Short Waves: Polish Short Film Festival

Last month saw the fifth Polish Short Film Festival come to London, having made its journey around the globe. We went on down to Dalston (where else) to the cute little Rio Cinema (think Notting Hill Coronet, velveted squeaky chairs type of place) to find out what exactly Polish short films consist of.

As we entered, we were given a score card to pick the best film. The winner would receive 10,000 zloty – about £2000. Handing out tiny amounts of power with the ability to aid some stranger’s film-making abilities may have also been a nifty way of making us really think about what we thought of each film and why.

Out of the nine shown, my particular favourite was The Governance of Love. It opened up with a picture of a cat, which seemed to have been sketched in wax crayons by a child and a blurry-voiced narrator declaring that he was a kitten. As the story moved on, he seemed to jump between his imagination and reality, between different places and beings.

As audience members started laughing at what seemed to be not very funny scenes, it was clear that the subtitles, though translating literal meaning, were not able to depict the tone of the piece. It was a great shame as the film may have had more of an impact had the native language been understood. As the film unravelled, it was clear that they were not the ramblings of a child nor someone trying to be edgy. They were drawings and a story of a patient with a mental disorder. His weird perspectives on life struck up unpredicted connections with the audience. It was a clever way of giving us access to a world which is sometimes sadly shunned away.

Only three films were live action. Philosophical narrated animations, light-hearted and brightly coloured stop-frames to pop music, an eerie Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids-esque black and blood red cartoon, and a rather dull compilation of scientific archive material formed the rest.

Of the live action pieces, a particular favourite was The Guardians. A young officer must allow only travellers with VISAs to pass a barrier and continue their journey into a misty forest. As he stamps the papers of the travellers, he peers intently at their faces with a sadness he knows he should not show. As a mother leaves her child and husband behind, it becomes clear as to where the travellers are going. The simplicity yet complexity of leaving loved ones behind appears.

Despite dealing with a cliché subject, The Guardians retained the air of mystery, emotion it deserves, yet had a explicit and tangible directness about it. It had more of a depth than All Souls’ Day (girl hunts down long lost father and discovers dead mother was not so perfect after all) and A Memory of Last Summer (girl bumps into lost love and they have sex in parents’ car).

Though the latter two played on themes not unknown in contemporary cinema, they were nonetheless beautifully filmed with quirky tones unique to each of them. This was something which definitely belonged in each piece of the festival. I couldn’t help but imagine what would happen had the films extended to a couple more hours.