ARGENTINIAN LESSON

ARGENTYŃSKA LEKCJA

Argentinean Lesson with its visual aesthetics, its rhythm and composition parallels a narration of a fiction film. This is a intimate story of friendship between two kids from completely different worlds. 8 years old Janek comes to an abandoned village in north Argentina where his mother supposed to be a teacher. Janek is following his new friend, Marcia who fights alone through the family crisis, mother’s mental disease and father’s absence. Working on yerba plantations and brick factory, he enters the fascinating world of child fantasy, and is introduced to the bitterness of the childhood prematurely contaminated with the problems of the grown-ups. This is a film with a social content, but after all a love story with many levels where much emotion is to be read in the faces of the characters. Dialogue is sparse, images and sounds give the information needed, to be step by step involved in a drama of “adulthood”.

FILM REPRESENTED BY KRAKOW FILM FOUNDATION

Genre: Dokumentalny
Country: Polska
Running time: 56
Year: 2011

Director: Wojciech Staroń

Script: Wojciech Staroń

DOP: Wojciech Staroń

Editing: Wojciech Staroń, Zbigniew Osiński

Production company: TVP S.A., Staroń Film

Trailer

About the director:

Cinematographer and film director. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 61st Berlinale for his cinematography in “El Premio”, directed by P. Markovitch. His directorial debut “Siberian Lesson” (1998) was awarded at festivals in Krakow, at IDFA and Cinema du Reel. “Argentine Lesson” (2011) won awards at the Cinema Eye Honor, Krakow Film Festival, DokLeipzig and Camerimage, among others. The film “Brothers” (2015) won at the Semaine de la Critique in Locarno. As a cinematographer, he has collaborated with Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze on “Plac Zbawiciela” (Golden Frog, Polish Camerimage Competition 2006), “Papusza” (Manaki Brothers Bronze Camera 2013), with Lidia Duda on “Entangled”(Kraków, Cinematography Award), “Chicks” (PSC Award 2023), with Diego Lerman on “Refugiado” (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Cannes 2014), M. Mubarak on “Autobiography” (Venice Orizzonti 2022), with V. Kairis on “January” (Tribeca 2022 winner) and with L. Achour on “Red Path” (Locarno, Camerimage 2024).

Filmography:

2025 – Passion According to Agnieszka

2015 – Brothers

2011 – Argentinian Lesson

2001- El Misionero

1998 – Siberian Lesson

At festivals:

EDOC Festival Quito 2012, Ecuador, (screening)

11th Era New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland, 2011 (screening)

54th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film - DOK Leipzig, 2011 (Silver Dove Award)

Minsk International Film Festival Listapad, Belarus, 2011 (Grand Prix)

52nd Festival dei Popoli, Italy, 2011 (Best Director Award)

15th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia, 2011 (competition)

19th PLUS CAMERIMAGE, Poland, 2011 (Special Mention in the Short Documentary Films Competition)

Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, China, 2011 (Grand Prix)

DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Finland, 2012 (screening)

MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, USA, 2012 (screening)

True/False Film Fest, USA, 2012 (competition)

One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2012 (screening)

Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Ukraine, 2012 (Main Prize Docu/Life)

Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Ukraine, 2012 (screening)

The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul MSP Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2012 (competition)

Norwegian Documentary Festival 2012, Norway, 2012 (screening)

27. International Documentary Film Festival in Munich, Germany, 2012 (screening)

BELDOCS International Documentary Film Festival, Serbia , 2012 (competition)

Rooftop Films, USA, 2012 (screening)

LET'S CEE Film Festival, Austria , 2012 (screening)

Make Dox Creative Documentary Film Festival, Macedonia, 2012 (Onion Award for the Best International Film )

Silverdocs Festival, USA, 2012 (competition)

DOKUFEST, Kosovo, 2012 (screening)

Baltic Sea Forum For Documentaries, Latvia, 2012 (competition)

Golden Boll International Film Festival, Turkey, 2012 (competition)

Batumi International Art-House Film Festival, Georgia, 2012 (Best Doc Film)

International Documentary Film Festival “Flahertiana 2012”, Russia, 2012 (screening)

Detour. International Travel Film Festival, Italy, 2012 (Best Film)

7th Miradasdoc Festival, Spain, 2012 (Best Documentary Film - Special Mention)

24. Polish Film Festival in America, 2012 (screening)

"Cinema Verite" Iran International Documentary FilmFestival, Iran, 2012 (competition)

Film Festival Cottbus 2012, Germany, 2012 (screening)

Pravo Ljudski Film Festival Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, 2012 (screening)

RIDM – Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal, Canada, 2012 (Best International Medium-Lenght Film)

DocsDF 2012, Mexico, 2012 (screening)

21st dokumentART Film Festival, Germany, 2012 (The Latücht-Award of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

27th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Argentina, 2012 (screening)

Ambulante Documentary Film Festival 2013, Mexico, 2013 (competition)

Dok Leipzig Lake Festival, India, 2013 (screening)

31st Uruguay International Film Festival, 2013 (screening)

American Documentrary Film Festival, USA, 2013 (competition)

Panazorean International Film Festival, Azores, 2013 (International Prize- best long/medium feature-length film )

Millenium International Documentary Film Festival 2013, Belgium, 2013 (competition)

Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, Lithuania, 2013 (screening)

Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival, Germany, 2013 (screening)

CineMigrante Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2013 (competition)

1st Film Festival Buenos Aires Polonia, Argentina, 2013 (screening)

CineMigrante, Colombia, 2014 (competition)

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

iDOCS International Documentary Film Forum, China, 2014 (competition)

56th Festival dei Popoli IDFF, Italy, 2015 (screening)