Listen to audio at site:
www.radio.com.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=33336&j=2Director Andrzej Wajda wins a lifetime achievement award in Berlin
and Polish computer animation artist Tomasz Baginski gets a BAFTA
award.
Programme presented by Agnieszka Bielawska
The past weekend brought great satisfaction to Polish film fans. The
British BAFTA film awards were handed out in London. A Polish
computer animation 'The School of Falling' by Tomasz Baginski was
awarded in the category of short animations. The British Film
Academy honoured the young director for his unusual talent and
extreme professionalism. Baginski who was nominated in the category
of short animations to the 2004 Oscars for his film Cathedral also
stands a chance to receive a nomination to Academy Award for 2007
for his School of Falling. The film which has been already shown in
the US where it is received as an antiwar picture . The six minute
animation satire tells the story of a forgotten military base on the
Pacific. Several old officers, not exactly about their wits
painstainkingly cultivate their idiosyncrasies. Tomasz Baginski
admits that initially his intentions were different but life played
a trick on him.
'It was to be an innocent joke on the military, but reality overtook
us and military themes became more actual, primarily due to Iraq. So
during making of the film we had to update some of the initial
stories or just write them anew.'
Tomasz Baginski uses modern computer animation, but the persons and
the background are hand painted. The film was prepared in 8 months
by a team of professionals.
Film prevailed over the weekend and so the Berlin Film Festival
wound up on the 18th of February with the top prize going to Bosnian
drama GRBAVICA about the shattered lives of women raped in the
Balkan wars. But there was a Polish touch to the Festival with the
Golden Bear award for lifetime achievement handed to renowned film
director Andzrej Wajda. Wajda who is a laureate of the Oscar 2000
for his lifetime achievement was deeply touched with the award
describing it as an honour of the city of West Berlin, which in the
post war period played a great role as an intellectual and cultural
centre
'This bear is a symbol of Berlin so it is an exceptional award not
only from the Berlinale but also the city of Berlin. it is a
fantastic honour.'
The award was handed by the director of the Berlin festival Dieter
Kosslick who spoke of Wajda as one of the greatest directors, a
chronicler and a witness of historic events.
Wajda received congratulations from great German director Volker
Schlendorf. The best wishes were videotaped and presented during the
showing of Wajda’s 'Canal' and 'Ashes and Diamonds', films which
Schledorf said have hit the world with great impetus.
As a chronicler Andrzej Wajda spoke of the latest production he has
undertaken - a film about the Katyn massacre. Wajda said that making
films about important historic events is vital, and it does not
matter that initially the events may seem distant to the rest of the
world.
'There were many such films made. Films which were to appeal to a
very small group of people. How could for example the Warsaw
Uprising grip the interest of the world? but then it turned out that
'Canal' has been seen by millions of people, so did 'Man of Iron'
and 'Man of Marble'. I think it is worth doing films which touch
Poles, but then they also move the rest of the world.'
Andrzej Wajda also spoke about the role of cinema.The Berlin
festival this year showed that it was a vintage year for political
cinema, Andrzej Wajda said he does not see why film makers should
shy away from politics.
'When the cinema wakes up to the great role it should play in
culture it becomes a political cinema. This is why the Polish cinema
has been acknowledged in the world and recognised. Combining
politics and art is a natural way of the cinema for me.'
Andrtzej Wajda also presented his project reflection during the
Berlin festival. The project encompassed a series of documentaries
presenting the differences between German and Polish mentality. The
films had been made by students of Andrzej Wajda’s Film School in
Poland and the Cologne Film School. Polish director Marcel Lozinski
, one of the lecturers in Wajda’s school, supervised the project and
said that one of the main differences portrayed is the totally
different attitude towards history of Germans and Poles
'German films do not touch history, but the Polish ones are full of
references and memories showing how people’s lives had been
influenced by the past.'
Anna Shirin Wahlez from the film school in Cologne and the author of
a documentary Aleksander, about a four year old Russian orphan who
is placed in a German orphanage said that cooperation with Polish
filmmakers taught her a different attitude towards the art of film
making.
The Berlin film festival featured three Polish films- “I Am” by
Dorota Kedzierzawska, shown in the children’s films retrospectrive,
“A Perfect Afternoon” by Przemyslaw Wojcieszek and “The Executor' by
Feliks Falk which was shown in the Panaroma cycle and not in the
competition. The executor has been awarded the Ecumenical Jury award
for the perfect portrayal of the political changes in Poland.One of
the reviewers described the film as an extremely good, ironic
picture of society.
