کیک محبوب من (MY FAVOURITE CAKE)

Recommended. A heart-warming story about coping both with one's old age and solitude and with the oppressive post-revolution policies in Iran. لیلی فرهادپور (Lily Farhadpour) and سماعیل محرابی (Esmail Mehrabi) excel in the leading roles. They're both so lovable. A simple but deeply humane story understandable across cultures.

FESTIWAL FILMOW CHINSKICH (CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL) 2024

Poland's largest Asian movies distributor for cinemas, VOD, TV - 9th Plan - opened the festival with an equally grandiose production: a blockbuster which cost 150 million dollars to produce:

封神第一部：朝歌风云 (CREATION OF THE GODS I: KINGDOM OF STORMS)

Watchable. Visually attractive, with plenty of CGIs and lavish set decor as well as costumes, with eye-catching camerawork, it's form over substance. On the one hand, the plot is shallow and aimed at fascinating or shocking the audience with brutality. On the other, the Chinese mythology it's based on and other traditions of the country, aren't quite comprehensible to a Westerner. One smart thing in the story is how it tells you that good intentions attract good spirits and bad intentions attract demons. That's completely the other way round than in Christian cultures which tell you you're attacked by external forces, especially if you're pious yourself. There are two mid-credits.

SOUDAIN, SEULS (SUDDENLY)

Based on a book by a woman who sailed round the world and who works for WWF.

Watchable. Shot in Iceland and Bretagne, I don't know where the penguins, which represent an island somewhere on the Southern Ocean, came from. The survival drama is far more engaging than the overlong relationship conversation or the cliche of the woman finding out she's pregnant. The movie doesn't explain why the rescue didn't come, instead it's a polar romance and a relationship drama. While the woman is impressively strong physically, mentally she's weak, as exemplified by her coming to terms with her partner's betrayal - the plot perpetuates the stereotype where a man's unfaithfulness is always forgiven. Some shots are breathtaking, especially in the last 40 minutes, when the landscapes are in the fog or of icebergs.

HET SMELT (WHEN IT MELTS)

Recommended. Based on a bestselling Belgian book. It's disturbing most of all. Repeatedly. It feels a bit pointless until the most horrible thing happens. And that, as well as the aftermath, hits you hard. It's a scorching look at how rape culture starts in childhood. Really smart, incisive, requiring psychological thinking all the time, especially child psychology, but rewarding. The title can be interpreted in quite a few ways. 

I'm happy I watched the movie at a Filmoterapia event. Both the shrinks on stage and the audience provided profound insights into each character's feelings and motivations. The psychologists also offered some clear solutions. 

OBLICZE JEZUSA

Watchable. Scientific parts, mostly the shocking opening one - about how badly battered Jezus was, especially his face, are intertwined with religious ones - typical for religious documentaries and so spiritual you yawn, though one bit was truly touching and some other thought-provoking. Wonderful cinematography lets you travel round Poland and the Mediterranean Sea basin as well as see rare historical artefacts up close. It's a good one, of decent length too, though too spiritual for my taste. 

WATCH DOCS 2023

It took place at Muranów and Kinoteka cinemas and on mojeekino.pl. From March 2024 it had screenings in 30 towns across Poland. 20 films were presented online, 56 in cinemas. All but 2 Polish ones which had been finished just before the festival had English subtitles. Player.pl from 11th to 31st December, showed films from previous editions. With 23 editions so far it's the oldest documentary film festival. And the 2023 edition had a beautiful poster. 

MUR (WALLS)

Watchable. Shown in Poland nearly 3 months after the release of "Zielona granica" ("Green Border"), it looks like a documentary copy of that feature: the same plot, with the addition of  Kasia Smutniak's family and their conversations about walls of Jewish ghettos in WW2. It shows two sides of the problem: volunteers rescuing illegal migrants and Border Guards. Little archive footage is presented, most are conversations and pictures of the same roads, woods and fields, as well as similar houses to those known from "Zielona granica" ("Green Border"). Sadly, the whole thing is awfully protracted, meandering. In spite of the agitating topic, the film appears lacklustre, it lacks dynamics. There's a post-credit which could just as well be in the picture or removed entirely.

The film was completed a year before Agnieszka Holland's feature and never consulted with Agnieszka Holland or that crew. It was made for Italian audience in order to tour the country and discuss with the public. "Zielona granica" ("Green Border") was released in Italy in 2024. Kasia Smutniak, who had been living in Italy for 25 years already, and Marella went without a plan, having learnt how to record. The Border Guards had no idea this documentary would be shot. The shooting took 2 weeks, editing 9 months.