FIPRESCI to Celebrate the 90th Anniversary at the 31st Warsaw Film Festival

FIPRESCI – The International Federation of Film Critics turns 90 this year. The Warsaw Film Festival (WFF), which will take place 9-18 October 2015, joins the celebrations.

This year will mark the 10th edition of FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project at WFF, a training program for young (under 30) film critics and journalists from Eastern Europe. The workshops are devised and co-ordinated by experienced film critics and FIPRESCI members Michael Pattison (Sight & Sound, Fandor, Indiewire, Vice, Playboy, The Guardian, Film Comment, Cineaste) and Carmen Gray (Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Screen International, The Calvert Journal). The program participants are: Elena Rubashevska and Julia Melikova from Ukraine, Janka Pozsonyi from Hungary, Kate Didenko from Russia, Saulius Kovalskas from Lithuania, and Emilia Sieczka and Marcin Sarna from Poland.

In the »Classics from Poland« section the festival will screen Polish films which received the FIPRESCI Award at international film festivals and host Q&A with directors. Klaus Eder, the General Secretary of FIPRESCI, will introduce the section in person.

List of films:

Eddie / Edi, dir. Piotr Trzaskalski, Poland 2002
FIPRESCI Award at International Film Festival Berlin in 2003.
Edi and Jureczek make a living collecting scrap metal from the city streets and rubbish bins. They live together in an old factory slated for demolition, spending some of the little money they make at a rundown bar.

Hi, Tereska / Czesc Tereska, dir. Robert Glinski, Poland 2001
FIPRESCI Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2001.
Fifteen-year-old Tereska, a student at a sewing trade school, lives with her parents on a typical urban tower-block housing estate. Her family is also typical: her father sometimes drinks, her mother often goes to church, the TV is always on. Tereska wants to become a fashion designer; her talent for drawing gives hope that she can fulfil this dream. However, she doesn’t find love or support in her family. The only person she feels comfortable with is disabled doorkeeper Edzio.

Squint Your Eyes / Zmruz oczy, dir. Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland 2003
FIPRESCI Special Mention at Mannheim-Heidelberg in 2002.
Ex-teacher Jas works as a watchman guarding modest relics of farming technology at a former state-run farm. His companions include a local eccentric and an unassuming young man. They are joined by a smart 11-year-old girl, “Mala”, who prefers the refuge of the meadows to her nouveau riche family home.

Sunday Pranks / Niedzielne igraszki, dir. Robert Glinski, Poland 1987
FIPRESCI Award at International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg in 1987.
A summer morning in 1953, right after Stalin’s death. As they leave their homes, the residents of a Warsaw tenement make the sign of the cross in front of the yard shrine. They comment on events and then go about their business. Only the children stay behind in the yard and begin their “Sunday pranks”. The schizophrenia of those times is visible in these childish games, making the laughter stick in your throat.

Tricks / Sztuczki, dir. Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland 2007
FIPRESCI Award at Bratislava International Film Festival in 2007.
Six-year-old Stefek challenges fate. He believes that the chain of events he sets in motion will help him get closer to his father, who left his mother for another woman. Stefek’s sister Elka, 17, helps him learn how to “bribe” fate with small sacrifices. At the decisive moment, though, the children have nothing precious to sacrifice. In his game with fate Stefek dangerously raises the stakes…