Movie reviews

CZY POTWORY JEDZA KIWI?

Watchable. This short film is a family drama which makes you guess whether it's the boy that 

externalises his fears or whether his brother pretends to be a monster or whether there's a real creature hiding in his wardrobe. Uninspiring but with one funny exchange: "Przecież nie otwieram szafy." "To skąd bierzesz ubrania?" "Z wczoraj." ("But I don't open the wardrobe." "So where do you take your clothes from?" "From yesterday.")

It was funnier on set. The kid actor would even steal batteries when the director left the room. Director Paweł Podolski clarifies: "To nie jest tak, że Gustaw nałogowo kradnie baterie." ("It's not that Gustaw is addicted to stealing batteries.") The kid would rather ask: "Co to jest?" ("What is this?") and the director would answer: "To powinno być w kamerze." ("This should be in the camera.")

RAISA

Watchable on the big screen. This short film, which was too boring to see on my computer, gains value at the cinema. It's visually pleasant enough and the protagonist is an impressively positive person. Still, it's low-key, tenuous in how unremarkable the woman is and filmed stiffly - with few locations and events. It's not even stated clearly why Raisa got the refugee status. 

It was only in the Q&A that I was told she had suffered violence from her husband and her country - Chechnya -  didn't offer her protection. The director used to live on emigration herself so the subject matter was close to her.

ZBYT AMERYKANSKI FILM

Watchable. This short film is a Polish cartoon with the action set in America. To me it looked like a western but not entirely comprehensible due to some abstract developments.

The director grew up watching Cartoon Network in the 90s and took the grotesque from there. One of the first opinions about the film was uttered by someone from the commission going through the application: "It's too American." As for the director, he likes Texas, Arizona: blue sky, yellow sand everywhere, some reds. He's got a full-time job creating graphics for marketing but on the side he's got a plan for a new film inspired by "Les triplettes de Belleville" ("The Triplets of Belleville").

KULISY (BACKSTAGE)

Watchable. This short film stands out in terms of cinematography and composition as it offers a glimpse into an unknown world of colours, shapes and hard labour at the backstage of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. The director doesn't like talking heads in documentaries so no words are spoken which works here. The film ends with the workers' portraits placed in the colours they have been working with. Fine when treated like a moving painting. Less so as a film since it lacks action and feels dull in spite of vivid hues.

GES

Watchable. This tenuous short film offers an excellent cinematographic opening and ending, where an undulating landscape of a fabric ripples in the wind with the accompaniment of Arabic music. The director likes a handheld camera - I don't so to me the long middle part doesn't look too clear. The story's a thriller mixed with a family drama so it's hard to get the point. 

This film is shown at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.

FLUKTEN OVER GRENSEN (THE CROSSING)

Recommended. A gripping full-length story of kids smuggling two Jewish children across the Norwegian-Swedish border during the war. Intense, dramatic, with lots of suspense. One adult character resembles the witch from a gingerbread hut in the fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel crossed with a real-life Nazi woman I've read about (she first invited home and fed Jewish children and next killed them all). Magnificently acted by adults and kids alike. In Poland the movie has a Polish voice over.