2020

DOC LAB START PROJECTS 2020

BEING BENOVSKY
director: Katarzyna Trzaska, Marek Kucharski
producer / production company: Łukasz Bluszcz, Vision House Productions

Three enthusiasts from a small Polish town, fascinated by the figure of the 18th century traveller Maurice Benovsky, plan an excursion to Madagascar to experience a journey to their inner selves.

BUJ DOI. DUST OF LIFE
director: Weronika Mliczewska
producer / production company: Małgorzata Kozioł, Marta Łachacz, East Beast

Nelson discovers his unknown brother Sang, a discriminated war child left in Vietnam, together they attempt to meet their estranged father in New York.Will Sang abandon his daughters to live with him?

DEBUT
director: Aleksandra Maciejczyk
producer / production company: Marta Gmosińska, Lava Films Sp. z o.o.

Marysia comes from princely lineage, but her family has withdrawn from aristocracy. She goes against the grain and takes part in Debutants Ball. Through her act of rebellion she searches for identity.

DON’T MESS WITH GIENEK
director: Grzegorz Szczepaniak
producer / production company: Joanna Popowicz, Grzegorz Szczepaniak, WF Anagram sp. z o.o.

From tiny village in Eastern Poland to New York and Philadelphia, 70 years old folk musician Gienek, who has never been abroad has to face a hard decision, in the name of love of his beloved daughter.

GYPSY GADJI
director: Dasa Raimanova
producer / production company: Rafał Sakowski, Story Vehicle

Roksana, a bicultural Polish – Romani in her 30s, could be the perfect bridge between the two cultures, but instead, she struggles to find a place in either.

HARLEY UKNOWN MISSION
director: Andrzej Miękus
producer / production company: Olga Bieniek, Filmicon

How abandoned by the Red Army iconic Harley Davidson motorcycles paved a way to freedom for a group of young people living beyond the Iron Curtain.

HOUSE OF SAND
director: Paweł Wyszomirski
producer / production company: Marta Dużbabel, Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska, Pinot Films

A bitter-sweet documentary comedy. Maciej is building a house out of trash and tires. He deals with the climate crisis but more importantly, he is looking for a medicine to loneliness in his life.

I HAVE SEEN EVERYTHING
director: Wojciech Łazarowicz
producer / production company: Małgorzata Małysa, Furia Film

After the tragic death of their parents, the Jewish orphans were separated and adopted by different families. This is the story of one brother finding the other after 73 years.

MY PLACE OZERNA
director: Karina Będkowska
producer / production company: Aneta Zagórska, Krakow Film Klaster

Aunt Slava, living in Ukraine, wants to die. Thanks to her, Karina – the director, regains her sense of self and the will to live.

NINA GETS MARRIED
director: Andrzej Szypulski
producer / production company: Marta Dużbabel, Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska, Pinot Films

Nina is a 68-year-old widow, a Jehovah’s Witness. She unexpectedly falls in love with Krzysztof – a dozen years younger Catholic. This love turns her life upside down.

SELF-PORTRAIT
director: Rafał Łysak
producer / production company: Michał Sadowski, King House

To know the truth about his dead father, the director of this film confronts his family with diary of his father, which reveals the shocking facts about him.

RIDING WITH GHOSTS
director: Piotr Małecki, Maciej Nabrdalik
producer / production company: Piotr Małecki, Short Docs Media

Famous war photographers. To chase off the demons of war that haunt them, they form a group of extreme cyclists. But the son of one of them wants to become war photographer too.

THE CHUMS
director: Emilia Śniegoska
producer / production company: Łukasz Bluszcz, Vision House Productions

„The Chums” is a story about a 30 years long friendship between Hanka and Bronka, two neighbors belonging to the Polish minority living since generations in the Romanian Bukovina.

THE DAUGHTER OF FUJI (aka GRACE)
director: Eri Mizutani
producer / production company: Anna Fam, Polished Productions

Keiko, a teacher of a dance for Fuji, breaks the conspiracy of silence among Japanese women. She wants to reinvent impractical tradition she has lived for. She opposes the local community and culture.

WHEN THE HARMATTAN BLOWS
director: Edyta Wróblewska
producer / production company: Marta Dużbabel, Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska, Pinot Films

Despite her traumatic past, Barbara tries to move on with her life, forgive her abusers and fight for happiness with the help of her closest friend, Father Piotr.

DOC LAB GO PROJECTS 2020

@MIRIAMFROMPOLAND
director: Piotr Szczepański
producer / production company: Anna Pachnicka, Anagram Film

Miriam Synger is a strong woman in a patriarchal society. She is struggling for her identity as an orthodox Jewess wanting to live in contemporary Poland.

A FEW GOOD DAYS
director: Tadeusz Chudy
producer / production company: Rafał Sakowski, IRIS media

A group of inmates gets a task to train aggressive dogs from the shelter. For Capitan Tomek, this is the last mission before he resigns from a duty. The task changes one of the prisoners completely.

ESCAPE TO THE SILVER GLOBE
director: Jakub Mikurda
producer / production company: Daria Maślona, Silver Frame

„Escape to the Silver Globe” is a documentary about the greatest secret – and the biggest, unfulfilled dream of Polish cinema.

I’M ONE OF THEM
director: Nadim Suleiman
producer / production company: Luiza Pietrzak, Palmyra Films

Syrian immigrant shoots a film about a Polish nationalist. The film becomes an excuse to bring two people together, telling the story of an almost impossible friendship.

THE PREMIERE
director: Joanna Rechnio
producer / production company: Magdalena Raczkowska

A film portrait of Krzysztof Pastor, a dancer and the most famous contemporary Polish choreographer, who after years of emigration returned to the Poland to create the Polish National Ballet.

SISKIN
director: Zofia Kowalewska
producer / production company: Stanisław Zaborowski, Silver Frame

A 92-year-old man and his granddaughter travel to a remote village in Kazakhstan, where grandpa was exiled during WW II. Together, they search for his first love, who he was forced to leave behind.

THE BIG CHEF
director: Tomasz Wolski
producer / production company: Anna Gawlita, Kijora Film

Was he a Polish or a Jew, a Soviet spy working for Alliance, for Gestapo or Moscow? Was he a James Bond of that time or spy dilettante? Was he a hero or a traitor? Who Trepper really was?

THE END OF NATALKA’S WORLD
director: Anna Urbańczyk
producer / production company: Aneta Zagórska, Krakow Film Klaster

The little girl tells a story of residents of the flooded village.

UNTIL THE WEDDING
director: Daniel Stopa
producer / production company: Małgorzata Staroń, Staron-Film

A bittersweet depiction of a mature marriage. Their son’s wedding is a pretext for the elderly couple to look back on their life together.

WORKCENTER
director: Aniela Gabryel
producer / production company: Agnieszka Dziedzic, Koi Studio

XABO: FATHER BONIECKI
director: Aleksandra Potoczek
producer / production company: Aleksander Kardyś, Fundacja Tygodnika Powszechnego

Documentary story about Father Adam Boniecki, one of the most controversial and rebellious figure in Catholic church in Poland. A road-movie about the man who is facing the end of his pathway.