"THE QUEEN OF SILENCE" WINS GRAND PRIZE IN PERM

Królowa ciszy (The Queen of Silence), a documentary directed by Agnieszka Zwiefka and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received the Grand Prize at the Flahertiana Film Festival in Perm, which closed on September 24.

Big Golden Nanuk for Królowa ciszy (The Queen of Silence)

The Polish-German co-production Królowa ciszy (The Queen of Silence) was voted Best Film at the Flahertiana film festival. The competition lineup featured a total of 15 films.

Królowa ciszy (The Queen of Silence) had been developed within the framework of the DOK.Incubator and Dok.Restart programmes, and was presented at the thired edition of Docs to go! The film was produced by Chilli Productions, co-produced by ZDF, arte, Stefilm International, Odra Film, and HBO Polska, and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, Creative Europe — Media, and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung. World sales are handled by Deckert Distribution.

Another Polish documentary screening at this year’s Flahertiana festival was Paweł Łoziński’s Werka. Last year’s festival Grand Prize and FIPRESCI prize went to Abu Haraz, a documentary by Maciej Drygas.

The Story of Denisa

The film tells the story of ten-year-old Denisa, a deaf-mute girl living in an illegal Romani encampment in Wrocław. Much like the other children in the camp, Denisa has never gone to school; she can’t read or write and she lives in extreme poverty, with no running water and no electricity, often forced to beg in the streets by her parents. Due to her condition, she is also the laughingstock of the camp children, who often refer to her as “deaf” or “stupid,” instead of using her real name. But Denisa lives in her own world of beautiful Bollywood movies. Ever since she found a box of these films at the trash dump, they have become her escape from everyday life. Denisa watches Bollywood dance moves day after day, then tries to reenact them at the encampment. Only through dance is she able to express her fury, sadness, or joy when seeing the first rays of the spring sun.

The film’s official website is available at: thequeenofsilence.com.

Further details about the festival are available at: eng.flahertiana.ru.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun