Here are three films of the Directors' Debuts Competition under patronage of Polish Filmmakers Association! The rest of the competition's line-up will be announced shortly.



Rebounce

The cinema has dealt with the mistakes of the youth in thousands of different ways, however Heidi Maria Faisst, the director of “Rebounce", was not afraid of the past and made a film that is both original and satisfyingly engrossing. What is more, Faisst's vision of rebellious youthfulness - displayed on the example of Louise (Frederikke Dahl Hansen), a girl struggling in a toxic relationship with her mother, recently released from prison - captures the essence of youth. The director looks upon Louise's adventures through rose-colored spectacles of youthful optimism, and the melodrama of growing up; through desires of finalizing sexual initiation that makes the inexperienced body tremble strangely; through the girl's need to impress her school girlfriends. “Rebounce" has a sentimental flair, though most importantly it is an honest movie giving back to the youth what is youth's.

Still from "Rebounce"
The task that cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro has put upon himself was to vary Louise's experiences by means of image. And the best way to do this was to create visuals mirroring her internal struggles. Not only blurred retrospectives matter, but also the way in which Louise perceives reality surrounding her. The hand-held shots emphasize the girl's anxiety about everything that she is doing, the aerial shots symbolize her lostness in the world, and the grainy images adds a wonderful atmosphere to all of her actions. The most important in “Rebounce", however, is the visual juxtaposition of Louise and her mother - the world of the first one was created by diffused lighting and warm color palette, and the world of the second one is full of synthetic colors, stroboscopic lighting and artificial objects.

Original title: Frit fald
Reżyseria: Heidi Maria Faisst
Zdjęcia: Manuel Alberto Claro

**********

Way Home

Andreas Kannengießer's feature debut is a film of great maturity, both in terms of narrative and production values. This is a story of a few people trying to cope with death or decrepitude of those dearest to them, searching for sparse moments of real happiness in their lives full of mundane chores. “Way Home" makes one reflect on the shortness of life, but also stimulates to use the earthly time more consciously. German filmmaker is very self-assured in directing the film, to the point that he simultaneously develops several plots, each emphasizing the characters' mental state, and shifting between the present and the past. “Way Home" is, above all, a tale of human joys and sorrows.

Still from "Way Home"
Stephan Fallucchi's work is also very mature, although he is only at the beginning of his career. Fallucchi's cinematography is very close to the protagonists, accentuating all their dilemmas and emotions; barely visible hesitations, sighs of sorrow, tired looks. Once in a while the cinematographer composes the shot in a more eye-catching manner, i.e. by framing the scene through the use of mirrors, but this never interferes with the narrative structure of the film. For throughout the whole movie Fallucchi tries to be as close to reality as possible, thus enhancing physical and spiritual fallacies of given characters.

Original title: Vergiss dein Ende
Directed by: Andreas Kannengießer
Cinematography: Stephan Fallucchi

**********

Fear of Falling

Son's love and bitter hatred borne out of anxiety - those are the strongest emotions marking the relations between Tomek (Marcin Dorociński) and his father Wojciech (Krzysztof Stroiński). Divided by the inability to understand each other, disheartened by the impotence in overcoming psychological barriers, the heroes of Bartosz Konopka's feature debut desperately try to live outside the boxes of their minds. “Fear of Falling" is not only a drama analyzing the ups and downs of a father-son toxic relationship, but above all a poignant and yet hopeful statement of the director - that with a great deal of support human being is able to win against any obstacles, including one's own demons.

Still from "Fear of Falling"
Piotr Niemyjski's cinematography plays an essential role in creating the film's reality and emphasizing protagonists' emotional looseness. The cinematographer manipulates the framing to herald the upcoming visceral quarrels. To stress Tomek's constant anxieties, Niemyjski often follows the character with the camera closing from behind, and when the protagonists turns back, looking all nervous, it is as if he was expecting an invisible enemy. Niemyjski's artistry can also be seen in fine lensing of film's subsequent expressive locations. And in flashback scenes that are stylized through the use of bluish filters, or looking like they were shot with some old, long forgotten film camera.

Polish title: Lęk wysokości
Directed by: Bartosz Konopka
Cinematography: Piotr Niemyjski
Polish distributor: Kino Świat

**********

Suicide Room

"Suicide Room" turned out to be a landmark for Polish cinema in terms of films discussing joys and sorrows of the modern youth. Not the youth harnessed with the poverty of Silesian housing estates or restrained by the lack of bright future, but the one more or less consciously getting rid of life's limitations by connecting to the abstract virtual reality. In there, nothing is what it seems, nevertheless the illusion is stronger than common sense. Jan Komasa was brave enough to enter the area of Polish cinema rarely explored before. He merged together the classic literature's universal themes of youthful quandaries with the latest computer animation techniques that not only symbolize the technological shift, but also the changing ways of perceiving reality. The film is important, but it is also a real visual treat, and - what is perhaps essential to great cinema - it leaves more questions than answers.

Still from "Suicide Room"
One of the main elements of “Suicide Room" is the adjustment of cinematography to the protagonist's, named Dominik, vision of the world. For the most part of the film we observe reality from his distorted perspective, hence Radosław Ładczuk's strongly stylized visuals fit perfectly the overall picture. The energetic cinematography and the colors used to present Dominik's inner world stem from the character's mental state; slow-motion scenes are part of his separation from reality; and the fragments in virtual Second Life are arising from his still-being shaped view of this brave new world. Together with the fact of Dominik losing himself in the digital illusion, the visual mood of “Suicide Room" also shifts - the fine line between what is real and what can never be real starts to blur.

Polish title: Sala samobójców
Directed by: Jan Komasa
Cinematography: Radosław Ładczuk
Polish distributor: ITI Cinema
Polish premiere: 4th March 2011



***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Directors' Debuts Competition (together with Cinematographers' Debuts Competition) was initiated in 2010 due to the Festival's increasing openness to the noteworthy artists and the new film phenomena they create. The idea of creating additional competition section was a natural consequence of our previous activities. For years we have been promoting innovative projects that combine intellectual freedom, remarkable insight into world affairs and a desire to inspire other artists of the screen.

Directors' Debuts Competition brings new discoveries: great movies of high artistic value and great filmmakers whose new ventures surprise not only the Jury members but all audiences around the world as well.


Competition organized under the patronage of Polish Filmmakers Association