3 DAYS OF FREEDOM RECEIVES A SPECIAL MENTION IN ITALY
The Euganea Film Festival kicked off at the beginning of July in Italian Monselice. After nearly two weeks of screenings yesterday evening the names of the laureates were finally revealed. Among them was a Polish documentarist Łukasz Borowski.
Every summer Polish films are screened at the Euganea festival. It was during the last year’s edition when the award for the Best Short Film went to Piotr Subbotko and his “Glasgow” – produced in frame of “30 minutes programme” by Munk Studio (operating within the structures of Polish Filmmakers Association) and coproduced by Wajda School. This year another graduate of Wajda School had a lucky break. Łukasz Borowski who made his “3 days of freedom” during a documentary course at Wajda School, yesterday evening received a Special Mention of the Documentary Competition of Euganea. It is the third festival after Visions du reel and Huesca IFF, that gives a special mention to Borowski’s documentary, awarded so far at the festivals T-Mobile New Horizons, Message to Man in Russia, and Georgian Batumi International Art-House Film Festival.Piotr is serving a long term prison sentence. Today for the first time in many years he has been released on a three-day probation. The austere reality of prison that he grew attached to cannot be compared to the world outside brimming with possibilities and unlimited choices. The car ride with GPS, travelling by underground, using an escalator or even buying an ordinary shirt seem to be quite a big challenge for Piotr. Lost and astonished but still fascinated by everything that surrounds him, he is trying to understand today’s world. Yet his most difficult task will be facing his life once again, looking back to what has passed and appraise his future capabilities, and finally, to choose what would be best for him. Although he cannot hope for much, there is still something that can be changed. What will he do with those three short days of freedom?
This year six Polish films competed for the awards of the festival. Apart from the above mentioned “3 days of freedom” also fiction “Drawn from memory” by Marcin Bortkiewicz, “Frozen stories” by Grzegorz Jaroszuk, documentary “Spring, summer, fall” by Piotr Złotorowicz, “Trip” by Bartosz Kruhlik and animated “Once there was a king” by Tytus Majerski. During 12th edition of the festival films were judged by three jury teams and awarded in three categories – documentary, fiction and animation. There are many other events held in frames of the festival apart from film programme. Numerous music, theatre touristic and culinary attractions were included in the festival’s programme.
More on the festival can be found at the official Euganea Film Festival website.