Movie reviews

18TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FESTIVAL

The festival started on Friday, first at cinemas, next some films will be available in the online part of the event - the list will be announced on 13th September that is one day after the cinema part is over. 1352 cinema screenings are on offer at the festival. That's more than at Berlinale. From next year the city of Łódź will host the event as well. Last year the festival had more than 170 000 viewers. For the second time the organizers have achieved a 50:50 male to female ratio in the main competition - accidentally, not on purpose. As for the Polish competition, it includes:

"Ucieczka na Srebrny Glob" ("Escape to the Silver Globe") - Kuba Mikurda has psychoanalytical background and claims that what we don't show in profile pictures is more important. The pandemic meant he used archives: Polish, French, Italian more than shooting days. The film's in Polish and French. Obtaining consents took long but within 2.5 years they managed to get the whole thing done.

"Polaków portret własny" ("Polish Self-Portrait") - shot by students during the pandemic. Diverse protagonists: from the south and from the north, cities and countryside all turned out to be similar.

"Bukolika" ("Bucolic") - shot in a Mazovian village to show people who are invisible because of our ignorance but who can offer more to the world than we can to theirs.

"Ostatnie pokolenie" ("The Last Generation") - about climate activists.

"Herbert - barbarzyńca w ogrodzie" ("Herbert. A Barbarian in the Garden") - by Polish-French director Rafael Lewandowski now working in France on a film about the Algerian war. Apparently Herbert's works are still popular in many countries and the festival offering is about this Polish poet. 

"W Centrum Komiksu" ("Comic Book Shop") - made by fans. 

"Furia" ("Fury") - a sports film, about MMA fighter Aleksandra Rola. There'll be meetings with her and the director.

"Już tu nie wrócę" ("Never Coming Back") - 4 years-worth of shooting in a youth educational centre. 

"7-My Sierpnia" ("7th of August") - most of the films are premieres but this one was shown at two other festivals before, I've written about it here too.

"Pozdrawiam" ("Bless You") - Sankt Petersburg in the beginning of the pandemic, Polish producer, Russian director.

"Seal Story" - the director is the protagonist, stuck in Iceland during the pandemic, alone in a building resembling the empty hotel in "The Shining".

"Halo Babciu" ("Hello Grandma") - a pandemic film, about people stuck home with capering brats.

"Omar. Jak nie być innym" ("Omar. How Not To Be Different") - about a Polish Tatar.

Remarkable festival guests include: Mads Brügger, the director behind "The Mole" on North Korea, Nathan Grossman who followed Greta Thunberg and her father touring summits, Camilla Nielsson who directed "President" about Mugabe's handover of power. 

FILM BALKONOWY (THE BALCONY MOVIE)

Recommended. What a range of individuals, all quick-witted both in their responses and questions, from the far right to the far left, from the newly born to the ones readying themselves for death, some extrovert, some introvert, inhabit Warsaw's Saska Kępa! This is where I live so I enjoyed spotting some familiar faces. The protagonists are ordinary folk you can relate to. Some scenes are funny, e.g. a building caretaker planting a flag using a broom as support. Owing to the wide scope of characters and their intimate, insightful portraiture it's a sort of film that forever changes your perception of people. The film's compelling and personal. Beautifully filmed too. 

Paweł Łoziński interviewed 2000 passersby on 165 shooting days over 2,5 years. He picked this method instead of the usual running with the camera. So he didn't need any casting or making calls. After a year of editing to select the most emotional, funny, engaging or bizarre ones about 80 interlocutors got into the film. The director is a positive person, he says: "people are fantastic, sensitive". He's still living in Walecznych Street and listening into the street, he's got addicted.

Update: I'm appalled that the director doesn't wear a mask inside which is against the law.