GRAND PRIX OF THE AMIENS FESTIVAL FOR "MAGIC MOUNTAIN"
"Magic Mountain" - the animated documentary film by Anca Damian won the Grand Prix at the French film festival in Amiens. 35th edition of the festival was held from 13 to 21 November.
Within the frames of the festival in Amiens, two competitions are held every year, in which both short and feature-length films compete for the awards. In this year's feature-length film competition, seven films participated. The jury decided to give the festival's Grand Prix - the Golden Unicorn - to "Magic Mountain" by Anca Damian. The award for the best film of the festival is the grant for cinema distribution of the film in France, as well as production grant for the making of another film.
"Magic Mountain" is an extraordinary tale about the life of Adam Jacek Winkler, whose story could be used as a plot of many a Hollywood film, but it is virtually unknown to the wider audience. Winkler emigrated from Poland in 1960s, in order to live in France and there disseminate his anti-Communist views in a very unusual way: by organising artistic happenings, marches of homosexuals and painting exhibitions. Compared to earlier and later Polish opposition activists, he was an extremely expressive and colourful person, not rooted in any political movement. He led a modest life, and pursuing a career and desiring to become rich were never his goal. With the birth and development of Solidarity, Winkler began to withdraw from the matters related to Polish opposition activities, he did not see any place for himself there. Everything changed with the Soviet Union's invading Afghanistan, when as he himself once said, he "was born again." He wanted to fight alongside the Mujahideen against the Soviets, and this chapter of his life is what the film by Anca Damian concentrates on.
The film is a French-Romanian-Polish co-production. Polish co-producers of the film are Filmograf and Studio Miniatur Filmowych.
You can read more about this year's edition of the festival in Amiens here