BE POLAR FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE
КИТОБОЙ (THE WHALER BOY)
Recommended. A teenage boy from Lorino in Chukotka falls in love with a Detroit online stripper and sets off on a journey to America. It's Russian cinema at its best because this setting provides grounds for a sublime story of teenage dreams and of an impossible love. Violent acts conceal a troubled soul. It also tells about friendship and family. The humorous character of a dying grandpa is brilliant. Wonderful cinematography, deserving a bigger screen, provides a display of mesmerising tundra, often in dimmed, polar light, but also a memorable view of a whale cemetery. Even whale intestines are fascinating instead of revolting as you might expect. The ambiguous ending makes full use of cinematographic means as well. The soundtrack emphasizes the American dream. A gem.
20 YEARS OF WATCH DOCS - ONLINE
POTOMKOWIE CYWILIZACJI LACINSKIEJ (2020)
Recommended. A chance to see Polish nationalists' marches of 2016, 2018, 2020 up close from a safe distance. The film takes on a satirical tone in the opening, when the marching men kind of dance to the soundtrack and in the ending. The documentary shows how the Independence Marches started as events uniting football supporters of different teams and how they drew rightist fathers teaching children their vision of patriotism and how the events transformed, first attracting nuns and the same men chanting Catholic slogans, an extreme rightist party, Konfederacja, leader and how violence escalated year after year.
7-MY SIERPNIA (AUGUST THE 7TH) (2020)
Recommended. Deeply touching. Within 30 minutes it presents the situation of the LGBT people in Poland - from what it was before the rule of Law and Justice until now. And it's appalling how the police handle them and how politicians and the Church brainwash straight people, including old ladies, into violence against gays.
NI HAO HOLLAND (2015)
Recommended. Following two Chinese women's trip to a little Dutch town, the film shows Europe in Chinese eyes - fresh air and gardens of a small town where people know each other are juxtaposed with an overpopulated, congested Chinese city of large grey blocks of flats. The ladies are conscious tourists and the short film, incorporating also citizens', politicians' and hospitality workers' attitudes, showcases mass tourism in a nutshell. Entertaining and some food for thought.
AFRYKAMERA ONLINE
The festival runs online only from 21 to 30 December. I've seen "You Will Die at 20", "The Cursed Ones", "Kati Kati", "Liyana", "Supa modo", "Comboio de Sal e Açucar" ("The Train of Salt and Sugar") at earlier editions of Afrykamera and Polish short "Stolen Fish" at this year's Watch Docs and have reviewed them here before. I'm planning on seeing amazing "Kati kati" again. 14 other full-length movies, 3 short film sets of 19 films together (minus "Stolen Fish") and 6 classics (plus "Kati kati" again) await me. I'm also on the short film jury so I'll have to watch those particularly carefully, maybe twice.
STOLEN FISH Q&A
The director was going to research reasons for migration from Africa for an NGO. 30% of Gambian GDP comes from tourism and the fish supply affects that as well. Gosia Juszczak, director of the Polish short, lives in Spain where there are many immigrants from Gambia, Senegal and other countries with numerous Chinese fish factories. Emilia Plaskota's view is that the government is gullible. After 20 years of dictatorship now they've invested lots of trust in foreign investment. At best they'll impose fines which, for global corporations, amount to peanuts. The only regulations on fish powder production have to do with product quality, nothing to do with workers' rights or environmental issues. Fish powder is used in factory farming as animal fodder so that's an underlying issue as well.
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