THE EXISTENCE

ISTNIENIE

A famous Polish actor, 80-years old Jerzy Nowak (eg “Schindler’s List” dir. S. Spielberg and Andrzej Wajda movies) decided that after death his body should not be buried, but used for the benefit of science. The documentary shows the process of making that decision, the actor’s dilemmas and important thoughts about death. In catholic countries – like Poland – the documentary will be controversial if only for its subject matter. Polish actor is terminally ill and wants to tell the story from the perspective of a dying man. As an actor he wants to play his last role, at the same time the first leading one, and explain why he decided to donate his body to science. Personal, ironic, and often positive themes in the context of a fundamental, thought-provoking, taboo raising discussion. The film treats its subject in a way which is innovative even on the world scale.

FILM REPRESENTED BY THE KRAKOW FILM FOUNDATION

  • Genre: Dokumentalny
  • Country: pl
  • Running time: 69
  • Year: 2007

Director: Marcin Koszałka

DOP: Marcin Koszałka

Editing: Anna Wagner

Production company: HBO Poland, Studio Filmowe OTO

About the director:

Marcin Koszałka

Marcin Koszałka






Born in 1970 in Krakow. He is a graduate of the K. Kieslowski Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia. He works as a cameraman of fiction films and a cameraman and director of documentaries. He has been a laureate of numerous festival awards (Nyon, Berlin, Gdynia, Krakow, Wrocław).




At festivals:

International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2008 (competition)

International Documentary Festival of Navarra "Punto de Vista", Spain, 2008 (competition)

Thessaloniki IDFF, Greece, 2008 (competition)

Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2008 (competition)

Mediawave International Film and Music Festiwal, Hungary, 2008 (competition)

Moscow Film Festival, Russia, 2008 (screening)

Artfilm Festival, Trencianske Teplice/Trencin, Slovakia, 2008 (competition)

Melbourne Film Festival, Australia, 2008 (screening)

Ourense International Film Festival, Spain, 2008 (competition)

Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2008 (screening)

DOK Leipzig, Germany, 2008 (screening)

CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008 (screening)

17th Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico, 2014 (screening)

Trieste Film Festival, Italy , 2016 (screening)