Anna Chichinadze

The Batumi International Film Festival has been launched, with Andrzej Wajda’s 2007 film “Katyn” opening on October 23.

Wajda, who couldn’t attend the festival, sent a letter to organizers and guests of the event.

“It is terribly sad that I cannot be with you this evening for the showing of my film Katyn, as it is a huge part of my life. My father, Captain Jakub Wajda, was among the Polish officers who were murdered by NKWD in Kharkov, and has been buried there. Katyn was a terrible crime against prisoners of war. I am happy that I have lived through times in which this film could be shown in an independent Georgia,” he writes in the letter. Wajda said his absence was due to his work on a new film, “Tatarak,” based on the writing of Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.

“Katyn” was an Oscar nominee about the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. The plot focuses on a captain whose wife refuses to believe he is dead. A gesture of friendship within the harsh confines of the prison camp where Andrzej and his fellow officers are held results in a case of mistaken identity that helps to keep his wife's hopes alive.

With the support of the French embassy, the film festival will include a retrospective of the French director Eric Rohmer. His 5 films will be presented, which will be quite interesting for Georgian cinema lovers, and a good continuation after the retrospective of Andrzej Wajda.

The festival has been held annually since 2006, involving filmmakers from 23 countries, including Georgia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Romania, England, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, France, Brazil, USA, Finland, Iran, Ukraine and the Baltic States. They present 55 films, among them Georgian films, foreign contestants, participants of retrospective screenings, and programs like “Meet the Jury.”

Among the 9 contesting documentary films is Georgian documentary film director Nino Kirtadze’s “Durakovo,” shot in 2007 and awarded in the Sundance Film Festival last year.

The festival closes with Emir Kusturica’s film “Promise me.” But the films are not the only event of the festival. Along with the screenings, several photo exhibitions are held there, among them photo chronicles of Katyn and other Polish films, and the works of Batumi artists. Also, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute presents the International Film Seminar, dedicated to the works of Krzysztof Kieslowski.

The contestant movies will compete for the Grand Prix and prizes in the following nominations: Grand Prix, Best Feature Movie, Best Documentary, Best Actor, Best Actress and the Jury’s special prix. Besides the additional prizes, a “Lifetime Achievement Award” will be given to one Georgian and one foreign cinematographer. The head of the jury is director Pawel Pawlikowski.

URL: http://georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=5864