Rabbit à la Berlin in race for statuette
Rabbit à la Berlin by Bartek Konopka, a graduate of the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, is among the eight titles shortlisted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ahead of the nominations for the 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary Short.
Rabbit à la Berlin, whose runtime is 51 minutes, tells the story of the wild rabbits who lived in the death zone of the Berlin Wall. After the fall of the Wall, the animals, startled and abandoned, have to adapt to the change and find a new habitat.
The film is a sort of allegory describing the situation in Eastern Europe at a decisive moment in history. For both the director and cinematographer Piotr Rosołowski, the film represents another attempt, after Goat Walker, to tell a story from the point of view of animals.
Rabbit à la Berlin is a European co-production piloted by Poland’s MS Films and Germany’s Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktions-GmbH. It was co-financed by German broadcasters MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) and RBB (Rundfunk Berlin-Brabenburg), Franco-German network ARTE and Polish public channel TVP1.
Finnish television YLE, Belgium’s Lichtpunt and Dutch public TV network VPRO also backed the film, as did the MEDIA Programme, the Wajda Master School and the Polish Film Institute (PISF).
The list of three-five nominations will be announced on February 2, 2010 and the Oscar will be awarded on March 7.
Rabbit à la Berlin will be released in Polish theatres on December 4, 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
