A New Horizon
Kicking off the new year, Kino Pod Baranami once again hosts the unconventional, uncompromising 17th New Horizons IFF (12-17 January). This year’s touring Wrocław-based festival focuses on directorial debuts awarded on the international stage.
The programme includes Kantemir Balagov’s powerful, at times brutal Closeness. Hailed as a triumph at the Cannes Festival, the debut by the young Russian director takes us on a journey to the Northern Caucasus of the 1990s, ravaged by ethnic conflict. We will also see Summer 1993, a moving portrayal of childhood grief. The debut of the Catalan director Carla Simón, awarded at all the festivals it has been screened so far, including Berlin, Odessa and Buenos Aires, shows the world of adults as seen through the eyes of a young orphan. Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch is an unmissable, harsh yet moving tale of coming-of-age and emancipation. Her debut intertwines elements of a dark fairytales with realist aesthetics. Hlynur Pálmason’s surrealist Winter Brothers, awarded by the Cannes jury, takes us on a journey to frozen Iceland.
As well as showing films by up-and-coming directors, the festival also presents acclaimed authors of art films. Fans of the avant-garde director Bruno Dumont can’t possibly miss the screening of his experimental Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, taking an unusual look at the iconic French saint in a musical setting.
We will also see the moving, sparsely-produced Frost by one of the most prominent Lithuanian directors Šarūnas Bartas. It tells the story of volunteers working on a humanitarian mission in eastern Ukraine, discovering what it’s like to live during armed conflict. The soundtrack was penned by the award-winning Polish composer Paweł Mykietyn, with the acclaimed Polish actor Andrzej Chyra in one of the starring roles. The festival programme will be available from www.kinopodbaranami.pl.
(Barbara Zając, "Karnet" magazine)
