We announce the line-up of the Polish Films Competition of the 29th edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography EnergaCAMERIMAGE. In this competition the award goes to both the cinematographer and the director of the winning film.

AUTUMN GIRL

photo by Bartosz Mrozowski

She was called the “Polish Marilyn Monroe”, “scandalous”, “personification of sex”. We are talking about the main character of the musical comedy Autumn Girl, Kalina Jędrusik, who was a great singing theatre actress, an icon of Polish pop culture in the 1960s and 1970s. The film’s audiences meet Kalina at the height of her success. The artist, surrounded by a group of admirers that includes such celebrities as the writer Tadeusz Konwicki and the director Kazimierz Kutz, lives according to her own rules, breaking many social and cultural taboos of her time. She unceremoniously divides her personal life between her husband – the writer Stanisław Dygat – and her lover, which is spiced up by the fact that both men are friends. However, being a star and a socialite not only has its bright moments but also its dark side. Especially if, like Kalina, one is a woman of character who values her dignity. The film revives the old Warsaw with its bohemian artistic community and Kalina Jędrusik’s hits, including the title song.

Original title: Bo we mnie jest seks
Director: Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
Cinematographer: Weronika Bilska
Produced by: RE Studio
Polish distributor: Next Film
Country and year: Poland, 2021

DEATH OF ZYGIELBOYM, THE

London, May 1943. Among the participants of a visit to the scene of death, where Szmul Zygielboym, a Jewish politician from Poland, committed suicide, there is a young journalist and press photographer, Adam, who anticipating that the explanation of the causes of the tragedy might make interesting material for an article decides to follow the official investigation of the case. While learning about Zygielboym’s fate – especially dramatic after the outbreak of World War II, which resulted in the mass extermination of Jews – he investigates the connection between his death and the very important mission that brought him to Great Britain. The mission was to make the Western leaders and mass media aware of the enormity of the crimes committed by Nazi Germany on the Jewish population in Europe and the need to take immediate action against this evil.
The movie is a factual account of real events. Apart from Zygielboym, we will see other historical figures on the screen, among them Jan Karski, a Polish emissary who arrived in the West with a similar task.

Original title: Śmierć Zygielbojma
Director: Ryszard Brylski
Cinematographer: Piotr Śliskowski
Produced by: WFDiF
Polish distributor: Monolith Films
Country and year: Poland, 2021

OPERATION HYACINTH

photo by Bartosz Mrozowski

Socialist Poland in the mid-1980s. The martial law that was declared at the beginning of the decade is no longer in force, yet the regime remains strong, and any political transformation is still to come. Two Citizens’ Militia (MO) officers – one of them a young, promising sergeant Robert Mrozowski – are assigned to investigate a murder. Their superiors insist on the quick detection of the perpetrator. The alleged and indeed immediately obvious solution to the criminal mystery raises Robert’s doubts, but even his father, one of the most senior superiors and an officer of the secret service, firmly demands that he should forget about them… The Operation Hyacinth’s sensational intrigue is fictional, but it is based on real-life events, namely on the so-called operation “Hyacinth” that was carried out in Poland over the period 1985-87 and targeted the homosexual community. This film is not only a murder mystery – apart from the social and cultural background, important ethical and psychological issues are also raised, mainly concerning Robert himself.

Original title: Hiacynt
Director: Piotr Domalewski
Cinematographer: Piotr Sobociński Jr.
Produced by: Shipsboy
Polish distributor: Netflix
Country and year: Poland, 2021

IN-LAWS, THE

A lavish wedding is about to begin in the banquet hall of a large hotel. It cost a lot of money, so it will take place no matter what, even though the bride and the groom, who broke up at the last minute, failed to show up… Their absence, however, does not prevent the increasingly tipsy guests from having fun. Meanwhile, at the back of the hotel, the parents of the would-be newlyweds are involved in a fight (at first only with words), blaming each other for the event’s failure. These two couples are very different in terms of their social background, financial position and mentality, which only fuels resentment on both sides. The game of appearances comes to an end, masks fall, true intentions and characters are revealed, and the crossfire exchanges become even more heated as the secrets of each parental couple are discovered. The black comedy The In-Laws is an adaptation of the play Shame, whose author, Marek Modzelewski, was also the screenwriter of the film. The action moved from one interior on the stage, to several on screen.

Original title: Teściowie
Director: Kuba Michalczuk
Cinematographer: Michał Englert
Produced by: Akson Studio
Polish distributor: Next Film
Country and year: Poland, 2021

SONATA

photo by Jarosław Sosiński

The film tells the true story of Grzegorz Płonka, an extremely talented disabled pianist, who is known as “Beethoven from Murzasichle” (a small village in the south of Poland, where the artist was born over thirty years ago). Grzegorz has had communication problems since childhood. The diagnosis: autism. The doctors were wrong. When the boy is a teenager, it turns out that the real cause of his trouble relating to other people is his hearing loss. Thanks to the hearing aid, Grzegorz gains access to the world of sounds. He falls in love with music, especially with the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, a deaf genius. He is particularly fond of the Moonlight Sonata. He dreams of becoming a pianist and performing at a concert in a philharmonic hall. But no one believes that the dream of a hearing-impaired boy, even if he uses hearing aids, could come true. No one… except Grzegorz Płonka himself and his closest family.

Director: Bartosz Blaschke
Cinematographer: Tomasz Augustynek
Produced by: Mediabrigade
Polish distributor: Telewizja Polska
Country and year: Poland, 2021