"The Miracle Seller" Awarded

Handlarz cudów (The Miracle Seller) by Jarosław Szoda and Bolesław Pawica received the 2011 Bergamo Film Meeting Prize of the 29^th edition of the Bergamo Film Meeting in Italy. The event closed on March 20. 

Handlarz cudów (The Miracle Seller) is the story of an emotional encounter between two Dagestani children (whom everyone considers to be Chechnyan) and Stefan, a small-town man from eastern Poland, and their subsequent illegal journey together across Europe – from the eastern border of Poland all the way to southern France. They are separated by cultural, social, religious and linguistic barriers. Hostility, even hatred, don’t give much reason for hope, but a common journey can bring people closer together. The Miracle Seller features Borys Szyc, Joanna Szczepkowska, and Mariusz Benoit.

The Bergamo Film Meeting has been organized annually since 1983. This year’s edition ran from March 12 through 20. The festival is aimed at promoting world cinema on the domestic and regional scale. This year the Bergamo Film Meeting lineup featured 95 films from 25 countries. Seven feature films screened in competition – films from directors previously unknown in Italy. The Bergamo Film Meeting Prize was awarded by the festival audience.

Further details are available on the festival website: www.bergamofilmmeeting.it.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun