CAMERIMAGE 2016 SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Added: 21.10.2016
For many years Special Screenings have been organized at Camerimage. This section
presents the most interesting out-of-competition productions from all over the world and is always
one of the most attractive at the Festival.
Barney's Version
Barney Panofsky is not a particularly nice guy, unless you give him something to drink and a
good cigar to smoke, though it is entirely possible that it will make him even more unpleasant.
Barney has not achieved anything memorable in his life. He did not enjoy success as a TV
producer because of his lack of talent and good taste. He could not make any of his three wives
stay with him, although they all loved him for some reason at one point or another. Because of his
behaviour, he did not make many friends, and his best pal was a drug addict who died in
mysterious circumstances. One could even say that the protagonist of Barney’s Version is a kind
of loser who has tried his whole life to make something worth being excited about, but has
always been his greatest enemy in doing so. The film is narrated by the old Barney, who
reminisces about his life, and because the guy clearly has a talent for telling stories about his
own failures, it is difficult not to empathise with the character in them.
Polish title: Świat według Barneya
Director: Richard J. Lewis
Cinematographer: Guy Dufaux
Produced by: The Harold Greenberg Fund, Serendipity Point Films, Optix Digital Pictures
Polish distributor: SPI International Poland Sp. z o. o.
Canada, Italy, 2010
Birth of a Nation, The
The Birth of a Nation is partially based on real events, partially dramatized – the tale of the twoday rebellion by black slaves led by Nat Turner that ended in the slaughter of both the guilty and
the innocent. At the same time, it was the first decisive signal to white plantation owners that
America was ready for a change. Thirty years later, this fact was confirmed by the Civil War. The
film narrates the story of Turner’s life; his birth, growing up with the Bible in his hand, and gradual
assumption of the responsibility for leading the angry, degraded, tortured, raped people who
could no live longer as slaves. A century after D. W. Griffith’s controversial The Birth of a Nation,
in which black Americans were still treated as subhuman, the new The Birth of a Nation takes up
the perspective of those whose voices were ignored for too long. The film brings back to light the
memory of an event that was important to the creation of America’s national identity, but that has
largely been forgotten.
Polish title: Narodziny narodu
Director: Nate Parker
Cinematographer: Elliot Davis
Produced by: Phantom Four, Bron Studios, Mandalay Pictures, Tiny Giant Entertainment,
Creative Wealth Media Finance, Argent Pictures, Follow Through Productions, Hit 55
Ventures, Infinity United Entertainment, Juniper Productions, Novofam Productions, Oster
Media, Point Made Films
Polish distributor: Imperial CinePix Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
Café Society
New York, the 1930s. Bobby is a young and naive dreamer who imagines his life as something
more than just a series of predictable years in the Bronx, devoid of any excitement. He therefore
follows his heart and goes to the only place in America in which dreams supposedly do come
true every single day – Hollywood. However, Bobby has the advantage of having an uncle who
is an agent for the biggest stars, so he soon begins to swiftly climb the film industry’s ladder. At
the same time he falls in love with a girl, beautiful yet already disillusioned with Hollywood’s
glamour, who makes him see things in a new light. However, before Bobby understands who he
really is and how he would actually like his life to be, he will experience firsthand that not all
dreams should be fulfilled and that, indeed, all is fair in love. Café Society is a bittersweet tale of
becoming an adult in a world full of illusions, and of the illusions of becoming an adult.
Polish title: Śmietanka towarzyska
Director: Woody Allen
Cinematographer: Vittorio Storaro
Produced by: Gravier Productions, Inc. for release by Amazon Studios/Lionsgate
Polish distributor: KINO ŚWIAT Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon is a true story of the events leading to the explosion of the Deepwater
Horizon drilling rig and the subsequent oil spill (the largest in the history of the United States) in
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. However, rather than narrating the effects of the ecological
disaster, the film focuses on the rig workers who were forced to fight for their survival in a trap of
extreme proportions, surrounded by millions of tons of water, all while struggling with mud, fire,
and oil. The external conditions make it impossible for the rescue team to get there on time. The
survivors, over a hundred people led by Mike Williams, make a desperate attempt to escape from
the red-hot prison and return safely to their families. But the situation is getting worse by the
minute. A riveting disaster movie that begins by bringing the audience closer to the oil rig
workers, depicting the hardships of their everyday lives, only to throw them into the middle of a
fiery hell.
Polish title: Żywioł. Deepwater Horizon
Director: Peter Berg
Cinematographer: Enrique Chediak
Produced by: Participant Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Summit Entertainment LLC,
Closest to the Hole Productions, Leverage Entertainment, TIK Film
Polish distributor: Monolith Films Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
Killing Jesus
The film adaptation of a book by Bill O’Reilly, the popular journalist and television host
professionally known for his work on Fox News. It tells the story of the birth, life, and death of
Jesus Christ by focusing on the cultural clashes and the difficult political relations between the
Roman authorities and Jewish patriarchs. The film makes a conscious effort to concentrate on
the social and historical background of the familiar tale, as well as on depicting Jesus more as a
human preacher bringing the message of love and forgiveness in times in which there was too
little of them. The result is that Christ’s image differs from the one shown in the most notable
religious film productions. Regardless of what the viewer’s faith is – whether you are deeply
religious, a hard-core atheist, or you would like to believe but cannot find a reason to – Killing
Jesus is one of those films which will always provoke a debate.
Polish title: Zabić Jezusa
Director: Chris Menaul
Cinematographer: Ousama Rami
Produced by: Scott Free Productions, Dune Films
Polish distributor: FOX International Channels Poland Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2015
Light Between Oceans, The
Tom Sherbourne returns to his native Australia, shell-shocked after what he had to endure in the
trenches of World War I. He desperately seeks a job of silence and tranquillity, so he agrees to
keep tend a lighthouse on the island of Janus Rock, supplied only once every couple of months
by a small ship. Before Tom gets to his asylum on the edge of the human world, he falls in love
with the young and spontaneous Isabel. Some time later they get married and begin to build their
new life around the lighthouse and the adjacent house. They live by the rhythm of the tides,
though still subject to personal tragedies, until the day they find a boat washed ashore containing
a man’s dead body and a barely alive infant. They decide to keep the baby and not to reveal the
truth to anyone. The Light Between Oceans is a poignant melodrama about making decisions
and accepting their consequences, and a universal tale of the desires, joys, and weaknesses that
fill human hearts.
Polish title: Światło między oceanami
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cinematographer: Adam Arkapaw
Produced by: Heyday Films, Touchstone Pictures, Reliance Entertainment - Big Pictures,
Amblin Entertainment, Participant Media, DreamWorks SKG, LBO Productions
Polish distributor: Monolith Films Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2015
Naked lunch
Secret agents, government conspiracies, accidental murders, doppelgängers of dead wives,
huge talking insects, creepy typewriters, and many other things that exist in the mind of an
exterminator who has overdosed on insect powder and lost the ability to differentiate between
reality and the creation of his tainted imagination. But what if William Lee really has experienced
all of this, but has been made a scapegoat by the people from the mysterious Interzone who do
not want the world to know of their existence? This hallucinogenic, meta-textual, narratively
elaborate, often loose on cause-and-effect relations, film adaptation of the cult novel by William
S. Burroughs was considered unfilmable. This is a tale of a drug-induced flow of creativity and a
narcotic haze blurring the distinction between reality and nightmare. A unique journey into the
mouth of madness, as well as one of the films you do not have to understand to lose yourself in –
or to be afraid of.
Polish title: Nagi lunch
Director: David Cronenberg
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Produced by: Téléfilm Canada, The Ontario Film Development Corporation, Recorded
Picture Company (RPC)
Polish distributor: Solopan Sp. z o. o.
Canada, Japan, UK, 1991
On the Silver Globe
A group of astronauts leave the Earth with the hope of starting a new civilisation on some distant
planet, free from the problems and faulty systems of the one they decided to escape. They are
successful in their endeavour, at least in the beginning. Yet, as their children grow up, the
endless cycle begins anew. The last of the astronauts dies, aware that the shipmates’ ideals
have failed. Some time after, the planet is visited by another man from the Earth. He is almost
instantly announced as the messiah who will bring an end to the slavery of humans to the
planet’s native inhabitants. Only the viewer is able to appreciate the bitter irony of it all. On the
Silver Globe is a visionary Polish science-fiction film which was never finished in the way the
director wanted it to be due to the political climate in the country at the time. Today, it can be
experienced in a version that has some scenes shot eleven years after the production halted,
emphasising the uniqueness of the whole project.
Polish title: Na srebrnym globie
Director: Andrzej Żuławski
Cinematographer: Andrzej J. Jaroszewicz
Produced by: Studio Filmowe KADR
Polish distributor: Studio Filmowe KADR
Poland, 1987
Paterson
Photo Credit Mary Cybulski
Every bus driver can become a poet, if only they have enough talent and strong will, but not every
poet can become a bus driver. Paterson, the main character of Paterson, a drama set in the small
American town of... Paterson, is actually both. Driving through the sleepy streets, he observes the
people he passes by, as well as his bus’s passengers, only to fill blank pages with poems that
begin to emerge in his head later on. All of this enables him to keep the desired rhythm to his life,
one of numerous daily routines along with an occasional surprise. The latter comes mainly in the
form of his energetic and creative wife, who would like to do many things at the same time, but
ultimately can’t stick to any of them. The film’s narrative takes the viewer to a world of normal
people with normal problems, and will not make friends with viewers looking for action and
snappy dialogue, though it can inspire you to stop for a while, take a look around, and appreciate
the beauty of the surrounding world.
Polish title: Paterson
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematographer: Frederick K. Elmes
Produced by: K5 Filmproduktion, Amazon Studios, Animal Kingdom Films, Le Pacte,
Inkjet Productions
Polish distributor: GUTEK Film Sp. z o. o.
USA, Germany, France, 2016
Swiss Army Man
Due to a series of tragic events, Hank finds himself stranded on a desert island. When he loses
all hope of being rescued, he decides to hang himself, but just before he finishes the act he
notices a young man’s corpse lying on the beach. A corpse, one might add, that is moving
around due to spasms caused by intestinal gases. What can Hank do in such an absurd, deadend situation? He throws away his provisional gallows, takes the farting corpse out to open sea,
and rides it, like an amazing water scooter, to the mainland. Strange? That is only the beginning
of the surrealistic odyssey during which Hank and Manny – seeing as the colder of the
mismatched duo ultimately begins to talk, and quite sensibly at times – experience many exciting
adventures, while learning that a human body can become a multifunctional tool for a survivor’s
everyday needs. Despite all of the madness that happens on screen, Swiss Army Man is a
surprisingly deep film about the frailty of human nature.
Original title: Swiss Army Man
Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Cinematographer: Larkin Seiple
Produced by: Cold Iron Pictures, Blackbird Films, Tadmor
USA, 2016