OUR CURSE

NASZA KLĄTWA

The film is a personal statement of the director and his wife, who have to deal with a very rare and incurable disease of their newborn child – the Ondine’s Curse (also known as CCHS, congenital central hypoventilation syndrome). People affected with this disease stop breathing during sleep and require lifetime mechanical ventilation on a ventilator. The film shows the first few months of living together after the diagnosis. At the beginning, the child is still in hospital, but soon he comes home, with all his medical equipment. The film shows the process of taming the fear by the parents and gradually adopting to the new situation.

  • Genre: Dokumentalny
  • Country: Poland
  • Running time: 30
  • Year: 2013

Director: Tomasz Śliwiński

Script: Tomasz Śliwiński

DOP: Tomasz Śliwiński, Magda Hueckel

Editing: Tomasz Śliwiński, Justyna Król

Production company: Warszawska Szkoła Filmowa

Trailer

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About the director:

Tomasz Śliwiński

Tomasz Śliwiński

born in 1979. Student at Warsaw Film School Directing Department, Graduate of the Faculty of ETI and Faculty of Management and Economics at Gdansk University of Technology. His short film “Our Curse” (2013) has been nominated to Pardi di Domani award at Locarno Film Festival and received special mention at New Horizons (Nowe Horyzonty) IFF. His debut short film “The Curse” (2011) has been presented at many film festivals, such as New Horizons and Etiuda&Anima, where he received a distinction of jury FICC. Together with Magda Hueckel (as Muzungu-art group) he creates a subjective, personal photographic document from various travels all over the world. Their works were exhibited at Tate Britain Gallery in London, among others. Currently he lives and works in Warsaw.

At festivals:

66th Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, 2013 (competition)

29th Warsaw Film Festival, Poland, 2013 (screening)

IDFA - International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2013, The Netherlands, 2013 (Nomination for IDFA Award)

International Film Festival Watch Docs - Human Rights in Film , 2013 (screening)

One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2014 (competition)

19th Vilnius International Film Festival, Lithuania, 2014 (competition)

23rd Aspen Shorts Fest, USA, 2014 (Best Documentary Award)

Indielisboa 2014, Portugal, 2014 (Audience Award)

DOXA - Documentary Film Festival, Canada, 2014 (competition)

Doc/Fest Sheffield, UK, 2014 (Student Doc Award)

Documentarist, Turkey, 2014 (screening)

AFI Docs, USA, 2014 (competition)

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

Monterrey International FF, Mexico, 2014 (Best International Short Documentary)

11th Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary, 2014 (competition)

Look& Roll Film Festival, Switzerland, 2014 (Denk an mich Foundation Award)

22nd Raindance Film Fesival, UK, 2014 (Best Documentary Short)

CNEX Documentary Film Festival , Taiwan, 2014 (competition)

Astra Film Festival 2014, Romania, 2014 (competition)

Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Best Student Film)

9th Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market, Japan, 2014 (Best Documentary)

IndieCork Festival, Ireland, 2014 (Special Mention)

Woodstock Film Festival, USA, 2014 (The Diane Seligman Award for Best Short Documentary)

Heartland Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Award)

7th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Nature Scientific Merit Award)

VERZIO Documentary Film Festival, Hungary, 2014 (competition)

International Bosphorus Film Festival 2014, Turkey, 2014 (screening)

Sleepwalkers International Film Festival 2014, Estonia, 2014 (Special Mention)

12th Bogota International Short Film Festival, Colombia, 2014 (Best International Short Documentary)

The Other Film Festival, USA, 2014 (competition)

12th International Festival Signes de Nuit, France, 2014 (competition)

11th Talca International Short Film Festival, Chile, 2015 (competition)

Irvine International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (Best College/University Documentary )

11th annual Boulder International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (Best Short Documentary)

39th Cleveland International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)

14th Ashland Independent Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)

Newport Beach Film Festival 2015, USA, 2015 (competition)

West Chester Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)

Guanajuato International FF 2015, Mexico, 2015 (screening)

12th Jameson CineFest Miskolc IFF, Hungary, 2015 (screening)

In Te Cinema Festival, Italy, 2015 (screening)

IDFF "Flahertiana", Russia, 2015 (screening)

International Human Rights Film Festival In Albania, 2015 (competition)

Crested Butte Film Festival, USA, 2015 (Best Short Documentary)

8th CinEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival, Luxembourg, 2015 (competition)

THESS International Short Film Festival 2015, Greece, 2015 (Cinematic Achievement Award)

Stockfish Film Festival, Iceland, 2016 (screening)

22nd International Short Film Week Regensburg, Germany, 2016 (screening)

Bogotá Short Film Festival BOGOshorts, Colombia, 2017 (screening)

Film Festival Film Night at the Castle 2018, Slovakia, 2018 (screening)

42nd Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France, 2020 (screening)