From 5 July to 30 August you are invited to evening film screenings related to the exhibition Nature in Art. The shows take place on Fridays in the MOCAK arcades.
Nature is ubiguitous in the cinema. It accompanies the protagonists as a background, landscape, context, siutation, but also a mirror in which their internal and external travels are reflected. Nature is an important structural element of the film world, but its function is not limited to decoration – on its background man with his affairs turns out to be only an episode in a powerful proces of transformation dictated by the slow rhytm of nature. Selected proposals show a wide spectrum of possibilities in which nature is presented and used in the cinema.
Films selection: Adrian D. Kowalski
All films have Polish subtitles.
PROGRAMME:
Friday 5 July, 9 pm
White God
directed by Kornél Mundruczóm, 2014
119 min
Kornel Mundruczó’s sixth feature film tells the tale of an eternal friendship between a girl and a dog in a world where ancestry can decide on life or death. According to Hungarian regulation, every dog, but genuine Hungarian breeds, is subject to a special tax. Loads of dogs are turned out of doors. The 13 year old Lili is fighting to protect her pet, Hagen, in vain. Trying to spot each other, Lili and Hagen are cruising along the gloomy streets of Budapest. After several heartbreaking experiences, the desperate Hagen understands that people are not dogs’ best friends. No wonder he joins a gang of stray dogs. Not finding any trace of Hagen, Lili puts up with her faith. She enjoys the company of her peers. Having no chance to survive, the homeless dogs find their freedom in a revolt against mankind. Their revenge is merciless. As soon as Lili perceives the jarring barks of dogs, she remembers everything and realizes, she is the only one who can halt the war.
Friday 12 July, 9 pm
Ága
directed by Milko Lazarow, 2018
98 min
In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna's traditional way of life starts changing - slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world - and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago due to family feud. When Sedna's health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága.
Friday 19 July, 9 pm
The Salt of the Earth
directed by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, 2014
110 min
For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed some of the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus. He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of wild fauna and flora, and of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty.
Friday 26 July, 9 pm
Tanna
directed by Martin Butler, Bentley Dean, 2015
100 min
Tanna, an extraordinary Australia/Vanuatu co-production, is a Romeo and Juliet story set in one of the world's last true tribal societies. It is the first feature film shot entirely in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, in a village called Yakel. The people of this remote community, high in the mountain rainforests near a spitting volcano, truly wear grass skirts and penis sheaths and have rejected colonial and Christian influences in favor of their traditional and pure "Kastom" system of laws and beliefs. Their customs and lifestyle have changed little for centuries. Before Tanna, they had never before seen a movie or a camera, yet welcomed the filmmakers to live with the tribe for seven months where they absorbed stories and observed ceremonies, with the input and collaboration of the local people. None of the 'cast' had ever acted before, but astonishingly, they passionately and naturally re-created this real-life story from recent tribal history as if they had had years of training. Tanna is a spectacularly lush and exotic film that is Australia's submission for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Film of 2017. The movie recently won the Directors Guild of Australia award for Best Director. Earlier, the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival this past fall, where it won the Audience Award in the International Critics Week sidebar as well as the Best Cinematography prize.
Friday 2 August, 9 pm
Grizzly Man
directed by Werner Herzog, 2005
103 min
This documentary centers on amateur grizzly bear expert Timothy Treadwell, who periodically journeyed to Alaska to study and live with the bears. The outdoorsman and author -- along with his partner, Amie Huguenard -- was eventually killed and devoured by one of the very animals to whom he had devoted years of study.
Friday 9 August, 9 pm
Kon-Tiki
directed by Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg, 2012
114 min
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settle on Polynesian islands. After gathering financing for the trip with loans and donations, they set off on an epic 101 day-long journey across 8,000 kilometers, all while the world was watching. KON-TIKI tells about the origin of Heyerdahl's idea and the events surrounding the group's voyage.
Friday 16 August, 9 pm
Tomorrow
directed by Cyril Dion, Melanie Laurent
119 min
TODAY, we sometimes feel powerless in front of the various crises of our times. TODAY, we know that answers lie in a wide mobilization of the human race. Over the course of a century, our dream of progress commonly called "the American Dream", fundamentally changed the way we live and continues to inspire many developing countries. We are now aware of the setbacks and limits of such development policies. We urgently need to focus our efforts on changing our dreams before something irreversible happens to our planet. TODAY, we need a new direction, objective... A new dream! The documentary Tomorrow sets out to showcase alternative and creative ways of viewing agriculture, economics, energy and education. It offers constructive solutions to act on a local level to make a difference on a global level. So far, no other documentary has gone down such an optimistic road... TOMORROW is not just a film, it is the beginning of a movement seeking to encourage local communities around the world to change the way they live for the sake of our planet.
Friday 23 August, 9 pm
Rams
directed by Grímur Hákonarson, 2016
93 min
Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and Best Narrative Feature at the Hampton's Film Festival, this charming, stunningly shot drama focuses on two Icelandic sheep farmers whose decades-long feud comes to a head when disaster strikes their flocks. In a secluded valley, estranged brothers Gummi and Kiddi live side by side tending to their prized ancestral sheep stock, despite not having spoken in 40 years. When a lethal disease suddenly infects Kiddi's sheep, all the animals in the area are culled to contain the outbreak, with many farmers abandoning their land. But the brothers don't give up so easily-and each tries to stave off the disaster in his own fashion: Kiddi by using his rifle and Gummi by using his wits. As the authorities close in, they will need to come together to save the special breed passed down for generations-and themselves-from extinction.
Friday 30 August, 9 pm
Heart of a Dog
directed by Laurie Anderson, 2015
75 min
Artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband, mother, beloved dog and subjects such as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
