This year three Polish films met in the competition of 18th Vilnius Film Festival – “The Whistle”, “Why you are here” by Laurence Walsh and “All souls’ day” by Aleksandra Terpińska. In total 25 films produced in Central Europe within two last years were screened in the short film competition. On the last festival’s day the main award went to Grzegorz Zariczny and his documentary “The Whistle”. This is the third statuette the film receives this year.
“The Whistle” is a story of Marcin – a young man that comes from a small village near Krakow. The film pictures him from three perspectives – his private life, his work life and his hobby – which is football. In each of these fields he seems to be quite clumsy. He doesn’t rush his way towards adulthood – which his mother doesn’t approve of. She expects him to make life-changing decisions, finding a better job and a wife. Marcin is also a burgeoning football referee – every week he has to bear unrefined comments and remarks about his work, made by players and fans alike of amateur teams. Film was produced in frames of “First documentary” programme executed by Munk Studio operating within the structures of Polish Filmmakers Association.
Vilnius Film Festival is the biggest film festival and one of the leading cultural events in Lithuania. Aside of the varied film programme and two main competitive sections for feature and short films, for four years now a special event for professionals called “Meeting point Vilnius” takes place. This year the audience of the festival reached 72,000 viewers.
18th edition of Vilnius Film Festival took place between 20th March and 3rd April.
More on the festival can be found at its official website