Pawel Maslona’s second feature Scarborn (Kos) won the Grand Prix - Golden Lion at the 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia whose closing ceremony saw the Polish film community express their solidarity with Agnieszka Holland in the light of the vociferous political campaign against her and her film The Green Border.
In his acceptance speech, Maslona spoke out against the “awful hatred” directed at Holland in recent weeks and noted that, despite Poland being a country with a strong Christian faith, “there is no God in this hatred and disrespect”.
Produced by Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham of Aurum Film, Scarborn is set in the spring of 1794 when General Tadeusz ‘Kos’ Kosciuszko returns to Poland to start an uprising against the Russians by mobilising the Polish nobility and peasants. A ruthless Russian cavalry captain Dunin wants to capture the general at all costs before he causes a national rebellion.
The film also picked up individual awards for editing (Piotr Kmiecik) and makeup (Aneta Brzozowska) and supporting actor (to Robert Wieckiewicz ex aequo with Tomasz Schuchardt in Doppelgänger. The Double), and Brzozowska was the first winner coming on stage to mention Holland in the ceremony broadcast live by TVP Kultura and TVP Kultura 2.
Her call of “Let’s be together with Agnieszka Holland!” was met with enthusiastic applause by the audience, several of whom were wearing T-shirts with the words “Agnieszka Polland” as a sign of protest at the current government’s actions.
Other presenters and winners followed suit during the two-hour event, including a local opposition politician who, on announcing the award for best production design, said that he was “very happy with the success of Polish films in Gdynia and Venice” in clear allusion to The Green Border’s jury prize at the Lido.
On receiving his award for best direction of Doppelgänger. The Double, Jan Holoubek finished his acceptance speech with “Agnieszka Holland. I hope you know you are not alone,” while Marcin Lenarczyk - winner of the award for best sound for Dreams Full Of Smoke - remarked that “the behaviour of our government is scandalous”.
Meanwhile, Robert Wieckiewicz, who was named best actor in leading role for his performance in Holland’s In Darkness at Gdynia in 2012, called on the audience in the auditorium and those watching at home to bring about a change to his country at the forthcoming national elections on October 15.
Festival winners
The main competition jury, headed by the veteran film and theatre director Filip Bajon, presented this year’s Silver Lions statuettes to Olga Chajdas’ post-punk psychological drama Imago, which also garnered the awards for best music (Andrzej Smolik) and best actress in a leading role (Lena Góra).
However, the largest number of awards - five each - went to two films that had been featured in the Works in Progress section of the Polish Days in Wroclaw this July: Grzegorz Debowski’s political and social drama Next To Nothing, and Jan Holoubek’s Doppelgänger. The Double.
Debowski’s feature-length debut produced by Studio Munka received the Golden Claw for its boldness of form and content in the Visions Apart category as well as individual awards for screenplay (Debowski), directing debut (Debowski), supporting actress (Agnieszka Kwietniewska ex aequo with Kinga Preis for Feast of Fire), and for lead actor (Artur Paczesny).
Holoubek’s second feature as a director, which was produced by TVN Warner Bros. Discovery and will be released in Polish cinemas by Next Film, was presented with the awards for directing, cinematography, art direction, costume design, and supporting actor.
The gala in Gdynia’s Musical Theatre also saw the Audience Award being handed to director Hugh Welchman and producer Sean Babbitt for The Peasants which also took home a Special Award “for unique film form” for co-directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman.
And there were standing ovations when the Platinum Lions statuette for lifetime achievement went to the veteran production designer Allan Starski whose credits include Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List for which he received the Oscar in 1993.
This year’s edition of the Polish Film Festival was the first under the new artistic director Joanna Lipinska, the first woman appointed to the post in the festival’s history.
The festival’s five-day Industry Programme included a presentation by Eurimages’ executive director Susan Newman-Baudais of the fund’s new selection process and a panel with Xavier Henry-Rashid (Film Republic), Dirk Schürhoff (Beta Cinema) and Katarzyna Siniarska (New Europe Film Sales) about working with sales agents and opportunities for the international distribution of Polish films.
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