Simone, Francesca and Olivia are three young people from Bologna who are members of the Communist Renewal Party. Full of life, they take part in demonstrations and party meetings and believe that they can change the current world, dominated by ruthless capitalism and pressure for performance, for the better. At least until the moment when it turns out that it is almost impossible to change the minds of the older party members and the unsuccessful attempts to win new supporters intersect with the difficulties in their personal lives. Comrades is an empathetic time-lapse portrait that shows how the current young generation is losing its illusions due to social pressure and turbulent internal changes, and how difficult it is to keep faith in what we believe makes sense.
“By telling the stories of Olivia, Francesca and Simone, I try to show topics shared by many 20-30-year-olds: overstimulation, confusion, and awareness of social inequalities, accompanied by a difficulty in translating their good intentions into actions that bring about real change.” — Joanna Janikowska
Category: films completed
Today we’re all gonna hide
„I’m waiting for mom and dad. Calendar ends today. A lot of us will die,
but not like Grandpa two years ago, only worse”. This is a morning
report from ten-year-old Daga. The girl is prepared for all threats.
Unlike her parents…
7 DIFFERENT SCULPTURES
August Zamoyski: Polish aristocrat who abandoned his family fortune to pursue the dream of becoming an artist. Often compared to Michelangelo, amazing sculptor, outstanding athlete, amateur filmmaker, avant-garde dancer, collector of fancy cars, teacher but also a scandalist who got married four times. His life story, full of sudden twists and turns, was a movie script waiting to happen.
Seven women – from a girl to a mature woman. Together they look for the boundaries of sisterhood. A generation gap between them is their challenge. They work on a choreography they call the “Collective Body”, “The Rock”. A film inspired by K. Kieślowski’s work “7 Women of Different Ages”.
A Year in the Life of a Country
In 1981 Poland was on the verge of an unravelling revolution. Exciting time for people, troublesome for the authorities. Full of absurd and unexpected energy found footage film about imposing martial law.
THE NOVICE
A group of young men gives up on their existing lives and enters the Dominican Novitiate. Novices learn their duties, but more importantly, they form new friendships. They start to open up and confess to each other. They share their doubts about their faith in God and wonder whether the convent is the way they should follow. They miss their families and friends. They miss sexual contacts.
„The Novice” is a story about the search for life’s purpose. It is also a story about giving up on a path that seemed to be leading to it.
IN UKRAINE
Months into an unprecedented war raging just across the European Union border, filmmakers Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski journey deep into the shelled-out state, in the hope of capturing “the new normal” of the Ukrainian people.
The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale Forum – Berlinale International Film Festival.
Forest Killer
A minimalist thriller based on true events. The story follows a year in the life of a serial killer until his capture by the police after committing three murders in the Czech forests.
The Fence
An unsual couple, Leszek and Mikolaj, move into a stud farm that one of them inherited form his father. When Mikolaj discovers that someone has destroyed their wooden fence, he becomes obsessed with fixing it. Yet, can the fence really protect this relationship from a hostile enivornment?
SLOVO
The story depicts the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Vaclav Vojir and Vera Vojirova, their family and their immediate surroundings between the summer of 1968 and the summer of 1969.
The couple gave their “word” to each other that they would always stand by themselves and not cross their moral boundaries. However, the period around 1968 exposes their mutual promise to difficult tests.