Both critics are regular guests of the festival in Gdynia and have been following Polish cinema for years. “Gdynia taught me not to come here with any specific hopes and expectations,” Piepiórka began. “Films come out that you don’t expect at all but turn out to be a discovery, and those you look forward to the most often turn out to be disappointments. It was the same this year.”
“I also learned not to have specific expectations. Not because I think that most films are weak (…) more because something can always surprise us,” said Kędziora, pointing to Konrad Aksinowicz’s “Back to Those Days” as one of the biggest positive surprises from a few years ago. He noted that this year’s level of the Main Competition is not satisfactory for him, but it is compensated by the Perspektywy section.
One of the most anticipated films of the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia was “Under the Volcano” by Damian Kocur. The plot focuses on a Ukrainian family stuck on vacation in Tenerife due to the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. The film is the Polish candidate for the Oscar.
Kędziora noted that he was not among the biggest supporters of “Bread and Salt”, Kocur’s previous film. However, he did not deny the director’s production skills and certainty of what he wanted to show on the screen. “I have the impression that this is Kocur’s vision fully fulfilled, in which I again could not fully find my way. The concept is excellent. (…) The first half hour is great, later I have the impression that the narrative is lacking,” he said. critic. He also drew attention to the excellent acting of non-professional actors.
“After watching this film, I still think it is the best choice for an Oscar candidate. Not because I particularly liked this film,” Piepiórka said. “It has a chance to resonate the most (…) because it also touches on many current, recognizable, important topics. (…) The problem is that it does not develop them at all.”
According to the critic, just as the characters did not know what to do after the forced extension of their stay in Tenerife, Kocur did not know what to do with the initial concept. He admitted that the idea of telling a story about war without a war is a very good one.
“People” by Maciej Ślesicki and Filip Hillesland also addresses the topic of the war in Ukraine. However, the directorial duo follows a different path than Kocur. In “Under the Volcano” the word “war” is not used, and we watch reports of the conflict on TV or phone screens – they are far from it, although it directly affects them. Meanwhile, Ślesicki and Hillesland enter the middle of hell. They focus on the stories of five women who confront the greatest horrors of the conflict.
“These are two extreme approaches to how to talk about the war. Ślesicki and Hillesland chose the form of a spectacle. They turn the drama of the Ukrainians into a spectacle of horrors swollen to the limit, which they make even more intense. This is turning this drama into a shock machine,” Piepiórka said. “For me, this is an unacceptable film on many levels.”
He added that the creators’ empathy for the plot’s characters is apparent. However, the dreamlike elements, taken from magical realism, are unintentionally comic. “It cannot be defended both as an artistic work and as a moral statement. This film is inhuman.”
“We rarely judge ‘People’ for formal reasons, because it is not a film that is formally poorly made or poorly acted. This is solid craftsmanship,” admitted Kędziora. “It is the first film that sparks an ethical and aesthetic debate in Polish cinema.”
“IN ‘People’ there is terrible exploitation, it is a very tiring film. I had a problem with how to rate it, because this film rejected me, but on the other hand, there is a burden in the back of my mind that perhaps such a film should be rejected,” he continued. “There are a handful of people who will say that this is how the war should be shown – in all its filth, in all its tragedy, in all its horror.” However, he pointed out that Polish documentaries were much better at directly showing the conflict in Ukraine.
Piepiórka added that due to the abundance of violence shown in “People”, this method quickly stops working. “It no longer shocks. Shocking is not about maximizing the horrors, but about presenting the story in such a dramatic way that it shocks us at some point,” he explained.
Kędziora noted that similar dilemmas appeared in the case of other films about the war and its times, including “Schindler’s List”. He added that sometimes the creators try so hard to increase the tension that he felt disgusted.
The Main Competition of the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia also featured “WROOKLYN ZOO”, the latest film by Krzysztof Skonieczny, the creator of “Hardkor Disko” and the series “Blinded by the Lights”. It tells the story of a teenager living in Wrocław in the 1990s, whose dream is to go to the United States for a skateboarding competition. Everything changes when he falls in love with a beautiful Roma girl. At the same time, he comes into conflict with a local gang. Everything to the rhythm of rap.
Kędziora stated that the film “is going bad”, which is not a surprise considering Skonieczny’s previous achievements. According to him, it is a chaotic production with no narrative coherence. However, “it acted with its own energy.” He also noted that “WROOKLYN ZOO”, even if it is not completely successful, stands out from most films in the Main Competition. “If we let ourselves be carried away by it, it can lead us to interesting places,” he said. He added that it is a polarizing picture, just like “Bird Talk” by Xawery Żuławski.
Piepiórka admitted that he liked Skonieczny’s previous directorial attempts. At the same time, he began to wonder whether “Blinded by the Lights” was not so good because of HBO’s supervision, which somewhat inhibited the director from implementing some of his ideas. “Here (…) he made the film absolutely his own way,” he concluded. He later described it as a “collection of music videos”.
He added that he associated “WROOKLYN ZOO” with another film by Xawery Żuławski – “Chaos”, his feature debut. “It’s an equally chaotic film, full of different visual and plot ideas that simply don’t come together on various levels.” He also pointed to the obvious roots of Skonieczny’s work in the off cinema of the 1990s. “And the thing about these films was that they were overloaded with ideas.”
Piepiórka pointed out that the biggest problem of “WROOKLYN ZOO” lies elsewhere. “When a forty-year-old tries to paint the panorama of eighteen-year-olds, a red flag goes off for me and the alarm went off all the time during this session,” he joked. He said that the director wanted to create a youth film, and the effect is rather cringe’new.
Kędziora added that he doesn’t really know who this film was made for. However, he believes that it will find its niche. He also pointed out that Skonieczny does not know how to lead the amateurs. At the same time, the second line, led by Jan Frycz and Konrad Eleryk, is very good.
Piepiórka said that none of the films he has seen so far have impressed him, so he does not have a favorite for the Golden Lions. According to him, the best one is “The Girl with the Needle” by Magnus von Horn. “It is simply well made, and that is something. It looks good. It tells a shocking story in such a way that it is able to shock us, that is, it is dramaturgically directed in an appropriate way. Everything is perfect here. The acting, the script, the set design , interesting contexts. (…) but it is not a fully fulfilled work,” he said.
Kędziora pointed to Agnieszka Holland’s “The Green Border” as his favorite for the Golden Lions. “For the second time, it turns out that we have already seen the best film before,” he admitted with some disappointment. He added that “The Green Border” was much more eagerly discussed a year ago, when the film was released in cinemas after its success in Venice. He pointed out that we are now talking about works that are unlikely to win the main awards, because the most important contender had its premiere a long time ago. He added that this year he is missing a discovery that will definitely delight him, like “Imago” by Olga Chajdas.