09/06/2006

Two years after its production, Strangers [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Ono) by Małgorzata Szumowska will be distributed in Germany by Pandora Film. The film’s release – scheduled for June 29 – will put an end to a long period of absence of Polish productions from mainstream German cinemas.

Szumowska’s name went down in the history of the Lodz Film School for her documentary Silence, judged to be one of the best films by a school graduate, alongside the likes of shorts by Roman Polanski. The director’s debut feature, Happy Man (2000), won awards at several international festivals (Angers, Tel Aviv, Neubrandenburg).

Strangers – produced by Pandora Film and STI Studio Filmowe – was also a hit on the international festival circuit. After being selected at Sundance and Berlin in 2005, the film was nominated for the European Film Award. Szumowska won Best Director at the Wiesbaden goEast festival, while lead Małgorzata Bela picked up Best Actress at the Schermi d’amore festival in Verona, where the film also won the Special Critics’ and Journalists’ Award.

This story of a young pregnant woman who discovers the beauty of life through the intimate contact she develops with her future child must have piqued the interest of producers at Pandora Film (Raimond Goebel), the German outfit currently developing Szumowska’s next film, 33 Scenes From Life.

(Translated from French)