16-06-2011

TVP’s Polish Films Compete at Karlovy Vary IFF

By FNE Staff

    WARSAW: Two TV Polska (TVP, www.tvp.pl) films, Heritage by Andrzej Barański and Declaration of Immortality by Marcin Koszałka, have been selected for the Karlovy Vary IFF's (1-9 July 2011, www.kviff.com) competition sections. The festival will present 179 feature films.

    The new Andrzej Barański film, screening in the Main Competition, was produced by Skorpion Arte and TVP. It is an adaptation of the novel by the young Polish writer Zbigniew Pasternak. The main character Zbyszek is expelled from his studies of law and goes back home to a small village in a remote part of Poland. There he is known by the nickname "Prince" that he earned because of the stories his late father, a drunkard, used to tell about being the descendants of an old Slavic clan of Vistulans. This assumed princely origin separated Zbyszek from colleagues in the past. Now, when he returns home humiliated by his numerous failures, the adversity brings him closer to the surrounding poor souls, so similar to himself. The film's screenings in Karlovy Vary will be its International Premiere.

    Produced by TVP1, Declaration of Immortality is a portrait of Piotr "Mad" Korczak - a legend among Polish climbers, who originated the whole range of various techniques of "conquering" the walls and was the first to begin to consider climbing as a sport. Now Marcin Koszalka, a film director and one of Piotr's former followers, asks him the inevitable questions about the impact of age: How does he deal with the passage of time? How does he perceive youth and growing old? What does he expects his end will look like? Piotr "Mad" Korczak's insights on the existential nature of physical activity, and at the same time on a nature of filmmaking, form a pedestal over which spreads a magnificent and breathtaking picture of human ability to climb the highest peaks and to conquer the most difficult mountains.

    The film was recently awarded at the Tampere Short Film Festival, Trento Mountain Film Festival and got the prestigious Silver Hugo Prize for the documentary film in the Hugo TV Awards 2011 in Chicago. It will be presented in Karlovy Vary's Documentary Film Competition.