- Occupation
Producer, Director - Country
Poland
Kopczyński Krzysztof
13-year old Alehan and his brother Amir spend several hours everyday hunched over a chessboard. It’s his biggest dream to become the next World Chess Champion. The first step on the way to become a grandmaster is a tournament in Chess-City. The event. Full of young players, allows us to see the actors and creators as well as expose the mechanisms behind the Kalmykian chess fairytale. For Alehan it’s a chance to examine his dreams more closely. Ilyumzhinov’s revolution was supposed to transform the whole republic, but can it even change the life of just one small boy?
Stone Silence
25-year old woman suspected of adultery was killed in Spingul village in the high mountains of northern Afghanistan. Information, which spread all over the world on April 23rd, 2005, has become the incipience of this story. The documentary presents the history of two lovers in the eyes of witnesses, reconstructing the tragic occurrence. The author of the film tries to answer what happened on the day of Amina’s death. Amina was killed in circumstances that have been described in varying versions. The investigation defends a thesis that the main cause of the death was heart attack. The main characters of the movie present totally different approaches to the event. The film shows how difficult it is for outsiders to understand the Muslim hierarchy of values. A world, in which nothing is worth less than man’s life.
Kites
In 2006, at the Art School in Kabul, a film course "Kabul - My City" was held. Students were given cameras and professional help from a young polish director by the name of Jacek Szaranski. The students came up with the ideas for their films and the style in which they would show Kabul. They focused their lenses on their closest surroundings - neighbors' children, ubiquitous kites and themselves. "Kites" has become a record of the present day Kabul from the perspective of an Afghan teenager. It also became a story about how a film passion is awakened, the difficulty of asking questions and the courage of hearing answers. Kites had a simple starting point: cameras + youth + Afghanistan. Few people believed that it would succeed. CAMERAS? But there is no electricity! But not so long ago it was impossible there to record a human image. And the dust?! The cameras will be broken after three days and the nearest service is presumably in Moscow, isn’t it? Unless there is no problem at all because they will get stolen on the first day, since they steal there a lot, don’t they? Forget the cameras, but the youth?! They don’t have a TV set at home, and half of them have never been to a cinema and now they are supposed to have camera in their hands and what are they supposed to do with it? And if they do anything, will these “works of art” enchant European audience? And Afghanistan... Everybody knows everything about Afghanistan because at least once a week you can see it in the news, because either something has been blown out or there is the polish army present there or the Taliban, someone has been kidnapped or has been released, every two weeks you have a catchy headline. And is there anything interesting in this Afghanistan at all? That’s what many friendly people said to us. But well, everyone can be wrong and we went shooting. When you have finally seen the film tell us whether it was worth it.
The Seeds
In a cottage at the outskirts of a small village surrounded by the Altai Mountains there’s a family rejected by the local community. Little by little we learn about their secrets. The story is haunting and it’s difficult for the viewer to remember this is a documentary film. The attractive Russian surrealism turns out to be real life. The film was made within the framework of the “Russia-Poland New Gaze” project.
Warsaw Available
Ania, Gosia and Ilona live in villages located far away from each other. Ania wants to be a hairdresser, Gosia dreams of leaving her town where she seems to have no future prospects. Ilona just wants a better life for herself and her little son. All three of them decide to come to the "big city" and change their lives. Warsaw means a better life. A life they only know from television. They go on a journey hoping to find a better place to live. Each of them is a different person but they share the same dream. Will they make their dreams come true?
Unemployed
Over a hundred thousand professionals in Russia. They are the experts in their job. They are brave, courageous yet common Russian men. Their families await them but for their country they simply do not exist. In their homeland they are unemployed... The film was made under the 2nd edition of „Russia and Poland. New Gaze" project. The project was realized by Eureka Media and Adam Mickiewicz Institute with financial support of Polish Film Institute.
In the Jewish tradition Dybbuk is the soul of a dead person which has possessed a living person. Our film is a story on being marked with death and on those who accept it with joy. Also on how evil while struggling with good finds places and opportunities particularly advantageous for itself as well as people willing to support it.
Everything Is Possible
A cottage with a small garden at the edge of the village. Windows decorated with geraniums. The two elderly dwellers, Teresa and Jan, couldn't be more different. She starts her mornings with a heart-pumping exercise routine, and keeps busy all day. He moons about the house as if he had all the time in the world. Here, he spends some time on his art piece, there, he whistles a few bars with the birds outdoors. Their love is gone, but divorce is out of question, so the couple stays under one roof living their separate lives. Hadn't Teresa revolted she would have lived like that till the day she died. Despite her poverty, failed marriage and depression, she decided to see the world as a hitchhiker. Since her first journey fourteen years ago she goes on the road every year.
Fluid Piano Project
At first the Fluid Piano looks like a harpsichord. There seems nothing out of ordinary about it, however, this brand new invention is one of a kind and may very soon astonish the music world. An amazing documentary about a cross-cultural instrument and its intriguing creator.
Inżynierska 5/41
03-410 Warsaw