a football match. Although the ending of the film is bedecked with humming sound of a tube, it clearly shows that the timid feeling sprouting between the boy and the girl might become a game changing event.

In the year 2013 a 32-year-old man convicted with murder barricaded himself with his 17-year-old partner in an apartment in Sanok. After long round-up actions, the police found their dead bodies – both died of a shot to the head. Basing on this story Arkadiusz Biedrzycki (University of Silesia in Katowice – faculty of Radio and Television) filmed You keep an eye on us – a tragic story of two people locked in claustrophobic space, waiting for final and fatal sentence. He (Marcin Kowalczyk) killed a man for money, She (Magdalena Celmer) decided not to leave him, not even during police round-up. Nothing holds her close to her parents anymore - they don’t, or won’t try to understand. The only thing that counts is love, making death a better option than separation. For this world clearly has nothing to offer.

Each of these three films shows a piece of Polish reality. The dandies locked in their high-rise towers, provincial dodgers and social rejects together draw an image of Poland as a country of lonesome people who keep on seeking for love. It’s not only the engaging narrative structures that build this physically affecting reality, but also formal aspects of each of these short films. In Fragments the static camera moves through empty, yet inhabited rooms, depicting the emotional hollowness that suffocates the film’s characters. Whereas the rapid and unpredictable editing in You keep an eye on us highlights the psychedelic aura of the situation the two lovers found themselves in. Clever feature and technical solutions prove that Polish film schools’ students not only have good craft but also the sensibility required to create young, brave cinema that could be a breath of fresh air for Polish cinematography.

“Fragments” by Aga Woszczyńska will be screened today at 1 pm at MIKRO cinema. The next screening is to take place on Wednesday 28th May at 8:00 pm at KIJÓW.CENTRUM

“Light in August” by Matej Bobrik will be screened on Tuesday 27th May at 9:15 pm and on Friday 30th May in MIKRO cinema at 3:15 pm in ARS.REDUTA

“You keep an eye on us” by Arek Biedrzycki is about to screen tomorrow at 6:30 in MIKRO cinema as well as on Thursday at 8:00 pm in KIJÓW.CENTRUM. The film takes part also in the International Competition.

Translation: Dominika Sudnik