Funny-sad film stories about ourselves.
7th edition of the Sokołowsko Film Festival Hommage à Kieślowski
September 7-10, 2017
Every year in Sokołowsko we celebrate cinema. The Hommage à Kieślowski festival takes us for a brief moment into the extraordinary world of film art. This year’s festival films, are uplifting and humorous stories about everyday life. Could it be, that sometimes our laughter is through tears? Taking the world with a grain of salt, we tell stories of our everyday life. „The audience members I like the most, are ones that tell me the film was about them, or meant something to them, or incited change in them.” This is what Krzysztof Kieślowski had to say about the transformative power of art, and the most important relation – the interhuman relation.
The festival will consist of three major thematic sections. Re:Interpretations will present feature films. „On Body and Soul”, directed by Ildikó Enyedi, highlights the subject of suffering and human weakness and is a story of seemingly impossible love. Eyedi’s film – the laureate of the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival – will be shown in Sokołowsko before the Polish premiere.
Subsequent films of this section include: „Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe”, directed by Maria Schrader, „Herd”, directed by Nokola Kojo, and „Lost in Munich”, directed by Petr Zelenka, a humorous take on the Czech’s national trauma. This year we will accentuate films that show, that in the context of European cinema, we have full freedom to talk about its art of irony.
In turn, the documentary section – No Fiction! – is a view on everyday life, as seen through the eyes of young artists. This year’s program will focus on woman’s cinema, exploring interpersonal relationships. We will have the opportunity to view, among others: „Education”, directed by Emi Buchwald, „Close Ties”, directed by Zofia Kowalewska, and „Three Conversations on Life”, directed by Julia Staniszewska. The directors observe the lives of their subjects, striving for harmony in a complex reality. The section will be enriched with a foreign documentary. We will screen, among others: „Liberami”, directed by Federica Di Giacomo, „ Crazy for Football: The Craziest World Cup”, directed by Volfango De Biasi, and „Normal Autistic Film”, directed by Miroslav Janek.
Within the Hommage à Kieślowski section we pay tribute to the masters of Polish cinema. In addition to „Decalogue X”, „Three Colors: White” by Krzysztof Kieślowski, we will present the film „Reverted”, featuring an introduction by the film’s director Kazimierz Kutz. Zbigniew Zamachowski – an actor whose unforgettable roles will be discussed in depth as part of a mini-retrospective with the artist’s participation, will be the special guest of this year’s edition.
This year, Kieślowski’s film will serve as a reference point for our discourses about the experiences of the subjects: disability, internal struggles with their conscience and their body, their fear of loss of love. „Live carefully and attentively” – with this message from the director – we open this year’s Sokołowsko Film Festival Hommage à Kieślowski.
Festival screenings will take place in the „Zdrowie” cinema-theater, the Multimedia Hall, located within the Laboratory of Culture, and an open-air cinema, near the Dr. Brehmer Sanatorium. The screenings will be accompanied by debates with co-creators of the presented films. The „Inventory of the Czech Cinema” discussion panel will be dedicated to the Czech poetry of everyday life, and thus the art of comedy. On the other hand, we will talk about humor in both film and real life, with Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Kazimierz Kutz. We will also examine problems in law and politics, the current state of culture and the media, and values that, according to the panelists, make life worth living.
The festival was established in 2011 at the initiative of the IN SITU Contemporary Art Foundation. It is held under the honorary patronage of the late director’s wife, Maria Kieślowska.
