FIVE POLISH FILMS AT VISIONS DU REEL
On April 1, the organisers of the Swiss festival Visions du Reel announced the full programme of the event. It includes as many as five Polish films: "House on its head" by Adam Palenta, "Casa Blaca" by Aleksandra Maciuszek, "Singing in exile” by Nathalie Rossetti and Turi Finocchiaro, "Habitat" by Arjun Talwar and Olivier Krüger and "Walking under Water" by Eliza Kubarska.
The Visions du Reel festival has been organised in the Swiss city of Nyon since 1969. At the beginning of its existence, the festival in Nyon used to show mainly Swiss films and productions from the Eastern bloc countries, which were very difficult to see for the audience from the Western Europe. Currently Visions du Reel is one of largest documentary film festivals in Europe.
The audience of this year's edition of the Visions du Reel festival, which takes place from 17 to 25 April, will have the opportunity to watch five Polish documentary films. Two of them will compete for the awards in the competition sections: "House on its head" by Adam Palenta will be shown in the International Short Film Competition, and "Casa Blanca" by Aleksandra Maciuszek in the International Medium-Length Film Competition. The film "Habitat" by Arjun Talwar and Oliver Krüger is invited to participate in the non-competing Premiers Pas section, while "Singing in exile" by Nathalie Rossetti and Turi Finocchiaro will be shown in the Grand Angle panel. Within the frames of the spring tour of DocAlliance, “Walking under water" by Eliza Kubarska will appear in Nyon.
"House on its head" is an extraordinary documentary, depicting family life of Wojciech Zamecznik (1923-1967), architect, stage designer, eminent poster artist. The film was made in its entirety thanks to private archives of the artist himself, who loved to record family life, meetings and trips with friends. The documentary material is complemented by graphics and experimental material which has not been previously published. The film as a whole is not only an interesting perspective on the artist's everyday life, but also a chance to see the reality of Polish People's Republic in 1950s.
"Casa Blanca", competing for the medium-length documentary film award, tells about the life of Nelsa (76) and her son Vladimir (37), suffering from the Down's syndrome, who share a small room in an overcrowded multi-family tenement house in a fishing village on the Bay of Havana. Vladimir is the sole guardian of the ailing Nelsa, Nelsa - the only guardian of Vladimir, who easily gets into trouble. Their life is characterised by conflicts: the woman tries to control her son, while he, rather than being with his mother, prefers to spend time with the fishermen, helping them in their work, frolicking and drinking rum. Every day, Nelsa has to traverse the streets of Casa Blanca in search of her only son, who does not return home until late. One day, the woman's heath deteriorates.
Maciuszek looks carefully and patiently at this world; one moment she is close to the protagonists, assuming their perspective, another time she tries to look a bit from the side, as if she was looking for the mirror of the interior lives of Vladimir and Nelsa in the transient landscapes. All this encourages us to immense ourselves in this world, because only insightful observation and acquaintance guarantees understanding of another, "different" human being.
You can read the entire review of the film here.
'Singing in exile" shows the tumultuous history of the 20th century, which dispersed the Armenians around the world, forcing them to live in diaspora. Uprooted, cut off from their own culture and history, they make an attempt to save traditional Armenian liturgical songs from oblivion. In the documentary film WHEN MEMORY SINGS two Armenians - Aram and Virginia Kerovpyan - together with Jarosław Fret and Zar Theatre from Wrocław, travel to places from which this art derives.
"Where memory sings" is full of lyrical, poetical landscapes, scenes which - in combination with liturgical singing of the protagonists - create a nostalgic, poignant image. Cinema comes to the aid of Aram and Virginia's art, it has life-giving force. As long as we create, we can narrate history thorough emotions. Only this kind of art will enable our memory to survive, is what "When memory sings" seems to say.
We would like to invite you to read the entire text of the review.
"Habitat", shown in the Premiers Pas section, is a story about the life of a nomadic family, goat shepherds who live on the borders of the desert in North Africa. We watch their difficult life and daily struggles with animals, weather and searching for water. These people live in harmony with the environment, are used to the rhythm of nature. However, the lack of water and the wind is a difficult ordeal for the entire community. The evening brings the storm...
"Walking Under Water", shown within the frames of DocAlliance, shows the community of the sea nomads, living in the areas amongst the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia. For centuries they live like fish, spending most of their lives under water. The Badjao children learn to swim faster than to walk, and the adults perfected the difficult art of free-diving. They can walk and hunt at the bottom of the ocean, holding their breath for many minutes. Their lives change in a rapid way in the clash with the modern civilisation. The islands where they lived for hundreds of years (and where they drew water) are sold for exclusive luxury hotels. Badjao are not admitted there. They are driven out to the slums, located around cities, and irrevocably lose their skills. 10-year-old Sari starts training under the guidance of his uncle Alexan, the last deep-sea diver (the so-called 'compressor diver') on the island of Mabul. Alexan decides to pass his skills on to Sari, because he cannot come to terms with the thought that under the influence of the Western civilisation, the world of his ancestors disappears. He teaches him not only the difficult art of diving with the use of tube and air compressor, but also reveals to him magical legends and customs of the Badjao.
The full programme of Visions du Reel can be found on the festival's website.