Zero Motivation, simply Psychokino
The Wednesday at Tofifest was full of interesting meetings. The audience had a chance to see Parasite, directed by famous visual artists from Poland Anna and Wilhelm Sasnal – the film was screened as part of the From Poland competition. Following the screening, there was a meeting with Anna Sasnal. Another meeting involved the figure of Sebastian Buttny, director of Heavy Mental (also part of the From Poland competition), who met with the audience, after the film. The other of the guests present at the mentioned meeting, actor Piotr Glowacki, is a well-known figure for Tofifest-goers, as he was awarded a Flisak of Tofifest, back in 2011.
Finally, there was also a meeting with Ilmar Raag, a special guest to the festival and the director of I won’t come back. He is one of the most significant voices of the modern Estonian cinema. His film The Class stirred quite a range of emotions among the citizens of this Baltic state. As for Kertu (Love is Blind), it turned out to be a box-office success. The Class brought the director a mention and a special prize at the IFF in Karlovy Vary, as well as a special prize and a mention of the FIPRESCI jury at the Warsaw Film Festival. All of the three mentioned films are part of this year's Tofifest.
Some other interesting events involved a presentation of films and a meeting with Psychokino collective, authors of excellent video clips, who have been invited to perform at Audiowizje Tofifest. Psychokino is a duo composed of Dorota Piskor and Tomek Slesicki, who have already created video clips for such artists as Bokka, Dawid Podsiadlo, or Ania Wyszkoni. This is the only collective of this type in Poland that has been consistently making fictional video clips, according to the aesthetics of the films by the Coen brothers and David Fincher.
As previously, there will be some strong contestants in the On Air main competition. We have not seen a film from Slovenia in this competition, since the award-winning Gravehopping (2006) by Jan Cvitkovič. This year, Class Enemy by Rok Biček represents Slovenia. It is a story about the drama between pupils and one of the teachers, set in a modern school in Slovenia. A German language teacher becomes the most hated person in one of the classes. When one of the pupils commits suicide, the entire class considers him responsible for her death. When the pupils finally realise that not everything is so black and white, as they used to think, it is already too late... This is what the director said about his film: “I believe that film art should relate to the problems of the people who live in a particular country, but also to the global community. In my film, I succeeded in capturing this perspective through presenting the micro-universe of pupils in a secondary school, who constitute a particularly vulnerable society. Whether they like or not, this makes them very susceptible to everything that affects the directly and to whatever takes place around them.” Class Enemy won awards at the IFF Bratislava (FIPRESCI Award) and Vilnius IFF (Best Actor Award, CICAE Award).
Last year, cinema from Israel came to Tofifest with Rock the Casbah, which showed the war with the Palestinians seen from the perspective of Israeli male soldiers – the film was one of the contestants in the On Air competition. This year, we will see the same world from the perspective of Israeli female soldiers. Zero Motivation by Talya Lavie (Polish premiere) is a keen black comedy that portraits the everyday life of young female soldiers, who work in an army administration office, which is a mirror of the situation of women in the Israeli army. The film is both a real and surreal journey into the labyrinth of bureaucracy, and the turbulences related to adolescence, which is a tragicomic observation of life in the militarised society of Israel. The film won an award for best storyline and the Nora Ephron Prize at the Tribeca IFF in New York, as well as 12 nominations for Israeli film awards.
The Wednesday at Tofifest was also the starting day for the Lokalizacje competition. Among others, we had a chance to see some unique documentaries: The Other by Emilia Bilinska, which is a documentary about the closed community of Chassids from New York; Edward Stachura z tego świata (Edward Stachura of this world) by Teresa Kudyba, about the micro-universe of this great poet from Kujawy region; and a film portrait of Schizma – a legendary rock group from Bydgoszcz – titled Ewolucja buntowników (The Evolution of Rebels) and directed by Lech Wilczaszek and Maciej Waclaw.
Finally, as many as 10 bands performed on staged of the clubs involved in the music section of the festival – Audiowizje Tofifest. At Dwa Swiaty: Groove Gravity and Diuna; at Estrada Stage Bar Torun: Bicz and Nankinowa; at Kulturhauz: Blackberry Hill and drUMMat; at NRD Club: Alters and 3moonboys; and finally, at Galeria i Kawiarnia Muza: The Soulmates and Kartony.
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Let us also go back to the Tuesday meetings with filmmakers, i.e. with the crews responsible for Polish Shit and Little Crushes, and bring back some of their quotes.
The authors of Little Crushes (From Poland competition) were represented by the director and screenwriter Ireneusz Grzyb. “People go to see films, because nothing happens in their lives. They want to see that others have just as boring lives as they do, in order to elevate their own misery, or just the opposite – if there is always something happening in your life, you want to see the lives of others, to compare,” he said. In truth, the film is about the difficulties of establishing relations and maintaining such relations, and how hard it really is to define relations, in our present reality,” admitted Grzyb.
Polish Shit, an irreverent musical by Tymon Tymanski is a non-compromising exposure of the dirty truth about Polish show-business. On the fourth day of the festival in Torun, we had a chance to talk to the authors of the film, i.e. the director Grzegorz Jankowski, the author of the concept and screenwriter Tymon Tymanski, the editor Agnieszka Glinska, as well as Robert Brylewski and Krzysztof Skiba, who played in the film. The film was screened on Tuesday and it was party amusing, party shocking, but also made us think, whether it would be possible that one day we could ignore the gutter of Polish show-business. It is because you need to sell your character and your freedom, to achieve something – you make music the way that guarantees getting paid, i.e. for everyone and for no other purpose. The authors commented at length about the work of the editor Agnieszka Glinska. “Aga made sure the film contained some feminine elements. She made us show emotions and captured the best moments,” said Tymon Tymanski (he portrays Jerzy Bydgoszcz, in the film). The fragment where the drummer confesses to Tymon was originally one hour long, and we had to make it last 4 minutes, at the same time keeping all the emotions there. And Agnieszka made it,” recalled Jankowski.
Agnieszka Glinska herself spoke about the film. It was not about making it funny. We made references to history and to the Martial law in Poland. Therefore, the film contains both some fun and some deeper meaning, and this way makes people think,” she said. According to the authors, one of their dreams had already come true. Some time ago, we thought it would be quite funny to hear Grazyna Torbicka say “Polish shit”. And this year, in Gdynia, she said these very words, when giving us the Audience Award. I am sure that makes one fortunate enough,” said Grzegorz Jankowski.
Recommendations for Thursday, 23rd October 2014:
- There will be plenty of important festival guests and interesting meetings. We will be visited by Bohdan Sláma, winner of a special Golden Angel. He will receive the award, after the screening of Four Suns, and later have a meeting with the audience – at 6:50 p.m., at Od Nowa Centre.
- At 1:00 p.m., there will be a screening of the controversial documentary I am Femen by Alain Margot (Switzerland, Polish premiere).
- The following films will be presented in the On Air competition:
- Paradjanov by Olena Fetisova and Serge Avedikian (Ukraine, France, Georgia, and Armenia); following the film, there will be a meeting with Olena Fetisova and actor Volodomyr Kozyr, at 4:45 p.m., at Od Nowa Centre.
- Blind Dates by Levan Koguashvili (Georgia).
- The audience will also have a chance to meet Lech Majewski, one of the masters of Polish cinema; the meeting will follow directly after the screening of his latest film Onirica — Field of Dogs; at 9:45 p.m., at Od Nowa Centre.
- Following the screening of his latest film Waterline, there will be a meeting with the director Michal Otlowski, at 5:45 p.m., at Centrum Cinema.
- There will also be the 3rd and 4th part of the Lokalizacje competition, including the screening of the controversial documentary Krystyny Kuty 25 lat wolności by Miroslaw Rogalski. There will also be the 6th part of the Shortcut competition, including films from USA, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Georgia, and Greece.
- At 6:00 p.m., there will be a debate under the name Ukraine – The Future of Culture, held at Od Nowa Centre. The guests in the debate will include Olena Fetisova (film director from Ukraine), Larysa Artiugina (member of Babylon’13 group from Ukraine), and Dr. Lukasz Jasina (expert in Ukrainian cinema from Poland).
- At 11:00 a.m., Od Nowa Centre will play host to the Replica of the Children’s Film Festival, addressed to kids: it will be a set of short films for the youngest among the audience.
- Audiowizje continue:
- Dwa Swiaty: Mery Spolsky and a meeting with the authors of the Atak Dziwnego Kina festival;
- Estrada Stage Bar Torun: Blue Deep Shorts and Skycykle;
- NRD Club: Donut and Rubber Dots;
- Galeria i Kawiarnia Muza: Falender & Gwizdała Duotre and Kyra Garèy.
Recommendations for Friday, 24th October 2014:
- It will be a day of awards, so the Closing Ceremony of the festival will take place at 7:30 p.m., and it will be followed by the screening of a closing film: Fury by David Ayer, starring Brad Pitt in the leading role.
- Before that, we recommend paying a visit to an open meeting with the winner of a special Golden Angel 2014 Daniel Olbrychski, which will take place at 3:00 p.m., at Od Nowa Centre.
- Od Nowa Centre will also play host to a meeting with a unique guest from Ukraine, Larysa Artiugina, i.e. the leader of the Babylon’13 filmmaker movement that fights for free Ukraine – the meeting will take place at 6:15 p.m.
- The lecture of Lech Majewski is also open to everyone – it will take place at 11:00 a.m., at Centrum Cinema.
- We also have a treat for enthusiasts of cinema late at night, as the Somnambulists section starts on Friday. The first two films to be screened will include An Andalusian Dog by Luis Buñuel and Eraserhead by David Lynch.
- The flagship section of Tofifest 2014 – Phenomena: Nordic Noir – will show the following films:
- Nordic Noir: The Rise of Scandi Drama by Lars Hogéus and
- The Keeper of Lost Causes by Mikkel Nørgaard.
- There will be four concerts of Audiowizje:
- Dwa Swiaty: Avtomat and Basach;
- Estrada Stage Bar Torun: Spoiwo and the final of Muzyki do nakręcenia competition: HOAP.
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