Polish Films Awarded in Leipzig
October 24 marked the closing of the 53rd DOK Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. Of the seven films representing Poland, two received prestigious awards.
The Young Talent International Competition Jury awarded the Grand Prize for Short Documentary Film to Kawałek lata (A Piece of Summer) by Marta Minorowicz. The jury statement reads: “In nature all things pass but with the finest work of cinema some things fortunately remain forever. The jury has chosen this quiet gem of filmmaking for successfully capturing intimate moments pregnant of nostalgia. Through a delicate balancing act of light and poverty, laughter and melancholia, old wisdom and fleeting youth, the film paints a subtle dream of love and family in a lost season of paradise.”
The Prize of the Trade Union ver.di and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury went to Marcin Sauter for Na północ od Kalabrii (North of Calabria). “The film captivates the audience by its dynamics, freshness and, above all, by its loving closeness to the inhabitants of this little Polish town. It allows us to participate in the life of the people; we got fascinated by their sweeping humour and their joy of life. This gives reason to hope,” reads the statement of the Jury of the Trade Union ver.di, while the Ecumenical Jury describes Marcin Sauter’s film in the following words: “The congregation in a small Polish town prepares its summer festival. ‘North of Calabria’ tells the viewer, elegantly interwoven, something about the mood of the time, rather casually and with great empathy for the persons introduced. The film acts like a catalyst for the many little stories and leads them to a finale that really surprises everyone. The film thus displays the talent and dreams of its protagonists and, with it, its deeply humane attitude.”
DOK Leipzig, one of the world’s oldest documentary and animated film festivals, invited five Polish films (including one animated film) to screen in competition this year. Another two films screened in the International Programme Documentary Film panorama section. The festival’s film market featured 16 films, represented by the Krakow Film Foundation – one of the partners of DOK Leipzig.
Grit Lemke of the DOK Leipzig festival, who selected Polish films at the Krakow Film Festival, said at the press conference that she could have filled the whole short documentary competition with Polish films. The “Leipziger Volkszeitung” echoes her words, stating that “no other national cinema (with the possible exception of Scandinavia) has such unique styles of storytelling.”
The festival’s Golden Dove Grand Prize in the International Competition for Documentary Film went to Polish-born Swedish filmmaker Jerzy Śladkowski for his film Vodka Factory. His film received financial support from the Polish Film Institute.
Further details about the DOK Leipzig festival and winning films available at: www.dok-leipzig.de.
Press release
Translated by Karolina Kołtun