"80 Million" at Moscow IFF

Photo by Kino Świat

Photo by Kino Świat

80 milionów (80 Million) by Waldemar Krzystek will screen in main competition at the 34^th Moscow International Film Festival. This year’s Moscow IFF will run from June 21 through June 30, 2012. 80 Million was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

New Film by Krzystek in Competition at Moscow IFF

The main competition at the Moscow International Film Festival features a lineup of approximately 20 films. One of this year’s contenders will be 80 milionów (80 Million) by Waldemar Krzystek.  This will be the second film by Krzystek to screen in main competition at this festival. In 2009, Mała Moskwa (Little Moscow) screened in competition, winning with the Audience Award.

80 milionów (80 Million)

The latest film from Waldemar Krzystek focuses on the struggle against the communist system. 80 Million is based on real events that took place ten days before martial law was introduced in Poland. The head of the Wrocław-region leg of “Solidarity” Władysław Frasyniuk and four of his colleagues went to a bank and withdrew 80 million from “Solidarity” accounts. The money then served to build the underground movement.

Film Supported by the Polish Film Institute

80 Million was produced by Media Brigade. The script was co-written by Waldemar Krzystek and Krzysztof Kopka. Piotr Śliskowski acted as director of photography. The film features Wojciech Solarz, Krzysztof Czeczot, Maciej Makowski, Piotr Głowacki, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska, and Marcin Bosak. 80 Million was co-financed by the Lower Silesian Film Fund and by the Polish Film Institute.

Grand Prize: Golden St. George

The films screening in main competition will compete for the festival’s grand prize – the Golden St. George Award for Best Film. Three Polish directors have won this award to date: Andrzej Wajda in 1975 for Ziemia obiecana (The Promised Land), Krzysztof Kieślowski in 1979 for Amator (Camera Buff), and Krzysztof Zanussi in 2000 for Życie jako śmiertelna choroba przenoszona drogą płciową (Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease).

Awards for Films Co-Financed by the Polish Film Institute

Previous editions of the festival have also brought a number of awards for films co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. In 2011, Urszula Grabowska, star of Feliks Falk’s Joanna, received the Silver St. George Award for Best Actress. Joanna also received the Award of  Russian Journalists and the Award of Russian Film Clubs. In 2010, Jan Kidawa-Błoński received the Best Director Award for his feature Różyczka (Little Rose), while Rewers (Reverse) by Borys Lankosz was voted Best Film in the Perspectives section of the Moscow IFF.

Moscow IFF

The Moscow International Film Festival is arguably one of the world’s key film events. Since 2011, it is run by Russian actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov.

This year’s complete competition lineup will be announced in early June.

Further details about the festival available at www.moscowfilmfestival.ru.

Source: www.wyborcza.pl.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun