The Documentary Films Panorama, organized under the patronage of


constitutes an important part of the documentary section "Image of the World - World in Images" and presents interesting, visually attactive films from all over the world. All documentaries are screened in ŁDK (Łódź Community Center). Admission free to all visitors.




15 YEARS OF SILENCE
original title: 15 Lat Milczenia
director: Jan P. Matuszyński
cinematographers: Kacper Fertacz, Weronika Bilska
country: Poland
year: 2007

Iza, a former actress, organizes a reunion of a mime school and decides to rake over and close the painful past.






AFGHANISTAN, THE CHOICE OF THE WOMEN
original title: Afghanistan, le choix des femmes
director: Lahbib Hadja
cinematographer: Louis-Philippe Capelle
country: Belgium
year: 2007

A combined portrait of two exceptional women in a country of men. Habiba Sorabi has gone down in Afghan history for becoming the nation’s first woman governor. Aisha Habibi, also known as “Commander Kaftar", is a legend. Many Afghans think she doesn’t exist and that this woman who became a warlord is only make-believe.



BALUTY GHETTO, THE
original title: Ghetto jmenem baluty
director: Pavel Štingl
cinematographer: Miroslav Janek
country: Poland, Czech Republic
year: 2008

The documentary film “The Baluty Ghetto" is a timeless essay on a stigmatised place, commemorating the Jewish Ghetto in Łódź as witnessed by Czech Jews, rare archival photographs and today inhabitants of the former ghetto in the district of Łódź - Baluty.




BETH'S DIARY
original title: Beths Dagbog
directors: Mikala Krogh, Kent Klich
cinematographer: Kent Klich
country: Denmark
year: 2006

Through one year Beth has made a video diary. In detail she has recorded her daily routines; the wake ups in the mornings after a bad dream, breakfast with her boyfriend, her talks with the fishes in the aquarium, and her reluctance to visit her mother after many years of separation. Throughout twenty years still photographer Kent Klich has documented Beths former life as a drug addict and prostitute. Combination of animated stills and Beths own recordings gives a nuanced portrayal of a woman fighting to believe, that she is worth loving.



BIRDS ARE SILENT IN THE FOREST, THE
original title: Die vögelein schweigen im walde
director: Tim De Keersmaecker
cinematographers: Zang Rik, Impens Ruben
country: Belgium
year: 2007

A man relieves his night-time job as a warehouseman with his greatest passion: hunting. But sometimes nature can be tough and unpredictable. It is a film about loneliness, the craving for dominance and the search for a meaningful interpretation of our existence.




BOOTHS
original title: Budka
director: Michail Zheleznikov
cinematographer: Solmaz Guseinova
country: Russia
year: 2008

“When I was little I used to walk around town, and I often noticed people sitting in booths. And I asked myself: Why are they sitting there? Maybe they are serving out some sort of punishment. What are they doing inside their booths? What are they thinking about? It’s probably hot in there. Or maybe it’s cold. Do they have home? A family? What kind of people are they?" The film in ironical manner tries to answer this question.



BROTHERS
original title: Brüder
director: Isabel Grünwald
cinematographers: Steffi Unrein-Giaracuni & Martin Prast
country: Germany
year: 2007

The unusual symbiosis of two old brothers in a world where time has stood still. Since childhood Fritz and Heiner Zuber have lived together in their farming house in the North of Bavaria. Neither one of them ever had a family or went away for leading an individual life. They are as different as day and night. Fritz, a retired police officer, lovingly takes care of the household. Heiner, farmer and heir to the farm, prefers to be passive and reflect on the past. In spite of their oppositional view of life, they strongly depend on each other. Ever since they live in constant silence. But it used to be different once...



CAMPILLO. YES, I DO
original title: Campillo. Sí, quiero
director: Andrés Rubio
cinematographer: Dani Galindo
country: Spain
year: 2008

In June 2005, the Spanish Parliament passed the Law on Gay Marriage, giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including adoption. In cities like Valladolid, one of the biggest in Spain, the mayors (who carry out civil marriages) made an appeal against the implementation of the law. However, mayor Francisco Maroto from Campillo de Ranas, a small village of 50 inhabitants deep in the mountains of Guadalajara, stepped forward and said: “I marry".



FOCAL DISTANCE
original title: Fokusnoe rasstoyanie
director: Andrei Kutsila, Raman Ramashka
cinematographer: Andrei Kutsila
country: Belarus
year: 2008

A lonely, aging photographer lives in a little town where the traces of the communist era are well-preserved. Love, loneliness, senility, sadness, tiredness, memory, reminiscences, offence… Life becomes black and white when the end is closer, when colors bleach, paper turns yellow and only in the memory faces and smiles are still bright and varied in colors.



GOLESHOVO
director: Ilian Metev
cinematographer: Ilian Metev
country: UK, Bulgaria
year: 2008

This is a tale about the death of Goleshovo, a forgotten town in the mountains of Bulgaria. Here, a handful of old people struggle for survival: A couple fights with their donkey. A forgetful priest leads his congregation into confusion. A woman cheers up her friends with songs. Will their children ever return?




IN THE NORTH
director: Lei Chen
cinematographer: Feng Wang
country: China
year: 2006

Zhen is a former drug addict, who escaped from his ruined life in Shanghai to a remote mountain area, where he suffered and eventually recovered from his addiction - just like his brother, who was given a mandatory treatment in a rehab center in Shanghai. Gradually Zhen settled down in north China. He recovered his dignity and found his love again. Hua, a country girl, married Zhen despite her parents’ disapproval and brought him a daughter. Zhen’s parents hoped they would come back to Shanghai but Zhen is reluctant to leave. Soon the news came that his father got seriously sick, depressing him again...



JUST LIKE HEAVEN
original title: Jak w niebie
director: Filip Marczewski
cinematographer: Szymon Lenkowski
country: Poland
year: 2008

Just like Heaven is a poetic tale about a young couple who are looking for their natural place on Earth. It’s also a story about Europe and Poland, with its eternal exodus from East to West while many Western people, like the Dutch in this film, for the very same reason, are heading the other way round. Filip Marczewski, an Oscar nominated director for his former short student film and cinematographer Szymon Lenkowski, have spent several months with their heroes.



KIOSK
director: Hilde E. Osen
cinematographer: Martin Top
country: Denmark
year: 2007

In the middle of Copenhagen there is a fenced-in area, where 600 people live the last part of their lives: The City of The Old. There is a little shop and a church. Life and death. This film is about the little shop.






LIBERTA
director: Leszek Ciechoński, Agnieszka Elbanowska
cinematographer: Sebastian Ciechoński
country: Poland
year: 2008

Liberta is a story of the perennial search for freedom. The film was shot in Southern Italy, where labor camps existed and mafia’s slave trade electrified the world two years ago. It was called the “largest disgrace of 21st century" in Italy by the media. Beautiful and classically photographed Italian landscapes contrast with reportage, and even “news" style of scenes and narration. All characters in Liberta search for freedom. Have they found it? Footage from Castelana Grotte and author’s interpretation of Plato’s texts suggest true freedom is only an unreal dream. Still, it is worth searching for…



MA'RIB
director: Rainer Komers
cinematographer: Rainer Komers
country: Germany, Yemen
year: 2008

Ma’rib is the second installation in a tetralogy examining destroyed cities. Each film is connected to one of the four elements. Ma’rib is "earth" in the form of sand, soil, and stone. The city is situated 150 km east of Yemen's capital, where the mountains meet the Rhub al-Khali desert. 4000 Diesel pumps irrigate the oasis and a new power station will supply mass electricity. Without dialogue or narration, the film's stark offering of particular habits, rhythms, and gestures of a rugged country constantly zigzags between sociological observation and sudden poetry.



MEMORY BOOKS
director: Christa Graf
cinematographer: Roland Wagner
country: Germany, Switzerland
year: 2008

In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing what they call Memory Books for their children. Every evening Dennis and Chrissi brush their teeth in the dim glow of the oil lamp. The 10-year-old watches his little sister conscientiously as they get ready for bed. Since their mother died of AIDS two years ago they are both orphans, two of more than two million of their kind in Uganda. But a unique project has emerged from the catastrophic conditions in this east African country: Memory Books, a chance for infected parents and their children to write openly, honestly and compassionately about their painful situation and help the children to gradually understand that they will soon be looking after themselves.



LITTLE TOWN OF KROKE, THE
original title: Miasteczko Kroke
directors: Natalia Schmidt, Jakub Karyś
cinematographer: Piotr Trela
country: Poland
year: 2008

The Town of Kroke is a story of pre-war Cracow, as seen by Jews. Unique, non-published archival materials show their innocent youth during the Interbellum, interrupted by the hell of the Holocaust. After the war some of them have left Polska, others have returned to Cracow. All of them feel linked to the town of their childhood and recall the forgotten world.



OUR ACTUAL IMAGE
original title: Nuestra Imagen Actual
director: Santiago Torres
cinematographer: Sebastian Delon
country: Mexico
year: 2008

One day in the heart of Mexico, the central plaza. 1440 close ups, in 1440 frames. One minute. Mexico’s real face, our actual image.






OVER MY DAD'S BODY
original title: Kosot Ru'ach Le'Aba
director: Taliya Finkel
cinematographers: Eytan Harris, Nir Friedman, Mickey Schmidt
country: Israel, Ukraine
year: 2007

The daughter of a schizophrenic man is left with more questions than answers when her father dies. Was her uncle really a KGB agent, as her father claimed?





PAINTING WITH LIGHT
director: Craig McCall
cinematographers: Bob Williams, Ricardo Coll, James Welland, Steve Chivers
country: UK
year: 2005

Painting With Light reveals the influences behind Jack Cardiff’s stunning, Oscar winning cinematography on the classic British film Black Narcissus. The film features Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Kathleen Byron, Craig McCall, Michael Powell among others.





RUNAWAY, THE
original title: Uciekinier
director: Marek Tomasz Pawłowski
cinematographer: Jacek Januszyk
country: Poland
year: 2007

The story of Kazimierz Piechowski's life is a story of a dramatic fate, common for many alike - Poles, average people form Eastern Europe, from the times of WWII till the fall of the Communism. Piechowski was imprisoned in a concentration camp, and later in a Communist prison. Despite the oppression he has never given up dreams of freedom and realization of his childhood's desire to travel. His 'true' life began when he turned 70. He is 88 today, and for the 17 years of democratic Poland he has visited with his wife 60 countries on all continents.



SLEEP FURIOUSLY
director: Gideon Koppel
cinematographer: Gideon Koppel
country: UK
year: 2007

Small farming community in mid Wales. This is a place where Koppel's parents - both refugees - found a home. It is a landscape and population that is changing rapidly as small scale agriculture is disappearing and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. The filmmaker leads us on a poetic and profound journey into a world of endings and beginnings; a world of stuffed owls, sheep and fire.



SOME KIND OF SADNESS
original title: Alguna Tristeza
director: Juan Alejandro Ramírez
cinematographer: Juan Alejandro Ramírez
country: Peru
year: 2006

A group of seemingly unrelated vignettes emerge as both personal and distant, but always intensely emotional in tone. This personal narrative offers neither formulas nor solutions: rather, it is a random pursuit for answers that ultimately unravels into a series of lyrical epiphanies.




STANDING START
directors: Adrian Mcdowall, Finlay Prestsell
cinematographers: Martin Radich, Scott Ward
country: UK
year: 2007

Just what does it take to be the fastest starter in the world? Standing Start gives a unique insight into Olympic cyclist Craig MacLean's life, his unflinching focus and preparation to battle it out on the world stage - portrayed like a gladiator.





SUMMER FROST
original title: Schafskälte
director: August Pflugfelder
cinematographer: Magdalena Hutter
country: Germany
year: 2007

The three siblings Renate, Ferdinand and Peter were brought up on a small mountain farm in the Austrian Alps. Renate and Ferdinand still live on the farm. Peter, the older one of the two brothers, has moved out and lives in the nearby valley. Out of the three siblings, he is the only one who has already found a partner. Nevertheless, giving up the farm is out of the question for the other two. It is a personal film about three young adults who won't be able to live their lives the way their parents have lived their's.



SUNDAY IN PRIPYAT, A
original title: Un dimanche à Pripiat
director: Blandine Huk, Frederic Cousseau
cinematographer: Frederic Cousseau
country: France
year: 2006

Somewhere in Europe there is a forbidden zone. Lying in the heart of this zone is Pripyat, at one time a model city inhabited by some 50,000 people. On April 26, 1986, an invisible enemy forced the residents of Pripyat and surrounding villages to evacuate the area in order to escape. Constructed in the early 1970s, Pripyat is now a ghost town. The land it was constructed upon has reverted back to its natural state, but traces of its former occupants are still visible some twenty years after.