Last meetings of Tofifest 2014
Now, let us go back for a moment to the Closing Ceremony of the competitive part of the festival and recall some of the beautiful words spoken on stage of the festival centre of Tofifest.
“I treat Torun a little as a beloved girl, as it is one of the most beautiful cities in Poland, which makes it one of the beautiful cities in Europe, and – let us not be afraid of big words – of the world,” said Daniel Olbrychski, laureate of a special Golden Angel of Tofifest, welcoming the audience present at the ceremony.
There were also great many beautiful words spoken by young jurors of the festival. The Silver Angel in the On Air competition flew to The Tourist by Ruben Östlund. The film was equally highly regarded by the Young Jury which the first jury of this type, in the history of Tofifest. When justifying their decision, the young jurors said: “We have come to the conclusion that what we actually search for in cinema is the things that move us, touch us, terrify us, but also make us laugh, and not necessarily something to shock us or petrify with its brutality. And this is the reason behind our choice. We look for authenticity and a kind of subtlety.”
The Flisak of Tofifest for an outstanding filmmaker connected with the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region was presented by the President of Torun, Michal Zaleski, to Tomasz Wasilewski. When expressing his gratitude for the award, he made the following confession: “I was born in Torun, but raised in Inowroclaw. This award is my way back home.”
Traditionally, there also special Golden Angels presented during the festival. The special Golden Angel for an Outstanding European Filmmaker was presented to Bohdan Slama. Having received this award, the Czech director gave a witty comment: “I have heard that the notion of a Czech film is interpreted in Poland as something that nobody understands. Well, I would like to continue this tradition.”
Golden Angels were also presented to the two special guests of the festival, i.e. to Daniel Olbrychski, for artistic insolence, and to Danuta Szaflarska, for lifetime achievement. When presenting the award to the film Andrzej Kmicic, President Michal Zaleski hoped that the angel would watch over the actor, to which Daniel Olbrychski gave a humorous punchline: “It is very symbolic, as in the last Polish film I played, which was the debut film by Kasia Jungowska, I played a guardian angel." The coming of Danuta Szaflarska on stage was welcomed with a standing ovation. The actress was clearly overcome by emotion and said that she was very happy to have received a guardian angel, as she was truly in need of one, since in just three months she would turn one hundred years old.
When ending the Closing Ceremony, the President of Torun said that Tofifest was a clear proof that “Torun is a city with thriving culture, with outstanding artists, excellent organisers of culture, and where the audience is simply perfect.”
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The last days of the festival included the last meetings with film guests. „Good morning and hello! I am not sure, whether I wish to go back to this film once again, but I will do it specially for you, for this nice city, and for this nice film festival,” Bohdan Slama starting the meeting with the audience (he is an outstanding Czech film director and author of the award-winning Four Suns). This film was part of the retrospective of this year’s laureate of the Golden Angel for an Outstanding European Filmmaker – it is a story about a family and its struggle with inner problems and a slow decomposition of their relationships.
When making the film, Slama made references to his own experiences. One of his children had a car accident, just as the son of the main protagonist. Four Suns is an excellent study of human psychology and family relations. On one hand, it is an ordinary film, but on the other it pierces through you and makes you think. It is a must see in the genre of existential cinema, which deals with human existence.
Following the screening of Close Ups, there was a meeting with the film director Magdalena Piekorz. The film is a story about a toxic relationship between mother and daughter, and also another fruit of the cooperation between the film director and Wojciech Kuczok. “I think that the subject in the film applies to many women. And not only to women, as we all have parents, which makes all relationships with our parents s subject we simply cannot ignore,” concluded the film director. When asked about her future plans for making films, she said had been thinking about filming the screenplay Cross by Andrzej Saramonowicz, which deals with a priest, who abandons the priesthood, but “it is a controversial subject in our country, although the story is about a cross all of us have to carry, and not about abandoning the priesthood.”
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