Documentaries in Gdynia at the 49th PFF
Polish Film Festival offers more than just feature films! Presentation of important, renowned and awarded documentaries has become a tradition of the Polish Film Festival. This year we are going to screen as many as five films in the Documentaries in Gdynia section – two held in cooperation with the Krakow Film Festival and one with the Millenium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival. Joanna Łapińska, the Artistic Director of the Festival, comments: Although the Polish name of our Festival includes the words “feature film”, the programme of the Gdynia festival would be incomplete without documentary films. I have invited five films, five strong, moving stories, each of which asks the most essential questions. Polish documentaries are strong and bold, and our viewers will have a chance to see that during the Festival.
In 8th Day of Khamsin (dir. Zvika Gregory Portnoy), together with Marek Hłasko, we will arrive in Israel at the end of the 1950s, a land which becomes his inspiration and a trap with no way out. In Małgorzata Imielska’s documentary film Just Hear Me Out we will meet Gosia who, despite the fact she has experienced severe psychotic episodes and long bouts of depression, fights for better life – it is a story of love, will power and unconditional support. I Am the Creation of Fiction (dir. Arkadiusz Bartosiak) provides audience with a multidimensional portrait of an eminent actor Andrzej Seweryn. The last two films will take us to the Polish-Belorussian border. A touching documentary Silent Trees (dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka) shows the fates of a teenage Kurdish girl Runa. Being faced with a tragedy, she becomes the head of her family. Whereas in Forest (dir. Lidia Duda) we will see how big politics can change human stories – escape to Białowieża Primeval Forest is just a temporary consolation for Asia and Marek, as due to the crisis it’s them who needs to provide shelter to Others.
Documentaries in Gdynia:
8th Day of Khamsin, directed by: Zvika Gregory Portnoy. Meeting with the filmmakers after the screening.
Just Hear Me Out, directed by: Małgorzata Imielska. Meeting with the director after the screening. Krakow Film Festival Catching Waves:
I Am the Creation of Fiction, directed by: Arkadiusz Bartosiak. Meeting with the producer Katarzyna Kubacka- Seweryn after the screening.
Krakow Film Festival Catching Waves: Silent Trees, directed by: Agnieszka Zwiefka. Meeting with the filmmakers after the screening.
MDAG in Gdynia: Forest, directed by: Lidia Duda. Meeting with the filmmakers after the screening.
The 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia will take place on 23rd–28th September 2024.
