The European Competition '21
Invariably, just like every year, the jury had to face a very difficult choice – due to the very high level of film submissions. How do you choose about two dozens of productions from over 400 of them? Ultimately the European Competition will feature 26 pictures by authors from 8 countries. The production of all competition films ended in 2020-2021. The documentaries we will show were filmed all around the world but artists associated with Europe are involved in their production – as is competition requirement. The topics of these works, which cross the boundaries of classic documentaries are really diversified, starting with matters that we all find important, all the way to professional entertainment. There were many films whose topics and form drew upon the pandemic situation. Just like in previous years, after the screenings there will be discussions with authors of the competition films. This is especially important to us, as a direct meeting between a viewer and the author makes it possible to take a closer look at the issues which the film raises. In 2021, there will be 9 films from Poland, 7 films from Germany, 4 French productions, 2 Spanish films and one picture from Serbia, Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands each, all of which will compete for the main prize.
Past events
- 17.10.2021, 20:00 - 22:30, Kino Zamek, The European Competition Block 5
- 17.10.2021, 17:30 - 20:00, Kino Zamek, The European Competition Block 4
- 16.10.2021, 20:00 - 22:30, Kino Zamek, The European Competition Block 3
- 16.10.2021, 17:30 - 20:00, Kino Zamek, The European Competition Block 2
- 15.10.2021, 20:00 - 22:30, Kino Zamek, The European Competition Block 1
Filmy poprzednich edycji
- A Little Bit of Paradise / Trochę Raju19
A documentary story from the borderlands of realism and fairy tale, A Little Bit of Paradise is a film about a Silesian family. In an out-of-the-way corner of a metropolis, they reveal their world to the watcher and share moments from their lives, which are inextricably bound up with the nature around them.
read more - An Ocean / Ein Ozean19
The trembling starts in his neck when Markus is getting closer to the images that have chased him for 49 years. Now he steers his motor home south, as far away from his past as possible. The images come without any warning. First a tingling in the neck, then the trembling spreads through Markus’ whole body. The abuse happened over 45 years ago, but only now can Markus put it into words. With his motor home, the 55-year-old always keeps moving, just so he doesn’t spend too long thinking. A daily struggle for survival between the past and the view of the ocean horizon.
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- Before I Die / Antes De Mi Muerte14
In a small island of Lake Victoria, Kenya, fishermen believe that they are entitled to everything. Meanwhile, women and girls are forced to carry the weight of their silence. In a close journey through her childhood memories, a young woman decides to tell her story to lighten her burden and find hope...
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- Blue Frontier / Plava granica20
The man from the border has spent his entire life searching for the biggest fish that the blue Danube hides. Every sunrise sees the old fisherman attempt to lure the river giant in an ancient fishing way by clapping on the river surface with a hand-carved piece of wood. Two rivals – one on the surface of the water and the other concealed within the depths of the mighty river – are waiting to finally meet.
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- Dakhla: cinema and oblivion / Dajla: cine y olvido15
Life is going on in Dakhla, one of the Sahrawi refugee camps in southern Algeria, forgotten for 45 years. The celebration of a film festival, the FiSahara, breaks the monotony. The event ends, life (and oblivion) continues.
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- Down to Earth / Blisko ziemi29
The documentary movie “Down to earth” tells the story of co-dependent relationship of Małgorzata and Mariusz, directors’ parents. The presented relationship is far from perfect but apart from many accusations and disappointments, it is also full of unexpected examples of care and subtle gestures of love. Over the years of their marriage, both of them developed many behavioral patterns, unknown and probably inconceivable to people not familiar with the issue of alcoholism, but recognized and well known to professionals who deal with the issue.
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- Greetings from Myanmar5
- Homecoming / Powrót do domu26
It is a documentary made from film notes in which reality consists of fragmented particles. The film is about the oblivion that emerges from the crushed memory.
read more - Hotel Astoria25
Leipzig, GDR, 1986: The Hotel Astoria is a magical place. Business people, prostitutes, the elite of the Socialist Party and ordinary people meet here. But lobster and caviar are scarce – extravagance is also on ration. And the Stasi are always watching. The many truths from the everyday socialist life of a luxury hotel.
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- I showed him covid-192
An experimental short movie is exploring the notion of art created with the use of artificial intelligence. Thanks to computational tools for finding and using patterns in data, it became possible to see how AI responds to our input. This art piece’s creator has built a unique database consisting of 1,232 photos taken in the pandemics period. Its primary purpose was to evaluate its generated visual response to the current worldwide situation. However, the outcomes have raised the bar by achieving the visual appeal to it. The idea for this project came from an intense feeling of separation that we live with, a forced break from plans, from relationships and our dreams.
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- It’s a Very Pretty Picture / Ten obrazek jest bardzo ładny30
These intimate situations were recorded with a phone, registered on a VHS tape or filmed using a digital camera. Jakub Ciosiński shows the life of a three-generational family in the context of love failures and problems with relationship building. Can a camera lens serve as a tool to provide film therapy or to understand family stories? This documentary family self-portrait combines not only different filming techniques but also different stages of life and social norms with regard to relationships. Almost all members of the Ciosińskis have a say in it.
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- Kafkaland6
In 1960, a young writer and a future film director trace Franz Kafka’s footsteps – in a village where he often visited his sister and wrote “The Castle.” They look for inspiration for a screenplay, but don’t have any success. Later, one of the two friends becomes a famous director in the USA and the other becomes a head of state. In 2019, another film team makes a journey to the same village.
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- Keep Shiftin' / Schichteln21
A glass factory in the middle of the German-Czech border region. The magic of the routine carries through the night shift. A symphony of muscle mass, glowing hot glass, and the birds that sing with the coming daylight.
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- Love Story / Opowieść o miłości39
The love story of a Jewish girl and a Pole during the World War II. Romantic moments, the hell of war and chilling events. Bogdan Jastrzębski – Righteous Among the Nations, returns to the times of the War, when he fell in love with the only one, the Jewish girl – Krystyna Geisler, for his whole life. First dates, shy kisses, the drama of the Jews in the Częstochowa ghetto and a daring rescue action on the streets of Częstochowa, under the watchful eye of the Germans, which was the only way to save the life of the beloved woman. And then they lived happily ever after. This film is a combination of a classic documentary and a hand-drawn animation. Animation by Łukasz Rusinek.
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- Maalbeek16
Survivor but amnesiac of the attack at Maalbeek metro station on 22 March 2016 in Brussels, Sabine is looking for the missing image of an over-mediatised event of which she has no memory.
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- My quarantine bear30
While working in Strasbourg on her latest animated short, Weijia Ma has to rush back to China when France is under lockdown. Upon her arrival, another lockdown awaits her. Fourteen days in a hotel, like a bear in its cave. From the surreal flight to her quarantine, the director recounts this experience through a filmed diary, with humor, inventiveness and a touch of romantic comedy.
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- Revolykus12
Several years ago I immigrated to Germany. Here, I live in a small old house. which urgently needs a modernization and that theoretically, protects me from wind, rain and cold.
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- Sand / Piach16
A day in life of three road workers. Krzysztof talks about his job as a road roller operator, Jerzy is having problems with two dogs, and Zdzisław is mad because he did not get a day off. Three generations of blue-collar workers, three similar biographies against the background of contemporary Poland and its problems.
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- Shānzhài Screens23
Shenzhen at night, copyist painters recount their daily lives and their craft. Their acts shift alternately between an artistic and blue-collar imagery, from new technology to classical techniques. Here, another history of painting is being drawn.
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- Souvenir Souvenir15
For ten years, I’ve pretended to make a movie out of my grandfather’s Algerian war souvenirs. Today, I’m not sure I want to hear what he has to say.
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- Spirits and Rocks: an Azorean Myth / Espiritos e Rochas: um Mito Açoriano14
On a volcanic island, inhabitants are caught in an unending cycle: the threat of impending eruptions and earthquakes, and the burden of past traumas loom over them. Some draw upon myth and religious beliefs to interpret their precarious situation, while others demonstrate resilience, rebuilding their villages from the volcanic rocks.
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- Tanaka’s Diary / Dziennik Tanaki21
What was to be a coveted tour of a Japanese group around Europe had a tragic end. The 1969 events are remembered by a couple who went on their honeymoon at that time. Their story is illustrated by authentic footage recorded by Japanese tourists and a private journal, which is read out off-screen, full of euphoria and puzzlement with regard to foreign cultures. Who was its author and what did this journey become for him?
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- The Fear / Wielki Strach28
The film tells the story of the communal memory of killings that took place after World War II in the Dębrzyna forest in south-east Poland. It was a time when many people were returning from far-flung corners of the world. They had no idea that they might become victims of the attacks being perpetrated by the marauding bandits who had overrun the area. The returnees were hurled from trains, robbed and murdered. It was as if they had joined the numbers of those killed during the war. The residents of the nearby villages knew what was going on in the forest, but they never intervened because, as they themselves say, they were “living in fear.”
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- Tower made from blocks / Wieża z klocków14
A record of experiences resulting from the decision to raise an adopted child was put in an impressionistic form of a film etude, which moves and provokes reflection. A story of love and, above all, about the consequences of its lack and the great need to satisfy it is a step towards disenchanting adoption – a topic which still remains a taboo for many people.
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- Weeks of sand, months of ash, years of dust / Semanas de areia, meses de cinza, anos de pó20
Through the form of a personal yet distant essay film, “Weeks of sand, months of ash, years of dust” introduces Macao, a former Portuguese colony handed over back to China in 1999. Having partly grown up in Macao, the filmmaker revisits the learned history of this territory from a Portuguese perspective, addressing post-imperial forms of disavowed political affect alongside the progressing dementia of her own mother.
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- Why Didn’t You Stay For Me? / Waarom bleef je niet voor mij?25
Four children. One director. Each lost a parent to suicide. When director Milou probes the questions no one ever dared to ask her, the kids finally tell us about the journey they made from the moment they heard the news.
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