02-12-2010

International Premiers of TVP’s ”Panopticon” and “Born of the Sea” at Cairo IFF

By FNE Staff

    "Panopticon" - a debut feature by Barbara Kurzaj and Sławomir Shuty, and "Born of the Sea" by Andrzej Kotkowski will have their international premiers in competition at the 34th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (30 November- 9 December). One of the world's top rated festivals, Cairo IFF will present over 100 films from 69 countries. www.cairofilmfest.org.

    {mosimage}Produced by TVP (www.international.tvp.pl), "Panopticon" is an allegory on the dangers that await an ambitious individual on his way to realizing his dreams. The film, written and co-directed by one of the major talents of the new generation of writers Sławomir Shuty and one of the most recognized young actresses - Barbara Kurzaj ("Inferno"), is to be shown within the "digital film" competition along with 15 other productions from Italy, Japan, Philippines, USA, China, The Netherlands, UK, Thailand and other countries.

    A student who is on the brink of a new life, takes advantage of a chance that apparently blind luck gives him and ends up in what seems like a perfect, dream world. In this place dreams are fulfilled, but soon the spectacle shows its true nature. The paradise changes into a prison, in which reality blends with horror. The film might be perceived as social horror cinema - the settled order of things here plays the role of evil forces that endanger the hero's life.

    {mosimage}"The political transformation," says director Sławomir Shuty, "has indeed been only a change of a guard. We moved from under the superficially tutelary wings of socialism into a swamp where we are enraptured with rubbish and tinsel. I quickly realized, however, that the enemy is not in aggressive marketing - the constraiant often comes from the inside. Panopticon was an attempt at constructing a prefect prison. The genius of this concept lay in the fact that an indivdual can be both a prisoner and a guard at the same time. It is often life itself that confines a man to the shallow water of a cheap spectacle. Entangled in numeous problems and social situations, we cannot see the most important things."

    Produced by Profilm and TVP, "Born of the Sea" by Andrzej Kotkowski will be presented in the festival's main competition. Based on Stanisława Fleszarowa's book, "Born of the Sea" features the process of building of the city of Gdynia in the early 1920s. Against the background of the loves and struggles of few young characters, the film shows the work of engineers and thousands of people from all the levels of society that united in the effort of building a city that changed the political and economic situation of the Baltic Sea region.

    "Born of the Sea" is one of the 17 feature films to be shown in the Cairo IFF's main competition.

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