The most poetic Polish filmmaker is in Gdynia
Is sacrifice necessary to understand who we are and realise how important love and friendship are? This is the main topic of Maestro, the new film by Piotr Trzaskalski which was presented yesterday in competition for the 30th Gdynia Polish Film Festival.
Trzaskalski, the author of Edi which earned him numerous prizes in 2002 (in Gdynia, Berlin -FIPRESCI-, and Karlovy Vary) was immediately called the 'poet' of the Polish screen, for his cinema is all about metaphors, with long shots which allow the actors to express the inner feelings of the characters. In his new film, the director uses the same techniques to depict the story of a circus artist (Konstantin Lavronenko) who manages to be the 'master' of ceremony on the stage but in real life is unable to 'master' his compulsive self-destructing behaviour. The script was written by Piotr Trzaskalski and Wojciech Lepianka (who was also the co-writer of Edi). This €850,000 film is produced by Opus Film, in co-production with Atlas Sztuki and a German partner, Peter Rommel Produktion. Maestro is also supported by the Film Production Agency of the Ministry of Culture, TVP, and Media Plus. Studio InterFilm will distribute it with at least 30 prints. Maestro will also be screened in San Sebastian (15-25 September).
Like Trzaskalski's film, Teraz ja ('now me'), Anna Jadowska's second feature, can be defined as a road-movie. Hanka, played by Agnieszka Warchulska, is a 30-year-old woman who suddenly decides, for no apparent reason, to leave her house and boyfriend and go hitch-hiking, but unlike Trzaskalski's 'maestro', she does not find an answer to her questions. Jadowska's style is very different from her fellow-director's: her rhythm is faster in terms of narration and editing, and the minimal dialogues are in keeping with this. Unlike Jadowska's first film (Touch Me), the €235,000 film is not self-produced; it was financed by the educational programme Ekran, organised by the Wajda School, the Swiss scheme Focal, the German fund Normedia, the Norwegian development fund, and the Media Plus Programme.
(Translated from French)
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