POLISH DOCUMENTARY FILMS WON IN SAINT PETERSBURG
25th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival "Message to Man" turned out to be very lucky for Polish documentary films. Four Polish productions were awarded.
At the festival, 90 films from 45 countries of the world were shown, selected from among 3400 submissions. At the closing gala, Polish documentary film-makers received as many as six awards.
The festival's Grand Prix, the Golden Centaur, was given to the documentary film "Call me Marianna" by Karolina Bielawska, which was also honoured with the Press Jury Prize. The Centaur for the best début went to Vahram Mkhitaryan for his film The Shepherd's Song." Special mentions in the experimental film category went to "Object" by Paulina Skibińska and "Figure" by Katarzyna Gondek. The French film "Free Bullet," whose co-author is a Pole, Paulina Pisarek, was given the Special Prize of the International Jury.
Marianna, the protagonist of the documentary film by Karolina Bielawska, made a dramatic choice between living according to her identity and being with her family. Preparing for the sex reassignment surgery, she had to leave her home, and, in accordance with Polish legal procedures, sue her own parents. On the threshold of the new life, fate turned out to be extremely cruel for her. During the rehearsals of the play inspired by Marianna's story, the protagonist has to face the difficult experiences from her marriage once again.
"The Shepherd’s Song" tells the story of Chaczik - a blind shepherd living in Armenia, high in the mountains. In spite of adversities, he started a family and leads a peaceful life, every day pasturing his herd of goats on steep mountain slopes, on which he can move without anyone's help. However, when it turns out that his son also loses his eyesight and has to go to Yerevan to start learning at the school for the blind, Chaczik has to face a difficult dilemma: whether to continue his life as a shepherd or to move to the capital city to be closer to his son. This is because he is convinced that blindness is a curse on his family, which can be lifted only by a pious life in the mountains.
"Object" is a creative image of a rescue mission, taking place in the space of two worlds - on the ice desert and under water. The film is told from the point of view of the rescue team, of a diver entering the world under the ice, and of the ordinary people, awaiting on the shore.
The main protagonist of the film by Katarzyna Gondek is... the statue of John Paul II, to be precise, the largest sculpture of the Polish pope in the world, located in the Miniatures Park in Częstochowa. We observe the process of making the statue - from the early works in the factory, where garden gnomes are produces on everyday basis, to the moment of placing the fourteen-metre high figure in the park. The short film by Katarzyna Gondek asks the question about the need for myth and the presence of kitsch in religion.