2013|07|25

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,

On behalf of the entire team responsible for the 7th Film and Art Festival Two Riversides, I am pleased to welcome you to Kazimierz Dolny by the Vistula and invite you to a spree of film, music, and art.

The keyword of this year’s festival is IDENTITY – it is something that gives us confidence, makes us aware of the tradition from which we are descended from, strengthens us when facing other cultures. It is something that causes others to respect us, and allows us to achieve a better understanding of others. This area of life is tackled by many films presented at the festival. Retrospectives of Janusz Morgenstern and Thomas Vinterberg show that two directors of different cultural backgrounds can have very much in common, despite the generation gap between them and a completely different historical experience. They both tell stories of people from their closest surroundings, of matters dearest to them, and yet these stories grow to become something universal. I recommend Vinterberg’s “Festen [The Celebration]” and “Jagten [The Hunt],” as well as Morgenstern’s “Jovita,” “To Kill This Love,” and the ingenious, although not very well-known “Smaller Sky.”

Premiere screenings of Felix Van Groeningen’s “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty,” Alex Van Warmerdam’s “Borgman”; documentary screenings, including “A World Not Ours,” “A Story of Children and Film,” “Shirley – Visions of Reality”; and music documentaries: “The Labèque Way,” “Les fils du vent,” “Naked Hands”; these are just some of the titles representing the main festival section, namely “World under canvas,” where you are welcome to see the latest films selected at festivals around the world.

Stanisława Celińska is the star of this year’s “And God created… actress” section. An outstanding actress and personality, her roles in theatre (we will recollect plays of the Television Theatre) and film (“Landscape After the Battle,” “The Young Girls of Wilko”) are testimony to her great talent, and the “New Warsaw” concert, featuring the Royal String Quartet, will show her personality’s strength.

This year at Two Riversides our guest will be a master of jazz trumpet, the charismatic Tomasz Stańko and his friends from New York, who will perform pieces from the album “Wisława” in the unique atmosphere of the Kazimierz Dolny Market. Other shows in the festival club include Mela Koteluk, Skubas, and Dr Misio with Arkadiusz Jakubik.

The short film contest, for which we received a record-breaking number of submissions this year, will feature very interesting, innovative pictures, mostly by young filmmakers.

Guests will come from all over Poland and the world: Felix Van Groeningen, Carlo di Carlo, Andrzej Jakimowski, Wojtek Smarzowski, Sławomir Fabicki, Waldemar Pokromski, and many others. Numerous meetings and talks on film and the issues raised by them will, once again, provide us with many unforgettable moments.

I would like to thank all of our sponsors and partners, who supported our ideas in spite of the ever-present term “crisis,” and enabled us to share the joys of art and culture. Come to Kazimierz Dolny and Janowiec July 27th – August 4th.

Grażyna Torbicka
Artistic Director for the Film and Art Festival Two Riversides