DOMINO EFFECT

EFEKT DOMINA

Abkhazia is a forgotten war torn country close to Crimea-Ukraine. Perched on the shores of the Black Sea, the unrecognized splinter state used to be a beach getaway for lucky Soviets, but palatial hotels now sit in post-communist ruin. For Abkhazian Sports Minister Rafael, however, everything’s looking up. He’s hopeful that the mysterious Domino World Championship he’s organizing will finally put his beloved motherland on the world’s radar and madly in love, he’s willing to overlook that his dear wife is a foreigner. A proud Russian opera singer, Natasha gave up her home and custody of her Russian daughter to take a chance on a new life. But when locals won’t warm to her and troubles cloud Rafael’s “sports” event, their bright future and even national pride start to wobble.From the Oscar nominated team of “Rabbit à la Berlin” comes a visually stunning Black Sea black comedy – giving us a profound look at life under Russia’s spell.

Genre: Dokumentalny
Country: Germany
Running time: 76
Year: 2014

Director: Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski

Script: Piotr Rosołowski, Elwira Niewiera

DOP: Piotr Rosołowski

Music: Maciej Cieślak

Editing: Andrzej Dąbrowski, Karoline Schulz

Production company: Otter Films, zero one film

Trailer

About the directors:

ELWIRA NIEWIERA is a Polish/German director and screenwriter of the well-known documen-tary films Domino Effect, The Prince and the Dybbuk and The Hamlet Syndrome. Winner of many international awards, among others Grand Prix-Semian de la Critiqe for the Best Film at 75th Locarno Film Festival, Best Documentary on Cinema at the 74th Venice Film Festival, Polish Film Academy Award for Best Documentary, Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig Film Festival, Young Ger-man Cinema Award 2019 and the American Chicken & Egg Award 2021. In her artistic work, she focuses primarily on political, social and cultural transformations in Eastern Europe. Elwira is a member of the European Film Academy.

Filmography:

2007 – Bulgarian Stories

2014 – Domino Effect

2017 – The Prince and the Dybbuk

2022 – The Hamlet Syndrome

PIOTR ROSOLOWSKI is a Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer based in Berlin. He graduated from the Katowice Film School and was awarded an Academy of Media Arts scholarship in Cologne. Piotr co-directed together with Elwira Niewiera already three successful feature documentaries: Domino Effect prized at the Krakow Film Festival and DOK Leipzig, The Prince and the Dybbuk awarded with the Lion for Best Documentary on Cinema at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and The Hamlet Syndrome honored with Grand Prix Semaine de la critique at the 75th Locarno Film Festival. Piotr also works as a director of photography, he shot many awarded feature and short films, among them: On the line dir. Reto Caffi – Academy Award-nominated short fiction, Rabbit a la Berlin dir. Bartek Konopka – Academy Award-nominated short documentary, and The
wall of Shadows dir. Eliza Kubarska – nominated for the German Camera Award and honored with the annual prize of the Polish Society of Cinematographers.

Filmography:

2013 – The Art of Disappearing

2014 – Domino Effect

2017 – The Prince and the Dybbuk

2022 – The Hamlet Syndrome

At festivals:

21st Hot Docs - Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, 2014 (competition)

Visions du Reel 2014, Switzerland, 2014 (Interreligiuos Prize)

54th Krakow Film Festival, Poland, 2014 (Golden Horn)

11th Yerevan International Film Festival GOLDEN APRICOT, Armenia, 2014 (Silver Apricot Award)

28th Pärnu International Documentary and Antropological FF, Estonia, 2014 (competition)

13th DokuFest International Documentary and Short FF, Kosovo, 2014 (International Documentary Competition / Feature Dox - Winner)

Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary, 2014 (Let Me Follow the Call section Winner)

Astra Film Festival, Romania, 2014 (competition)

9th Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taiwan, 2014 (competition)

21st Golden Boll Film Festival, Turkey, 2014 (competition)

Festival Ânûû-rû Âboro, New Caledonia, 2014 (competition)

11th Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, Lithuania, 2014 (screening)

52nd Vienna International Film Festival, Austria , 2014 (screening)

16th Bergen International Film Festival, Norway, 2014 (screening)

8th Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, Irland, 2014 (screening)

57th DOK. Leipzig, Germany, 2014 (Golden Dove for an Outstanding German Documentary)

18th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia, 2014 (competition)

IDFA 2014, The Netherlands, 2014 (screening)

14th International Film Festival Watch Docs, Poland, 2014 (screening)

DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Finland, 2015 (competition)

Documentary Fortnight: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, USA, 2015 (screening)

12th Neisse Film Festival, Germany, 2015 (screening)

International Film Festival Nancy - Lorraine, France, 2015 (competition)