Warsaw International Film Festival 2011

The refreshingly unassuming, low-key and warm-spirited Warsaw International Film Festival took place for the 27th year from October 7 to 16, again under the sure hand of director Stefan Laudyn. The FIPRESCI competition focused on debut features from Eastern Europe. Screenings alternated between the Kinoteka, located in a multi-storeyed shopping complex, and the Multikino Złote Tarasy, within the hulking Stalinist-era Palace of Culture and Science — a particularly fitting pair of venues for a programme including films such as Russia's challenging, divisive Twilight Portrait (from director Angelina Nikonova) and  Land Of Oblivion (Michale Boganim's Chernobyl drama) which struggle to reconcile the legacy of the Soviet era after the shaky transition to capitalism.

"Avé" (Konstantin Bojanov)

Other films, such as Polish director Greg Zglinski's moral fable of redemption Courage (a strong reflection of his nation's Catholic roots), Anca Damian's animated documentary Crulic — The Path to Beyond (charting the case of a wrongly imprisoned Romanian migrant on hunger strike), and Czech director Tomas Lunak's beautifully rendered graphic-novel adaptation Alois Nebel (in which a border-town train dispatcher has hallucinations about a dark World War II past) added further dimension to an intriguing, multi-faceted programme and its reflection of the region. Not all the films were weighed down with heavy social issues and a sense of historical responsibility. Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov's tender, effortless Ave, focused on a tentative road-trip romance between two teens, could arguably have taken place anywhere — but was certainly no worse for it, as it teased new depth and nuance from a familiar form.

Warsaw (Poland, International Film Festival, October 7-16, 2011, www.wff.pl). Prize: Avé by Konstantin Bojanov (Bulgaria, 2011). Jury: Carmen Gray, Great Britain ("Sight and Sound", "Little White Lies", "Dazed and Confused", "Under/Current"), Dean Kotiga, Croatia ("Hrvatski Filmski Ijetopis", "Filmoskop"), Aleksandra Salwa, Poland.

Print source: Production company: Camera Ltd / KB Films.

Reports

"Do You Believe Everything?" Dean Kotiga examines the different levels of FIPRESCI Prize winner Avé by Konstantin Bojanov.
A Film Not Black or White. Carmen Gray asks director Angelina Nikonova about her feature debut Twilight Portrait.
Family Matters? Two films which screened at the 27th Warsaw Film Festival showed that the family is no longer held sacred according to Aleksandra Salwa.

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