- Occupation
Producer - Country
Poland
Białożej Michał
Yorzeit
At first you perceive him as an icon: Meir Moskovitch, about sixty years old orthodox Jew – with a long beard, black silk coat and yarmulke; he reminds a patriarch who has just escaped from a Bible. When Meir enters small Polish town Gorlice you have no doubts – this is a man who came here to visit his hometown. You are not the only one, who thinks so. The old inhabitants of the town turn to him in Polish asking if he was born here, and on what street his parents used to live. And you might think - this is another story about painful roots and Holocaust - well to some point yes, no one can avoid it, but this story is told from totally different perspective. Because Meir does not have any childhood memories of this particular Polish town, his family comes from Romania and Hungry and he does not speak Polish at all. So what does he looks for in Gorlice? What is this travel for? The answer is simple and here begins the story – Meir looks for holiness. But if you would ask me – is this town famous because of any holy place that Hasidim (orthodox Jews) visit, I would have to answer – no, Gorlice are completely forgotten town for Judaism. Everything what you can find on the destroyed Jewish cemetery are graves of three holy masters – Tzaddikim that nearly no one ever heard about them. The grave itself is a small, ugly building. And when sporadically some other Hasidim come to pray here (when Meir ask them to do so) Meir has to explain everything from the scratch about this virtuous men who are buried here. But Meir has come here every year for more than 20 years, he has brought his children and his friend, he plans to build a new beautiful building instead of existing one, he meets the Mayor of the city applies for European Union’s funds and he manages to convince more and more people that that’s unique place worth visiting worth prayer the place where you can touch holiness. What is absolutely fascinating about Meir is that he creates a “history” having such a poor visible evidence Meir being inspired by his inner faith and idealistic world sees Gorlice as a place of miracles and his every year journey is for him profound religious experience which feeds him with power to live his every day life in Israel. His joy of life helps him to eradicate painful and cruel reality.
On the Sea Bed
The film tells the story of an extraordinary place and its inhabitants. Aralsk is a city in western Kazakhstan. Formerly it was a busy port located on the shores of the Aral Sea, the fourth largest in the world and because of its enormity known as the sea. People lived there well. People had work in the fishing industry, they spent their free time by the sea. But everything changed when the Soviet planners decided to build irrigation canals for the cultivation of cotton in the desert, then called white gold. They sent two large rivers water the Amu Daryaand Syr-Darya in the field. Do not pay attention, that these rivers feed the Aral Sea water. The Soviet authorities then had other priorities. The effects do not have to wait long. The sea began to dry up and systematically move away from the city. Hard to believe that Aralsk is now almost 100 km from the sea. They resemble the rusted fishing boats lying in the middle of the desert, which was once a sea bottom. Fishing industry collapsed in the cityreigned enormous unemployment, exacerbated the climate, the city regularly sweep the dust storms carrying the salty dust containing large amounts of toxicsubstances, which in former times flowed into the sea.The film tells about the city now in the context of its history put forth by scientists and citizens. What do they do what they think of their plan.
At first you perceive him as an icon: Meir Moskovitch, about sixty years old orthodox Jew – with a long beard, black silk coat and yarmulke; he reminds a patriarch who has just escaped from a Bible. When Meir enters small Polish town Gorlice you have no doubts – this is a man who came here to visit his hometown. You are not the only one, who thinks so. The old inhabitants of the town turn to him in Polish asking if he was born here, and on what street his parents used to live. And you might think - this is another story about painful roots and Holocaust - well to some point yes, no one can avoid it, but this story is told from totally different perspective. Because Meir does not have any childhood memories of this particular Polish town, his family comes from Romania and Hungry and he does not speak Polish at all. So what does he looks for in Gorlice? What is this travel for? The answer is simple and here begins the story – Meir looks for holiness. But if you would ask me – is this town famous because of any holy place that Hasidim (orthodox Jews) visit, I would have to answer – no, Gorlice are completely forgotten town for Judaism. Everything what you can find on the destroyed Jewish cemetery are graves of three holy masters – Tzaddikim that nearly no one ever heard about them. The grave itself is a small, ugly building. And when sporadically some other Hasidim come to pray here (when Meir ask them to do so) Meir has to explain everything from the scratch about this virtuous men who are buried here. But Meir has come here every year for more than 20 years, he has brought his children and his friend, he plans to build a new beautiful building instead of existing one, he meets the Mayor of the city applies for European Union’s funds and he manages to convince more and more people that that’s unique place worth visiting worth prayer the place where you can touch holiness. What is absolutely fascinating about Meir is that he creates a “history” having such a poor visible evidence Meir being inspired by his inner faith and idealistic world sees Gorlice as a place of miracles and his every year journey is for him profound religious experience which feeds him with power to live his every day life in Israel. His joy of life helps him to eradicate painful and cruel reality.
On the Sea Bed
The film tells the story of an extraordinary place and its inhabitants. Aralsk is a city in western Kazakhstan. Formerly it was a busy port located on the shores of the Aral Sea, the fourth largest in the world and because of its enormity known as the sea. People lived there well. People had work in the fishing industry, they spent their free time by the sea. But everything changed when the Soviet planners decided to build irrigation canals for the cultivation of cotton in the desert, then called white gold. They sent two large rivers water the Amu Daryaand Syr-Darya in the field. Do not pay attention, that these rivers feed the Aral Sea water. The Soviet authorities then had other priorities. The effects do not have to wait long. The sea began to dry up and systematically move away from the city. Hard to believe that Aralsk is now almost 100 km from the sea. They resemble the rusted fishing boats lying in the middle of the desert, which was once a sea bottom. Fishing industry collapsed in the cityreigned enormous unemployment, exacerbated the climate, the city regularly sweep the dust storms carrying the salty dust containing large amounts of toxicsubstances, which in former times flowed into the sea.The film tells about the city now in the context of its history put forth by scientists and citizens. What do they do what they think of their plan.
Associated producer, production managerborn in Warsaw (Poland), graduated biology at the Warsaw Uniwesity and film and TV production at Film and Radio Faculty of the Silesian Univesity, he gained his experience working on productions of commercials, feature films as well documetaries.
2011 – The Storyteller, production manager, dir. M. Sauter, Prod: SF Kalejdoskop 2011 – Wiera Gran, production manager, dir. M. Zmarz-Koczanowicz, Prod.: SF Largo2010 – Wintertochter, production co-ordinator, dir. J. Schmid, Prod.: Pokromski Studio, Slicht und Ergreifend GmbH2010 - Scrub Oddysey, production manager, dir. P. Ferdek, Prod: ASF Kalejdoskop2010 – Father, Son and the Holy Cow, line producer, production co-ordinator, dir. R. Węgrzyn, Prod.: Café Production, Black Forest Films GmbH2009 – The City of No God, production manager, dir. J. Petrycki, Prod: WFDiF2009 – Mall Girls, line producer, dir. K. Rosłaniec, Prod: WFDiF2009 – Kruzenshtern, production manager, dir. M. Cuske, Prod: Arkana Studio2008 – Poste Restante, production manager, dir. M. Łoziński, Prod: Arkana Studio
Kronika Film Studio
Chelmska 21
00-724 Warsaw
Chelmska 21
00-724 Warsaw
Arkana Studio
ul. Chelmska
00-724 Warszawa
ul. Chelmska
00-724 Warszawa