A train from Paris to Moscow arrives at Brest-Litovsk, a border crossing between Poland and the former Soviet Union. Since Soviet rails are 89 mm wider than European ones, Belarusian railway workers must lift the cars and change the wheels so the train can continue eastward. Nominated for an Oscar in 1995 and winner of numerous awards worldwide, 89 mm od Europy shows the gap that still exists between the countries of the East and the West.
Category: Short
A film that was created by chance, while making another documentary. This is the story of a typical opportunist who has always been able to adapt to the times in which he lived. “Hero” without any sense of shame tells how he sewed uniforms for German officers and now runs a thriving restaurant. Despite the rather short statement, it is worth thinking more deeply about the attitude of the “king” of life…
A Polityka journalist visits a young girl in the countryside who devotes every free moment to high culture. Her main job, however, is to look after the farm and her old mother. Conversations between two women from different backgrounds are the axis of Marcel Łoziński’s film.
A black and white production concerns the efforts of two bored social workers, Shahid and Ash, who reluctantly agree to reunite the cast of legendary Bollywood musical ‘Pappa Kehta Hain’ for a return performance at the Pakistan Centre where they work. Starting with an elderly singing barber they manage to locate most of the actors but the hardest part is tracking down the elusive hero Sajid Hussain.
Matilde Landeta entered the flourishing Mexican film industry in the 1930s, working her way up from script girl to direct 110 shorts and, in the late 40s, to produce and direct three features, including LA NEGRA ANGUSTIAS. In this engrossing documentary filmed in Mexico City, a vibrant Landeta, now in her 70s, recalls those years. Interviews with Mexican directors Marcela Fernandez-Violante and Maria Novaro enrich this illuminating tribute.
During a film course lead by Yvette Biró at the Hungarian Academy of Drama and film in 1995, the director students were shown a black-and-white photo taken by Lucien Herve in 1952, and they were given the task of writing a short film based on it. Three women are standing at the outskirts of a village, looking out of the picture in the same direction. This six-minute one-shot film shows what the Herve photo does not.
A drama about a group of people stranded at an old wartime guesthouse during a flood. One guest announces that he has the power to “decreate” people and is asked to demonstrate. From an original story by Harry Farjeon.
Ritualised through performance to camera, Stages of Mourning is Pucill’s journey of bereavement. In as much as this is a meditation on coming to terms with loss, the film is an exploration of how our relationship with the dead is made different through film. The artist orders image fragments of her late lover and collaborator, Sandra Lahire. By trying to physically immerse herself into photographs and film footage or by restaging these, Pucill forms a continuous stream of a life of two lovers. Through this doubling and layering, illusions accumulate as if these were a product of a machine that didn’t stop.