DIRECTORS’ DEBUTS COMPETITION 2017 LINE-UP!

Friday October 13th, 2017

Directors’ 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 sections 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 is under the patronage of Polish Filmmakers Association.

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Alba

Alba is 11 years old, the age when girls start to become fixated on boys, put on make-up, and imagine themselves being kissed. But she does not have many friends because of her crippling shyness, to the extent that she often has a nosebleed due to stressful situations. Furthermore, instead of having fun with her peers, Alba has to grapple with the fact that her beloved, bedridden mother is basically dying before her eyes. The difficult family situation forces the girl to move to her estranged father’s apartment, even though she has not had much contact with him after her parents got divorced. Initially, it seems that the man may be in worse shape than her mother, though mentally, not physically. But in the course of time it turns out that the father is also very shy and terrified of the whole situation. He has no idea how to raise an 11-year-old girl. Two people incapable of having a meaningful relationship with the outside world have to learn how to trust and support each another.

Director: Ana Cristina Barragán
Cinematographer: Simón Brauer

Produced by: Caleidoscopio Cine
Ecuador, 2016

Blind Christ, The

The young, blind mechanic Michael claims that when he was a little boy, God spoke to him directly. He strongly believes that he was chosen to make miracles on Earth, though no one seems to treat his words seriously. People just make fun of him. Especially because Michael maintains that each person has God within them and no proxies, spiritual leaders, or religious rituals are needed to contact Him. When the character learns that his best friend is gravely injured, he goes on a long and perilous journey through the Chilean desert to perform a miracle. On his path, Michael meets various kinds of people, each of whom believes in God in a different way. The boy helps some of them by telling his remarkably ambiguous parables, but others, less open to such teachings and different worldviews, perceive him as a threat. This remarkable journey will give Michael the chance to verify his claims about being chosen, but also to better understand the world he lives in.

Director: Christopher Murray
Cinematographer: Inti Briones

Produced by: Cine Sud Promotion, Jirafa
Chile, France, 2016

Borg McEnroe

The second half of the 1970s saw the Swedish athlete Björn Borg reach the dizzy heights of the world of professional tennis. Cool, calm, methodical, he was at the top of his game, with no one being able to reach his level. But with each subsequent victory, especially at the prestigious Wimbledon which he won four times in a row, Borg felt the increasing societal pressure of being the best. American player John McEnroe, a few years younger than the Swede, was a rock star of the tennis world. Arrogant, impetuous, spontaneous, often vulgar, he was enfant terrible, a person the audiences loved to hate. When he tried to change this image, he only made it worse. Before the two met on a tennis court at the 1980 Wimbledon final, often considered to be one of the greatest matches in the history of the sport, they first had to conquer their inner demons and many external obstacles as well. The film tells the story of how both became who they were and how they played in the famous match.

Original title: Borg

Polish title: Borg/McEnroe. Między odwagą a szaleństwem
Director: Janus Metz
Cinematographer: Niels Thastum

Produced by: SF Studios

Polish distributor: Best Film CO Sp. z o. o.
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, 2017

Foxtrot

Modern-day Israel, early morning. A bell rings in the Feldmans’ modern apartment. The visitors are from the military, they wish to express their condolences that Jonathan, the son of Dafne and Michael, has died in the line of duty. The woman faints, the man is in shock. It takes one second for their lives to fall apart. The young intruders wish to help, they are armed with sedatives and a lot of nutritional advice, as well as the carefully presented empathy, no doubt exercised during some kind of special course. Yet they cannot help, only disturb, thus they leave. This is when the Feldmans’ nightmare really begins, amplified by the endless conversations and phone calls. Why did this happen to them? What happened to their child? How could their young son die if he was to be stationed somewhere safe? Why can’t they see his body? Maybe he’s still alive? This is only the beginning of the Feldmans’ unravelling, the first in a series of events that will shake the family to its core.

Director: Samuel Maoz
Cinematographer: Giora Bejach

Produced by: The Match Factory

Polish distributor: Aurora Films
Germany, Israel, France, 2017

I'm Not Here

How is it that despite all the effort and increased awareness of the problem, we still make the same adult mistakes as our parents, even though they warned us many times about them when we were children? Steve had a nice, caring mother and a funny, spontaneous father, whereas his parents’ only mistake was that they never really loved each other. Because of that, they turned his and their lives into a living hell of alcohol and shouting. And while adult Steve did his best to be a different person, a man with a steady job who drinks only occasionally, he still sabotaged his family’s happiness and well-being. Now, after many years of solitude that have left him old and miserable, when all the ‘what ifs…’ seem pointless, the man barely makes ends meet in a tiny apartment full of memorabilia of his painful past. Sitting alone with a bottle of booze as his sole companion, reminiscing about what went wrong, he wonders if his life can still have a happy ending. Stay until the end credits roll.

Director: Michelle Schumacher
Cinematography: Pietro Villani
Produced by: Rubber Tree Productions LLC

USA, 2017

Last of Us, The

Two unknown men trek silently through kilometres and kilometres of barren land, moving in an unspecified direction and leaving behind them the endless stretches of the Sahara Desert. At one point they reach an obscure truck, get in, and start another journey that is quickly cut short by some armed assailants. The men are separated and forced travel on their own from that point on. The camera follows one of them as he comes into possession of a boat, and decides to sail into unknown waters – maybe to start a new life, or maybe to find his doom. Who are these enigmatic men? What is the meaning of their silent odyssey? Are they just some random people whose bravery and character are tested by cruel fate? Or maybe they are African immigrants crossing entire worlds of land and crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach a happy life on the other side? After a while, the lead character reaches a mysterious forest in which he finds even more enigmas, but potentially also the answer to his quest.

Original title: Akher Wahed Fina
Director: Alaeddine Slim
Cinematographer: Amine Messadi

Produced by: EXIT PRODUCTIONS, Inside Productions, Madbox Studios
Tunisia, 2016

Lucky

Lucky really is lucky. He’s almost 90 years old, but his heart, blood circulation, and immune system are in quite good shape. The same can be said about his lungs, even though he’s a chain smoker. The man’s life is all about rituals and routines, from morning physical exercises to making his rounds at stores, coffee shops, and pubs. Each time he meets his buddies and friends with whom he can talk, tease, or simply do crossword puzzles. But one day Lucky collapses in his own house. By accident. For no apparent reason. The doctor’s diagnosis is quite trivial – the disease is called ‘being old’ – but Lucky’s monotonous routines are effectively derailed. He becomes more empathetic towards his friends and their attitudes to life. He is not as harsh on people who wronged him as he was before. He opens up to strangers, probably for the first time in many years. He realises that his time is coming to an end. And the only thing he can do is to accept the inevitable. And smile.

Director: John Carroll Lynch
Cinematographer: Tim Suhrstedt

Produced by: Divide/Conquer, Superlative Films, The Lagralane Group
USA, 2017

Novitiate

Why does a teenage girl choose to live in a strict and enclosed Catholic convent and decide to sacrifice her entire life to serving God? Why does she want to wake up every morning with the rising sun, stay completely silent in the evening, and work and pray from one bell ring to another? The film’s lead characters – both the younger women awaiting their entry to the novitiate, and the older women who spent most of their lives behind the convent’s walls – have to deal with many doubts and temptations. Among them, the growing realisation that the outside world, including their families and friends, will never understand their decision, as well as the internal struggle over whether their sacrifice is really appreciated by Him. Furthermore, the wind of change is coming. The film is set in the first half of the 1960s, when the Second Vatican Council reformed the Catholic Church and in an attempt to modernise it. The result was that for the first time in over a hundred years some of the strict rules of conduct were loosened.

Director: Maggie Betts
Cinematographer: Kat Westergaard

Produced by: Maven Pictures/Wonderful Films, Novitiate Productions
USA, 2017

Walking with the Wind

Tsering is 10 years old and doesn’t have an easy life. He lives with his parents and sister in a small village in the Himalayas, which is isolated from the outside world by kilometres of steep paths and rocky passes. The place looks stunning and has a raw beauty to it, but is reached only by the most persistent tourists. The boy knows that his future does not look very bright, and yet he doesn’t complain. His route to school is seven kilometres long, but he covers it twice a day with a donkey as his sole companion. When he returns home, he studies, especially the complexities of the English language, which will be very helpful in the life of a tourist guide. One day there is an accident at school – Tsering unintentionally breaks a chair that belongs to one of his classmates. What may seem a trivial matter can lead to serious problems in the world the boy has to live in. The exams are near, so Tsering takes the chair with him to repair it. He is unaware that this journey will finally make him a man.

Director: Praveen Morchhale
Cinematographer: Mohammad Reza Jahanpanah

Produced by: The Trippy Turtle Productions
India, 2017

Wind River

Wind River, Wyoming, one of the largest Indian reservations in the United States. There the descendants of the Native American tribes live forgotten by mainstream culture, and die in conditions that would enrage the media if it were only about another kind of people. Alcohol, drugs, lethargy, a lack of perspectives. And of course murders and disappearances more numerous than anybody would like to admit. One day, an animal tracker working for a federal government agency finds the body of a raped teenage girl frozen to death in a distant part of the reservation. He knew her well – she was his daughter’s best friend – thus the man is filled with rage. But he also realises that the assailant will probably never be caught. Wind River has witnessed dozens of such personal tragedies, including one in the tracker’s family. This time, however, it will be different. An FBI agent comes to the reservation to administer justice. Young, inexperienced, still uncynical about the world, she will do everything to solve the case.

Director: Taylor Sheridan
Cinematographer: Ben Richardson
Produced by: Acacia Filmed Entertainment, Film 44, Savvy Media Holdings, Thunder Road Pictures

Polish distributor: Monolith Films Sp. z o. o.

UK, Canada, USA, 2017