On Friday November 8, XX edition of Listapad Film Festival held in Minsk ended. The Jury of Documentary Film Competition which consisted of Yuri Goroulev (Belarus), Vita Zelakeviciute (Poland), Audrius Stonys (Lithuania), Virgiliu Margineanu (Moldova) and Nikolai Izvolov (Russia) decided that “Father and Son” directed by Paweł Łoziński is the best film of the competition and awarded it with the Grand-Prix prize for the Best Documentary Film.
“Father and son” is an experiment of two directors Paweł Łozinski and Marcel Łozinski. Paweł during a road trip asks his father many questions about the past, that are sometimes difficult and painful. Marcel, in turn, recalls his painful childhood, his mother’s tragic death and his own choices, that had a significant impact on Paweł’s life. Shared expedition, under the eye of cameras, is an opportunity to confront memories of father and son as well as their different views on the world.
Minsk International Film Festival Listapad has been held for 20 years. It presents a wide variety of world cinema – in the program there are competition sections for feature films, documentaries and films for children and youth as well as national film schools’ competition. Furthermore, there are numerous out of competition sections. This year, beside Paweł Łoziński’s film, Polish documentary cinematography was also represented by “Man at War” by Jacek Bławut and “Survive Afganistan” by Małgorzata Imielska, which were shown in a special programme presenting Krakow Film Festival. KFF’s director – Krzysztof Gierat – led a master class in Minsk.
It is worth mentioning that the film which won plenty awards in Minsk is “Ida” by Paweł Pawlikowski – beside the Grand-Prix prize for Best Film, “Ida” won also Yury Marukhin Memorial Award for Best Cinematography and Agata Kulesza won an award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
The full list of awarded films can be found here.