Krawczyk's Debut Awarded!

Six Weeks, the directorial debut from Marcin Janos Krawczyk, produced by Staron Film and TVP1, received the Best Short Film award at the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Other awards went to Last Train Home by Lipin Fan (Canada/China) and Iron Crows by Bong-Nam Park (South Korea). The award for Six Weeks is the first award for a Polish film at the world’s largest documentary film festival in several years.

 

Six Weeks is a poetic depiction of the first six weeks in the life of a newborn child. These six weeks after birth are a time when the biological mother can relinquish parental rights and give the baby up for adoption. This decision is voluntary, yet irreversible; as of this moment, the mother will no longer receive any information about the fate of her child. She can only leave a letter. Only by giving up all rights does she open the way for adoption.

 

The opening scene of the film is the birth; the cutting of the umbilical cord signifies the break of all ties with the mother for at least 18 years. Then the hospital orphanage; helpless babies in need of love, warmth, security. A dozen beds. The viewer follows the little character as he is moved from room to room, from one bassinet to another…

 

Launched on November 29, the latest edition of the IDFA festival in Amsterdam had more participants than over the previous years. Festival reps estimate the number of international guests at approximately 2,000 and the total audience at over 160,000.

 

Further details about the festival are available at www.idfa.nl

 

Translated by Karolina Kołtun

29.11.2009