EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND, NEW DELHI
INDO POLISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRIES
&
INDO CINE APPRECIATION FOUNDATION
Present
POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
22 & 23 -Aug-08 - View Calender
Synopsis
KATYN / Dir: Andrzej Wajda / 2007/ colour / 121min - 22.Aug 08 - 6.15 p.m.
Plot: An examination of the Soviet slaughter of thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the Katyn forest in 1940, was covered up with a conspiracy of silence or blamed on the Germans. The truth about it has survived thanks to the collective memory of families of the murdered as well as to the publications issued first by Polish emigré circles, or to the illicit historical publications in the country. Yet it took 18 years to wait for the first feature about Katy? since Poland regained her full freedom.
Awards: 5 wins Nominated for Oscar
TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT KATYN - BY ANDRZEJ WAJDA
“Katy?” was produced with the usage of the most advanced technologies. Having been shot on 35 mm print with the equipment by Panavision, it was edited in an electronic way and finally worked over digitally. Thanks to that it was possible to reach an absolutely unique facture treatment of the picture. How is it possible that despite gradual extinguishing of colors, shots are not becoming gray, remain in true colors and reach effect of deepness? This is the result of an extraordinary technology, named 4K, so far used in some spectacular American productions only. It enables four time higher resolution in the post-production, than commonly used 2K process. Revolutionary technology 4K gives a chance to work over the smallest detail even, make precise corrections of the part of picture or chosen color and enables digital addition of some parts of the pictures. When it went through the process, “Katy?” consisted of 8 terabits, which is 8.000.000.000.000 bits, prior to the transfer on 35 mm print. “Katy?” was the first movie shot not only in Poland, but in the entire Europe, in which the 4K technology was used.
TIME TO DIE/ Pora umierac - Dir: Dorota Kedzierzawska - 2007 - B&W - 104min - 23Aug08 - 3.15 pm
Plot : Aniela, is as much a sprightly, unyielding relic of the past as the big dacha-style house surrounded by tall trees in which she lives alone with her impetuous dog, Philadelphia. Across the way, she disapprovingly observes a boorish fat nouveau-riche man in a big new house, and over in a corner, a shabbier building occupied by a struggling music school, everybody wants Aniela’s house or her land. When nouveau-riche neighbors, aided by her cold-hearted son, conspire to gain her property, she finds a way to outsmart them.
Awards:4 wins
TRICKS / Sztuczki - Dir: Andrzej Jakimowski - 2007 - colour - 95min - 23 Aug 08 5.00pm
Plot : Charming, bittersweet narrative unfolds from siblings Stefek , 6, and Elka , 18, and Elka’s car mechanic boyfriend Jerzy during a sun-drenched summer. The siblings live with their shopkeeper mother. Their father left her for another woman when Stefek was very young. Six year old Stefek challenges fate. He believes that the chain of events he sets in motion will help him get closer to his father who abandoned his mother . His sister Elka , 17, helps him learn how to bribe fate with small sacrifices. Tricks and coincidences eventually bring the father to the mother’s doorstep but things go wrong. In despair Stefak tries his good luck with the most risky of his tricks.
Awards: 7 wins & 4 nominations
Saturday, 23. August 2008
Many thanks for the opportunity I got to view the Oscar entry movie “Katyn” by Andrzej Wajda. This is probably one of the best films and the bravest one to come from Eastern Europe. The messacre has been haunting the Polish people for almost half a century to find out the truth, eventhough the real truth was known to many during the war itself.
It took the architect of Perestroika Mikhail Gorbachev to bravely admit for the first time that it was the thugs Stalin and Beria who ordered the mass killings . Inspite of Russian president Putin’s assurance to hand over all declassified documents to the Polish Govt. he went back and reclassified them. Despite their admission, the Russians are vehemently denying to term the messacre as Genocide, but accepting it as a military killing and thereby quoting an outdated legality which states that after 50 years lapse no judicial proceedings can be initiated. What is nauseating is the total complicity of the Anglo American governments, which knew about this Russian atrocity. When each and every German and Japanese has been hunted down and punished for their ‘crimes’ in Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, not a single Allied soldier has been found guilty of any atrocity. That is JUDGEMENT OF THE VICTORS!
Five stars to this great director. He has done a marvellous job. The scenes are transporting the viewer right back to the 40’s. Every actor has done their bit nicely. The uniforms have been carefully chosen and the colour naturally blends with that time of history. In the final gory scenes of killings in cold blood, so much care has been taken to portray authenticity, one wonders whether genuine appreciation will overstep the border of decency.
Thursday, 4. December 2008
Hi I like your post “POLISH FILM FESTIVAL” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Answer welcome. Greetings Schlauchboot