23 MAY — 02 JUNE 2024

23 MAY — 02 JUNE 2024

An Ordinary Country

Tomasz Wolski

Poland

2020, 51'

A film made with previously classified materials (films and videotapes) that exposes how the secret services of communist Poland spied and recorded the activities of its citizens, from the 60s to the 80s, ranging from phone calls to the most mundane details.

A film made entirely from image and sound archive materials. Wolski reconstructs the time of the Iron Curtain, in a watched and restrictive Poland, between the 60s and the 80s. Hence the very diverse image and sound quality registers. However, a single idea runs through the entire film in an exemplary way: our need as spectators to record and to think. Because if we hear a woman being questioned (interrogated) about her economic capacity as a housewife, we receive signals from everywhere that the discussion is being conducted to incriminate her. And if scrutinizing the so-called relevant facts was necessary, then what was the data gathered from the more mundane side for? The issue still remains unresolved and Wolski puts his finger on the wound. (Miguel Valverde)

Silvestre

INFO

PREMIERE TYPE

National

ORIGINAL TITLE

Zwyczajny kraj

LANGUAGE

Polish

PRODUCER

Anna Gawlita

BIO

Tomasz Wolski is a member of Guild of Polish Documentary Directors, Polish Film Academy and European Film Academy. Director of short film Daughter (Grand Prix at Angers Premiers Plan) and director, editor and camera of 13 documentaries awarded at festivals including Los Angeles Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, Punto de Vista, Nancy – Aye Aye Film Festival, Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, Camerimage & Krakow Film Festival.

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