- Occupation
Director - Country
Poland
Dammas Jacob
Polish Illusions
A multi-plot story about an American pilot who has ‘gone wild East’ in Poland, his young Polish apprentice, and an aging magician fighting for his career. All three men try to find their place in a time of change in small-town Poland. Darłowo is a typical Polish seaside resort, but some of its inhabitants are not typical at all. Mark Buller (51), a retired US Army helicopter pilot, has settled here in search of freedom. He has bought a nice house with property large enough for his army truck collection. The only thing that is missing in his life is a wife. Mark finds help in young local Michał (20), alias ‘Mike’, who dreams of leaving to a far-away country like ‘America’. Instead America has come to Mike, and Mike accompanies the American in his search for a wife as Mark’s friend, translator and driver. Eventually young Mike has to reconsider his own future in the town. For almost 50 years Jan Konstantynow (82), alias ‘Lucjano’, has been a part of Darłowo’s cultural programme. But the aging, yet stubborn, magician must face that the times have changed. His stage, the local culture house, has been taken over by a new director who favors more contemporary forms of entertainment than the slightly forgotten art of illusions. While Mark, Mike and Jan are struggling to find their place in the town, Darłowo is going through a time of modernization. New ways of tourism have replaced fishing and farming as the main source of income.
A Cupboard
In the late 1960s, four strong men from a local bar in Wroclaw carried a 150 kg German-made vitrine from one side of Zgodna street to the other. A very personal film on the mysterious Polish "March of 1968".
Documents
It is possible - with three passports only - to tell the story about a complex historical and political event? No. Documents show a personal fragment of what came out of the dramatic event of March 1968 in Poland: when the communist party leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka initiated an anti-Semitic campaign forcing the majority of Jewish community to leave Poland and give up Polish citizenship. Three generations reflect on their past and present identity, part of which still "exists" in a paper document.
A multi-plot story about an American pilot who has ‘gone wild East’ in Poland, his young Polish apprentice, and an aging magician fighting for his career. All three men try to find their place in a time of change in small-town Poland. Darłowo is a typical Polish seaside resort, but some of its inhabitants are not typical at all. Mark Buller (51), a retired US Army helicopter pilot, has settled here in search of freedom. He has bought a nice house with property large enough for his army truck collection. The only thing that is missing in his life is a wife. Mark finds help in young local Michał (20), alias ‘Mike’, who dreams of leaving to a far-away country like ‘America’. Instead America has come to Mike, and Mike accompanies the American in his search for a wife as Mark’s friend, translator and driver. Eventually young Mike has to reconsider his own future in the town. For almost 50 years Jan Konstantynow (82), alias ‘Lucjano’, has been a part of Darłowo’s cultural programme. But the aging, yet stubborn, magician must face that the times have changed. His stage, the local culture house, has been taken over by a new director who favors more contemporary forms of entertainment than the slightly forgotten art of illusions. While Mark, Mike and Jan are struggling to find their place in the town, Darłowo is going through a time of modernization. New ways of tourism have replaced fishing and farming as the main source of income.
A Cupboard
In the late 1960s, four strong men from a local bar in Wroclaw carried a 150 kg German-made vitrine from one side of Zgodna street to the other. A very personal film on the mysterious Polish "March of 1968".
Documents
It is possible - with three passports only - to tell the story about a complex historical and political event? No. Documents show a personal fragment of what came out of the dramatic event of March 1968 in Poland: when the communist party leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka initiated an anti-Semitic campaign forcing the majority of Jewish community to leave Poland and give up Polish citizenship. Three generations reflect on their past and present identity, part of which still "exists" in a paper document.
Train of Desire
This is a film about observing Europe for a short precise time in one place that at the same time is moving through time and space. The place is a particular train that becomes a vivid metaphor of how Europe is part of the same journey, going side by side, for good and for worse, and yet not really together. My moving microcosm on tracks starts in the East, in the Ukraine and ends in the West, in the Netherlands. Onboard this one long train and along its 2731 km route, each of the countries are represented by the different wagons, their colors and size, their staff and passengers, the uniforms, luggage, dialogues and habits, the different purposes of being part of the train, and the changing landscapes, towns and station buildings.The film takes the audience onboard the train accompanied by the following (yet to be casted) characters, who are all taking part in the same train trip:a young Ukrainian conductor who is going on her first international duty with the prestigious, yet demanding Kiev-Amsterdam; a Belarusian custom’s officer who loves the authority of his job on the border between Belarus and Poland; a Russian pensionist and casual cigarettes smugler on his way to visit his son in Berlin; a Polish railway worker who is joining and separating international train wagons and still dreams of his first trip abroad; a German fine art student who is afraid of flying but loves traveling by night train between her home in Cologne and school in Warsaw; a Danish business traveller and womanizer who likes flirting with the female passengers especially from Copenhagen to Cologne; a Czech cook and amateur-philosopher in his restaurant wagon on wheels; and a hot- tempered, Europe-skeptical Dutch train machinist who pulls the chain of small Europe behind him.
This is a film about observing Europe for a short precise time in one place that at the same time is moving through time and space. The place is a particular train that becomes a vivid metaphor of how Europe is part of the same journey, going side by side, for good and for worse, and yet not really together. My moving microcosm on tracks starts in the East, in the Ukraine and ends in the West, in the Netherlands. Onboard this one long train and along its 2731 km route, each of the countries are represented by the different wagons, their colors and size, their staff and passengers, the uniforms, luggage, dialogues and habits, the different purposes of being part of the train, and the changing landscapes, towns and station buildings.The film takes the audience onboard the train accompanied by the following (yet to be casted) characters, who are all taking part in the same train trip:a young Ukrainian conductor who is going on her first international duty with the prestigious, yet demanding Kiev-Amsterdam; a Belarusian custom’s officer who loves the authority of his job on the border between Belarus and Poland; a Russian pensionist and casual cigarettes smugler on his way to visit his son in Berlin; a Polish railway worker who is joining and separating international train wagons and still dreams of his first trip abroad; a German fine art student who is afraid of flying but loves traveling by night train between her home in Cologne and school in Warsaw; a Danish business traveller and womanizer who likes flirting with the female passengers especially from Copenhagen to Cologne; a Czech cook and amateur-philosopher in his restaurant wagon on wheels; and a hot- tempered, Europe-skeptical Dutch train machinist who pulls the chain of small Europe behind him.
Jacob Dammas is a graduate from the documentary program at The Andrzej Wajda School of Film Directing in Warsaw. He has also completed a M.A. in Communication Studies at Roskilde University, after having spent semesters at Ryerson Polytechnic University (Toronto), at Concordia University (Montreal) studying documentary film history and propaganda, and at Humboldt University in Berlin, studying media sociology. Since 2000, Jacob has been working with documentary filmmaking. Over the past five years, he and Helge Renner have collaborated on many creative projects, and together they authored and produced a culture and cooking talk show and a film magazine for N-TV Copenhagen.
2011 Pomeranian Illusions, documentary, feature length;
2009 ABCinema, documentary, 28 min.;
2007 Kredens, documentary, 26 min;
2006 Documents, documentary, 10 min.
Ex Oriente Babies - 2011