01/12/2006

Today’s release of Co słonko widziało [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (What the Sun Has Seen) by Michał Rosa (Silence [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Ecumenical Jury Award Karlovy Vary 2002) is without doubt one of the most important domestic releases at the end of 2006.

One of the best received films at the recent Gdynia Polish Film Festival, where it took the Special Jury Prize and Best Sound Award (Piotr Domaradzki), it is also one of the titles fortunate enough to be released outside of Poland. At Gdynia, Rosa won the Polish Film Festival Organisers Award. Rosa’s film is also the only Polish title to have been selected at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea.

In one of the biggest Silesian cities in southern Poland, three characters – a little boy, Sebastian (Damian Hryniewicz), a teenager, Marta (Dominika Kuźniak) and a man in his fifties, Józef (Krzysztof Stroiński) – have no links between them, except for an urgent need to find a sum of money, relatively small but necessary for their dignity.

The stories of Sebastian, Marta and Józef are not real, but the director based them on newspaper articles, scenes observed on the street and long conversations in public transport. "I tell my story without limiting myself to depicting the destiny of one single person, but by placing emphasis on the collective hero, which, in my opinion, can give a more complete image. I also think that it is also easier for the audience to understand," said Rosa at Gdynia, while nevertheless professing his admiration for the narrative style of directors such as Robert Altman and Winterbottom.

“The title has a great amount of truth and an infinite share of emotion,” added Henryk Romanowski of Film Contract, producer of the film.

What the Sun Has Seen – co-produced by TVP and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute (PISF) – is on release through Kino Świat.

(Translated from French)