Jury of International Leipzig Festival For Documentary And Animated Film awarded 25 artworks – both documentaries and animations. Among them there were two Polish titles. In the International Documentary Film Competition the Silver Dove Award went to “Argentinian Lesson” directed by Wojciech Staroń. The second Polish film “Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Paweł Kloc was presented with the Honorary Mention in the International Young Talent Competition.
“Argentinian Lesson” is the cinematic journey that follows the filmmaker’s 8-year-old son from Poland to Argentina as he becomes acclimated to his new home and develops a friendship with a young girl that is both joyous and sorrowful. The film skillfully pushes the boundaries between fiction and documentary. Its filmmaker demonstrates a high degree of craft regarding the composition of his images and the rhythms of narrative editing. His finely-etched characters stay with us long after the movie’s final, surprisingly humorous image [DOK Leipzig].
“Phnom Penh Lullaby”accompanies an unequal couple on the fringe of Cambodia’s society in a striking and feverishly nervous way. It offers a few certainties only, but rather guides us in an area of a mysterious foreboding. Although the film subjects our current notions about partnership and parenthood to a radical stress test, it captures, again and again, fleeting moments of love, care and tenderness. The feeling of instability in the terrain, where the protagonists act, is transferred onto the viewer of this challenging work – we experience a documentary film as transgressive, subversive art [DOK Leipzig].
The awards for Polish filmmakers constituted the glorious ending of 54. edition of DOK Leipzig where both Polish documentaries and animations were shown. Besides Staroń and Kloc’s films in the competitive programme there was also one Polish documentary film – „Decrescendo” by Marta Minorowicz, and two animated films – “Gallery” by Robert Proch and “Noise” by Przemysław Adamski. What is more, Piotr Stasik’s “The End of Summer”, Marta Prus’s “Vakha and Magomed”, Tomasz Wolski’s “Doctors” and Paweł Wysoczański’s “We will be Happy one Day” were screened in the non-competitive programme.
More at: www.dok-leipzig.