POLISH SHORTS AWARDED IN GEORGIA
Headfish by Jakub Prysak won the Grand Prix while The Disappearance of Janusz Klarner by Franciszek Berbeka received an award for best direction at this year's Tbilisi International Student Film Festival.
Tbilisi International Student Film Festival is the only student film festival in the region, which for the past 14 years has been presenting the most interesting international and local production by aspiring filmmakers. In addition to numerous screenings, the Georgian event also features meetings for young artists and activities for industry insiders.
In total, two Polish films by students from the Łódź Film School were awarded at the festival.
Awarded with a Grand Prix, Jakub Prysak's Headfish takes place in a gloomy milking parlour filled with sounds of Bach concertos from crackling loudspeakers – this is the everyday life of Eryk, a cow milker at the Milky Paradise cooperative. Eryk is a young man who abandoned his career as a photographer and moved to an industrial town, away from his family and friends. There, he met Marissa, a prostitute from a second-rate night club. They became friends. They both want to find their place in the world.
On the other hand, the short, fictionalized documentary The Disappearance of Janusz Klarner by Franciszek Berbeka is a found footage film utilising archival materials that tells the story of an extraordinary journey of a group of Poles into the Himalayas from the perspective of one man.
In 1939 Janusz Klarner climbs the Nanda Devi peak in the Himalayas. Everything that happened next seems to be a consequence of this act. Breaking a taboo cannot be forgotten in a country that is being reborn into a new communist order.
The winners can be found on the festival's Facebook page.