25-02-2014

Eighty and hitchhiking to the world's end and back again

    Polish director Lidia Duda, who won the Best Director Award at One World 2013 for her film Entangled, will present a new remarkable documentary at One World 2014. The main character of Everything is possible is 80 years old Teresa, who escapes her nonfunctional marriage through adventurous hitchhiking round the world. The film will be introduced by both the director herself and the protagonist, Teresa.

    With a giant backpack on her back and a burdock leaf hat, somewhere in the Balkans, a strange figure is approaching the river. It is Teresa Bancewicz from Poland, who decided to go and have a swim on her way to Srebrenica.  A few moments later, she sets off for hitchhiking again, looking forward to all kinds of interesting people she might meet on her journey. Although she can speak broken German only, thanks to her spontaneity and temperament, she can make her point clear to the truck drivers, residents of the Roma settlement in Slovak, music-lovers in a Serbian village or the handsome young Greek Janis, whom she fell madly in love with a few years ago. In the last 13 years, Teresa visited more than sixty countries, all with her income being less than 200 EUR per month. 

    The main impulse for Teresa’s  extremely low-cost routes to Europe, Asia and America, was the recommendation of her psychologist, who had treated her for four years of severe depressions caused not only by the tragic death of her son Milosz, but also by a dysfunctional marriage with her childhood sweetheart Jan. A half-century-long relationship gradually faded, so after being told to change her lifestyle and travel, Teresa did not hesitate long and went out to get to know the world. "Travelling is the best medicine for me and keeps me in a good shape,"  says Teresa over a glass of rakie to Serbian villagers. She is „on the road“ for about three months every year, then spends the rest of it in a small house in the Polish village Przejeslaw in a quiet and estranged coexistence with her husband.

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