Poland rules here, and more specifically – Polish women rule here. This year's Shortlist includes 25 Polish shorts, of which 20 are directed or co-produced by women. All the section's films will be shown during this year's New Horizons International Film Festival.
We've been living in interesting though turbulent times for at least a year. The Shortlist reflects this specificity. Although there is no journalistic literality in the selected films, they certainly have echoes of both pandemic fears and angry shouts provoked by attacks on civil liberties. I assume that deciphering allusions to headline events and intelligently camouflaged metaphors for real-world phenomena that evoke great emotions for all of us will be both a challenge and a pleasure for the viewer, says Piotr Czerkawski, section curator.
Diverse, meaning what?
"Diversity" is a well-worn slogan which, after scratching the facade, usually reveals its true meaning – "whatever." For the last five festival seasons, the Shortlist has been (successfully!) fighting for the good name of diversity, restoring its meaning and strength. Here are the films awarded at prestigious events (e.g., We Have One Heart by Katarzyna Warzecha) share the Shortlist with titles that are just starting their festival path (Samogłów by Jakub Prysak, Just for a While by Zuzanna Gorczycka), and the visions of Polish reality accompany reports from (not extremely) exotic journeys (Sarha by Jaśmina Wójcik, Once Upon a Time in Israel by Wiktoria Szyma, On Time by Zbigniew Czapla). Among the extremely varied offerings from young women directors there are calls to rebellion and declarations of independence – as in the films by Olga Bołądź (Alice and the Frog), Klaudia Kęska (The Last Days of Summer), Natalia Durszewicz (Portrait of a Woman) and Julia Orlik (I'm Here).
The family as a source of suffering
Yelyzaveta Pysmak in the film under the all-clear title My Fat Arse and I soberly notes that we are often the source of our own complexes, frustration and unfulfilled expectations. However, this is an exception in this year's program that proves the rule. Most authors argue that the external pressure becomes all the greater when it comes from members of the immediate family. Bittersweet (in varying proportions) variations on family relationships can be found, among others in the films Into the Night by Kamila Tarabura, Daria Kopiec's Own Gabage, I'm Pretty by Klaudia Prabucka, Joanna Helena Szymańska's Scare, Martyna Majewska's Maria is Not Alive and Agnieszka Nowosielska's Wyraj. Variations on the subject can also be found in Karol Ulman's End of the World and Michalina Musialik's Dog’s Field.
The joy of meeting
Other Shortlist films brilliantly oppose the feeling of apathy and helplessness sticking to many of us in the last several months. An excellent example of such a strategy is Kamila Chojnacka’s Hello Grandmother, one of three documentary films in this year's Shortlist, along with Sand by Bartosz Tryzna and Monika Stpiczyńska and A Little Bit of Paradise by Andrzej Cichocki. The experimental Green by Karolina Kajetanowicz, is a unique example of animated slow cinema and has a relaxing effect on the viewer. Damian Kocur's Beyond is the Day is an extremely soothing work and the film could serve as an illustration of Hrabal' s famous maxim Life is awful, but I decided it would be beautiful.
The 21st New Horizons International Film Festival will be held this year in a hybrid format: audiences are invited to screenings at cinemas in Wrocław from August 12 to 22, while online screenings will be available from August 12 to 29. The festival's complete program will be announced on August 3; tickets go on sale for in-cinema screenings August 4; online sales begin August 5. For more details, visit www.nowehoryzonty.pl.