Krakow

Monday:

So after getting up at an easyjet hour I have now arrived in Krakow! Went to get my accreditation pack, and found this cute bottle of champagne (don’t worry, it’s not actually the size of the building behind, it’s just perspective…).

After settling in, I checked out the a screening from the Polish national competition, which featured a quite leftfield animation about a town full of people with no heads, called Danny Boy.

Then, after an early dinner at a little salad bar called Chimera (has to be my food find of the month!), it was time to check out the first of the student programmes at the festival. The screening was taking place inside this gorgeous retro cinema on the main square (I’ll post some pictures tomorrow), and was going well until half way through the second film, an funny short about a man with Tourette’s (Bad Lyrics), there was a techical programme and the English subtitles disappeared. Time to head home and brush up on my Polish…anyone have any phrases for me to use?

Tuesday:

Tuesday began by heading to the aptly named Kino Mikro, through a lovely green park. The cinema itself was another attractive one (I’m not just writing this because they gave me free coffee), but I realised how quiet films are screened in cinemas in Krakow – has anyone else noticed this or is my hearing going? The line-up of shorts was excellent, starting with the Oscar-winning Logorama, which seems to get better on every viewing. I would say it would be a fun game to count how many brands you recognise, but this would spoil your enjoyment of the film (maybe try this on the third viewing). Also showing were the wonderful ‘Mother of Many’, and the moving ‘Prayers For Peace’, which Future Shorts has recently acquired.

A tiny industry screening was next, of some very bleak, quite intense Polish films. One did stand out though, ‘Hanoi-Warsaw’, a quite moving story of a Vietnamese woman trying to meet her boyfriend in Poland. Then it rained (maybe symbolic). It rained hard.

Thank goodness for Lodz film school then. Their evening screening was very strong. The first film, Through The Glass, was hilarious, …. Anyone looking to go to film school should look at Lodz, they produce so much of quality. It was still raining after the screening (so maybe not symbolic then), so I ran back and dried off with BBC News 24 in the background. Anyone who denies the glamour of going to film festivals should read back that last sentence…

Wednesday:

The weather forecast was wrong! No heavy showers! Instead it was bright sunshine! Surely no time to be inside then, I hear you say, but the industry video library beckoned. After a quick lunch of dumplings filled with cabbage (oh so much better than it sounds), it was off to another cinema to see a retrospective of classics from the Krakow Film Festival. The standout film here was a Dutch/UK production called Father and Daughter.

A quick coffee and jog to the next screening (jogged a bit quickly and spilt of lot of coffee) allowed me to see a wonderful Thai film, ‘Four Boys, White Whisky and Grilled Mouse’, about hanging out on a lazy afternoon, eating mouse (nice).

Then an hour of sightseeing! Kazimierz, the Jewish district, was a highlight, though I missed the recommended baguette/pizza thing sold on the square as I was still full from the dumplings (tasty and filling!)

One more screening before dinner let me see Tussilango (look out for in a future FS screening) at the Kino Centrum, a huge screen and the HQ of the festival.

Next up – Hamburg…