This film is a part of film programme “What We Left Unifinished”, presented on 8-12 December at Skalvija Cinema Center. During this programme that researches archival films, we will move on to personal and public memories.
Curatated by Karolis Žukas.
An Ordinary Country
Controlled conversations, recording with hidden cameras, dirty records of interrogations and recruitment attempts as well as video tutorials for the officers of the security service – all of these materials are employed to portray the monitored life in Poland under communism. Sometimes grotesque, this picture is underpinned by horror, escalating intuitively with every minute. The dramatic culmination is when the Big Brother is not just watching but violating the intimacy of an ordinary citizen. Before us, there is a terrifying communist panopticon which keeps spying on and recording itself.
Tomasz Wolski
Zwyczajny kraj, Poland, 2020, 51’
Bio
Tomasz Wolski – a member of the Guild of Polish Documentary Directors, Polish Film Academy and European Film Academy. Director of short film “Daughter” (Grand Prix at Angers Premiers Plan) & director, editor, cameramen of 13 documentaries awarded at many international festivals incl. Los Angeles Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, Punto de Vista, Nancy – Aye Aye Film Festival, Evora – FIKE, Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, Camerimage & Kraków Film Festival.
