DIRECTORS' DEBUTS COMPETITION 2016 LINE-UP!
Directors’ Debuts Competition was initiated in 2010 due to the Festival’s increasing openness to the noteworthy artists and the new film phenomena they create. The idea of creating additional competition sections was a natural consequence of our previous activities. For years we have been promoting innovative projects that combine intellectual freedom, remarkable insight into world affairs and a desire to inspire other artists of the screen.
Directors’ Debuts Competition brings new discoveries: great movies of high artistic value and great filmmakers whose new ventures surprise not only the Jury members but all audiences around the world as well.
Agony
A twenty-something student murders his girlfriend without any apparent reason, then cuts her into pieces and throws her into a dumpster. A fourteen-year-old girl attacks her mother with a knife just because she was not allowed to use the internet. These crimes presented by the film were very specific and yet undefined, undoubtedly for myriads of reasons that get lost in the mundanity of everyday life. Agony tells two parallel stories of young men who are forced by adult life to negotiate their dreams and desires with an indifferent world. Can their souls be tainted by evil too? On the one hand, they are very similar: neither has the support of a father figure; neither knows how to vent their sexual tensions. On the other hand, they come from completely different worlds and seem to be driven by entirely different things. This is a film about them, and their generation, as well as – quite simply – about the human nature.
Original title: Agonie
Director: David Clay Diaz
Cinematographer: Julian Krubasik
Produced by: Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München - University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München)
Austria, Germany, 2016
All We Had
An unemployed alcoholic who can’t seem to find her place in the world escapes with her teenage daughter from the umpteenth man to mistreat them badly. As they look for the next town and a different version of the same old story, Rita and Ruthie go on yet another odyssey of petty theft and exploitation of the kindness shown by those who naively try to help them. They sleep in their car, dreaming of a better future, and support each other in every challenging situation. Mother and daughter against the world. But eventually Rita and Ruthie are forced to face the music and stand before the very people they were trying to con, which could – but may not – become their new beginning. All We Had is the story of an unbreakable bond between mother and daughter, and at the same time a tale of good people who get lost and forget who they were, waiting for something that will never come – at least not in the shape they hope for.
Original title: All We Had
Director: Katie Holmes
Cinematographer: Brett Pawlak
Produced by: Mustard & Co
USA, 2016
Aloys
Aloys Adorn is a private detective who has lost his will to live after his father’s death. He tries to fill the existential void with a series of repetitive actions and gestures, as well as a voyeuristic streak that his job demands of him, while living in permanent emotional and physical isolation. But then, one day Aloys unexpectedly meets a woman who wants to change his way of thinking. Well, he meets Vera over the phone when she invites him to participate in a game of imagination called ‘phone walking’. It goes like this: one person opens the other’s mind through the power of voice and verbal suggestion, thus establishing a connection, devoid of imperfect physicality, which will enable both of them to go on exciting virtual adventures and become better versions of themselves. Aloys is an innovative drama that poses a series of questions about the limitations of the human psyche and the power of imagination to both build bridges of understanding and walls of ignorance.
Original title: Aloys
Director: Tobias Nölle
Cinematographer: Simon Guy Fässler
Produced by: Hugofilm Productions GmbH
Polish distributor: Solopan Sp. z o. o.
Switzerland, France, 2016
Apprentice
Aiman and Suhaila are siblings staying in a modest housing estate in Singapore, living most of their lives in the shadow of the crimes committed by their father. When he was a teenager, Aiman fell in with a bad crowd and it was only the discipline of the military that helped him to conquer his inner demons. In the beginning of the film, he starts working as a correctional officer in a maximum security prison. He could easily have become one of the convicts in his youth, so he hopes to help those who have repented their sins and wish to change. Aiman begins to develop a relationship with Rahim, the prison’s long-time executioner who has been hanging people for a few decades now, as Singapore’s law still permits the death penalty. After a while he begins to help Rahim with his job. Apprentice is not a story of the penal system, nor a sharp political accusation, but a film about people who live with death every single day, trying to give it a bit of dignity.
Original title: Apprentice
Director: Boo Junfeng
Cinematographer: Benoît Soler
Produced by: Zhao wei Films, Augenschein Filmproduktion GmbH, Akanga Film Productions, Cinémadefacto, Peanut Pictures
Polish distributor: Aurora Films
Singapore, Germany, France, 2016
Between Sea and Land
Colombia’s northern coast, on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. A row of open-air shacks stand on piles driven into the water. The poor who can’t afford to live in the city reside here. Alberto is a young man who as a child was diagnosed with dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that leads to the atrophy of muscles in the whole body. The man is forever confined to his bed, constant accompanied by a life-support machine. His only way to see the outside world is through a mirror on a stick he holds in his mouth, thus making him painfully aware he is so close to the sea, and yet so far from it. His whole world revolves around his loving mother, who does her best to make her son’s life bearable. However, Alberto is also often visited by his attractive childhood friend, Giselle, who constantly reminds him of the physical prison he lives in and will never leave. Despite all of this, Between Sea and Land is a tale of hope and boundless love between mother and son.
Original title: La Cienaga - Entre el Mar y la Tierra
Director: Manolo Cruz, Carlos Del Castillo
Cinematography: Robespierre Rodriguez
Produced by: Mago Films
Colombia, 2016
Delivery
Delivery invites the viewer on a journey into the depths of the endless Colombian forests, whose cyclical nature hides many secrets. This is a place which is modern and ancient at the same time; it has existed practically unchanged for centuries, out of the reach of the human species, which seems to insist on destroying the planet. Among the trees’ greens and bronzes, and the navy blues of the nearby river, which has been running its course for thousands of years, there stands a small house. It is modest, it leaks here and there, and it is the only proof of human existence for hundreds of kilometres around. The group of people who live here, at the very heart of the Colombian forest, make ends meet by fishing, harvesting corn, and living in symbiosis with nature. They are still strangers there, though they could not imagine living anywhere else. The film’s protagonist is Helena, who awaits the birth of her child, an event that will mark the continuation of the endless circle of life.
Original title: Nacimiento
Director: Martin Mejia Rugeles
Cinematographer: Nicolas Canniccioni
Produced by: Martin Mejia Rugeles, Yoreinare Producciones
Colombia, 2015
Demons, The
Montreal’s suburbs, seemingly tranquil, idyllic even, though pulsating with restless, often negative, energy within the houses it encompasses – the kind of energy that cannot find a vent in mundane everydayness. The place, which is exactly the same as hundreds of other suburbs, is full of more or less satisfied families, aggressively maturing teenagers, and kids only beginning to recognise the hardships of life. Among them is Félix, the film’s ten-year-old protagonist, a kind and helpful, though oversensitive, boy who sometimes reacts with cruelty to family or school problems, but in other ways is as normal as his peers. However, he is constantly exposed to the workings of external forces he does not understand, but which make the world he lives in go round. The Demons is a precise exploration of all the evil and imperfections hidden in the human soul that are being passed from one generation to the other, imposed by a society upon an individual, transferred from parents to children.
Original title: Les démons
Director: Philippe Lesage
Cinematographer: Nicolas Canniccioni
Produced by: Productions l'unité centrale, Les Films de l'Autre
Canada, 2015
Lady Macbeth
Nineteenth-century Great Britain. Katherine is a young woman who is married to an older, wealthy land owner, though she becomes a lady in name only. For her fate is to live in a world of men who treat her purely as a pretty decoration. Something pleasurable to look at, or be turned on by, or to brag about once in a while, but devoid of any signs of free will. Not to mention ambitions, desires, or dreams. Bored to death with her meaningless existence in her husband’s suffocatingly bland house, Katherine uses every opportunity to take a breath of some freedom on the nearby moors. With each subsequent day she succumbs to emotional stagnation and despair. Lady Macbeth is not, however, a tale of submission to patriarchy. When Katherine meets Sebastian, her husband’s audacious, provocative new worker who does not shy away from showing off his masculinity, the woman’s transformation begins. Gradually, with each irretrievable decision, she earns the titular comparison.
Original title: Lady Macbeth
Director: William Oldroyd
Cinematographer: Ari Wegner
Produced by: iFeatures, Sixty Six Pictures
UK, 2016
Last Family, The
Warsaw, 1977. Tomek Beksiński, a popular music critic and film translator, moves to a new flat. Nearby, in the same housing estate, live his parents – his mother Zofia, who is concerned about her son’s oversensitivity and eccentricity, and his father Zdzisław, an outstanding painter with a remarkable personality. The film shows the dramatic life of the family, which also includes Zofia’s and Zdzisław’s mothers.
Polish title: The Last Family
Director: Jan P. Matuszyński
Cinematographer: Kacper Fertacz
Produced by: Aurum Film Bodzak Hickinbotham Sp. j.
Polish distributor: KINO ŚWIAT Sp. z o. o.
Poland, 2016
Miles Ahead
A cinematic impression, breaking most of the rules for by-the-book biopics, of the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis, narrated through multiple time frames and toying with the endless possibilities of genre cinema. A tale in which nothing is for certain, and in which one does not know what was based on facts from Davis’s life and what was created within the bounds of the filmmakers’ imagination. Most of Miles Ahead takes place in 1979, at the very end of a five-year period of silence in the musician’s professional life. But the film also switches fluently between different decades, mixing numerous characters and events from Davis’s life, and adding some completely fictional ones. Jazz sessions are supplemented with car chases, drug-fuelled visions intertwine with gun-blazing, and the non-linear narrative accentuates the influence of Davis’s failed marriage on his artistic identity. The film is a creative interpretation of facts and myths about different sides of Miles Davis.
Original title: Miles Ahead
Director: Don Cheadle
Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer
Produced by: Sobini Films, Crescendo Productions, Naked City Films, BiFRost Pictures
Polish distributor: United International Pictures Sp. z o. o. (UIP Poland)
USA, 2015
Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition was initiated in 2010 due to the Festival’s increasing openness to the noteworthy artists and the new film phenomena they create. The idea of creating additional competition section was a natural consequence of our previous activities. For years we have been promoting innovative projects that combine intellectual freedom, remarkable insight into world affairs and a desire to inspire other artists of the screen.
Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition bring new discoveries: great movies of high artistic value and great filmmakers whose new ventures surprise not only the Jury members but all audiences around the world as well.
Agony
A twenty-something student murders his girlfriend without any apparent reason, then cuts her into pieces and throws her into a dumpster. A fourteen-year-old girl attacks her mother with a knife just because she was not allowed to use the internet. These crimes presented by the film were very specific and yet undefined, undoubtedly for myriads of reasons that get lost in the mundanity of everyday life. Agony tells two parallel stories of young men who are forced by adult life to negotiate their dreams and desires with an indifferent world. Can their souls be tainted by evil too? On the one hand, they are very similar: neither has the support of a father figure; neither knows how to vent their sexual tensions. On the other hand, they come from completely different worlds and seem to be driven by entirely different things. This is a film about them, and their generation, as well as – quite simply – about the human nature.
Original title: Agonie
Director: David Clay Diaz
Cinematographer: Julian Krubasik
Produced by: Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München - University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München)
Austria, Germany, 2016
Aloys
Aloys Adorn is a private detective who has lost his will to live after his father’s death. He tries to fill the existential void with a series of repetitive actions and gestures, as well as a voyeuristic streak that his job demands of him, while living in permanent emotional and physical isolation. But then, one day Aloys unexpectedly meets a woman who wants to change his way of thinking. Well, he meets Vera over the phone when she invites him to participate in a game of imagination called ‘phone walking’. It goes like this: one person opens the other’s mind through the power of voice and verbal suggestion, thus establishing a connection, devoid of imperfect physicality, which will enable both of them to go on exciting virtual adventures and become better versions of themselves. Aloys is an innovative drama that poses a series of questions about the limitations of the human psyche and the power of imagination to both build bridges of understanding and walls of ignorance.
Original title: Aloys
Director: Tobias Nölle
Cinematographer: Simon Guy Fässler
Produced by: Hugofilm Productions GmbH
Polish distributor: Solopan Sp. z o. o.
Switzerland, France, 2016
Codename Holec
Honza David is a young Czechoslovakian film director who would like to use the power of cinema to lead a charge against the Communist government and promote self-awareness among his peers. The problem is that his films are censored and nobody can legally watch them. Helmut Zilk is a popular Austrian television producer who would like to be the one to bring the latest news from behind the Iron Curtain to viewers in the West, but he begins to collaborate with the Czechoslovakian government and is forced to turn a blind eye. Between them there is a young and alluring actress named Eva. She loves Honza, but at the same time she is tempted by the freedom offered by Helmut. There will be no classic love triangle between them, though – it is 1968, the Prague Spring is already happening, and the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact is under way. Codename Holec is a poignant drama of people whose individual dreams and desires were suppressed by the world they could not do anything to change.
Original title: Deckname Holec
Director: Franz Novotny
Cinematographer: Robert Oberrainer
Produced by: Dawson Productions, Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH
Austria, Czech Republic, 2016
Eyes of My Mother, The
It begins with a brutal murder, and then it only gets more intense. A raving lunatic with a grotesque grin on his face mercilessly slaughters an older woman, who happens to be an immigrant that found asylum for her family in the idyllic American countryside. There is a witness to this heinous crime: the woman’s young daughter, who will never be the same again. Years later, the adult girl lives in seclusion, grieving the recent passing of her dear father and manifesting increasingly psychopathic inclinations. Will she become a monster as cruel as the man who tainted her life forever? The Eyes of My Mother is a tale of loneliness disturbing the mind and leading to desperation, shot in elegant and expressionistic black and white. Both a drama about a broken human being and a classical horror movie with creepy narrative twists and turns, its suggestive atmosphere builds upon Gothic imagery and melancholic yearning expressed through soulful fado music.
Original title: The Eyes of My Mother
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Cinematography: Zach Kuperstein
Produced by: Borderline Presents, Tandem Pictures
USA, 2016
My Angel
A tale as uncommon as they come, imaginative and fairylike, though at the same time painfully real. One day at a psychiatric asylum, a magician’s ex-assistant finds herself performing the greatest trick of them all: she gives birth to an invisible son. She names the boy My Angel and decides to keep him a secret to shelter him from the world’s cruelty and lack of understanding. But no child can live long in its parent’s protective bubble, and so My Angel quickly develops a liking for the outside world. There, he meets Madeleine, a blind freckled girl with red hair, beautiful eyes, and a ravishing smile who does not need her sight to love with all of her heart. She does not know the truth about his existence, which is why their relationship is honest, unique, and based on mutual trust and understanding. But there comes a time when Madeleine leaves My Angel to have the surgery that will bring back her sight. Will this change everything? Can love really be unconditional?
Original title: Mon Ange
Director: Harry Cleven
Cinematographer: Juliette Van Dormael
Produced by: Terra Incognita Films, Après le Déluge, Climax Films
Polish distributor: Mayfly
Belgium, 2016
Play the Devil
Gregory is an eighteen-year-old Trinidadian who lives in the country with his hard-working grandmother. He is an eager student, dreaming of using his knowledge and skills to leave the world of poverty and no opportunities behind. Though everyone tries to persuade him to go into medicine, he would prefer to become a professional photographer. One day, Gregory is approached by James, a much older businessman interested in his talent who offers him a taste of living in luxury. The boy lets curiosity get the best of him, especially because his new friend lends him his expensive digital camera and seems to understand his artistic yearning and moral dilemmas. Will Gregory be tempted by the forbidden fruit and risk it all? And if so, will he be able to remain true to himself after the dust has settled? Play the Devil is a tale of Trinidad and Tobago’s culture and tradition, as well as a story of the joys, sorrows, and dangers of growing up and young people’s need to find their place in the world.
Original title: Play the Devil
Director: Maria Govan
Cinematographer: James David Wall
Produced by: Play the Devil Pictures Ltd.
Trinidad & Tobago, 2016
Playground
Final day of school in a small Polish town. It's the very last chance for a 12 year old Gabrysia to tell her classmate that she had fallen in love with him. She sets up a secret meeting and blackmails the boy to show up. But what was supposed to be an intimate talk spins out of control and leads to an unexpected and tragic ending.
Polish title: Plac zabaw
Director: Bartosz Maciej Kowalski
Cinematographer: Mateusz Skalski
Produced by: FILM IT Sp. z o. o.
Polish distributor: NEXT FILM Sp. z o. o.
FIRST LOOK - TV PILOTS COMPETITION LINE-UP!
We present the line-up of our new section First Look - TV Pilots Competition. Cinematographers of eleven television projects will compete for the festival's main prize.
11.22.63: The Rabbit Hole
Still from "11.22.63," courtesy of Warner Bros.
In this TV series created by Bridget Carpenter, an English teacher from Maine discovers a way to travel back in time, leading him to attempt to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, one of the crucial moments in the history of the USA. In the pilot episode directed by Kevin Macdonald, the protagonist travels to 1960, three years before the Dallas tragedy, with a strong belief that he can change the course of history. However, he quickly discovers that detailed accounts of JFK’s death and data about people connected to the assassination will not be enough to complete his mission. Especially as the past obviously does not like to be changed, making the protagonist pay for his successful actions with the suffering of people he has met along the way. 11.22.63 takes the viewer on a journey to a bygone era – a time during which America began losing its innocence – making for a riveting, cerebral thriller and a suspenseful crime story.
Original title: 11.22.63: The Rabbit Hole
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Cinematographer: David Katznelson
Produced by: Bad Robot, Carpenter B, Warner Bros. Television
Distributor: Hulu
Polish distributor: FOX International Channels Poland Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
1992: Episode #1.1
Still from "1992," courtesy of Beta Film GmbH
For Italy, the first half of the 1990s was a time of political cleansing and numerous corruption scandals that shook the country’s very foundation, forcing it subsequently to seek a fresh start. This drama series, created by Stefano Accorsi, Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi, and Stefano Sardo, tells the tale of six people at the very centre of the political and social changes, some of them ambitious and power-hungry, others seeking different kinds of redemption. Among them is a young police officer who was infected with HIV because of the actions of a greedy businessman, a woman who uses her body to pursue a career on national television, and a Gulf War veteran who accidentally becomes the new face of a political party on the rise. Through his mastery of the language of images, the director of 1992’s pilot Giuseppe Gagliardi has created a complex and multidimensional story about people who were caught up in the winds of change without ever noticing the serious consequences on the horizon.
Original title: 1992: Episode #1.1
Director: Giuseppe Gagliardi
Cinematographer: Michele Paradisi
Produced by: Wildside
Distributor: Sky Italia, Beta Film GmbH
Italy, 2015
Crown, The: Wolferton Splash
Still from "The Crown," courtesy of Netflix
This drama series, created by Peter Morgan, narrates the different events that shaped the new face of the British Royal Family after World War Two. The pilot episode, directed by Stephen Daldry, begins when Princess Elizabeth is already awaiting her wedding with Prince Philip who in the first scenes abandons his Greek and Danish royal titles and becomes a British citizen. Their marriage is a happy and prosperous one, bringing the royal family subsequent heirs, while King George VI is diagnosed with a grave illness. Nevertheless, Elizabeth and Philip do not suspect that soon they will be tasked with heading the British Commonwealth, thus leaving their personal aspirations and putting their future plans forever on hold. The Crown is an elegant and complex story that slowly goes under your skin, with the most important things happening not through dialogues, but non-verbally, in a space existing between the characters and defining who they are both as normal people and members of the royal family.
Original title: The Crown: Wolferton Splash
Director: Stephen Daldry
Cinematographer: Adriano Goldman
Produced by: Left Bank Pictures
Distributor: Netflix
USA, 2016
False Flag: Episode 1
Still from "False Flag," courtesy of
© 2015 Keshet Broadcasting and Tender Productions
Five ordinary Israelis are accused of a high-profile political kidnapping in Russia, leading to an international scandal. The problem is that none of them seems to know what is going on, and Mossad is confused about the whole thing as well. Is this a matter of anonymous perpetrators stealing their passports, or is one of the five hiding a secret? False Flag, a series created by Maria Feldman and Amit Cohen, is a crime thriller with elements of black comedy that resembles a murder mystery party game in which all players proclaim their innocence until the villains are revealed and the group finds out who was manipulating whom. Oded Ruskin, the pilot episode’s director, puts the viewer at the heart of the action and leaves them guessing about who can be trusted, only to turn the story upside down and start the whole cat-and-mouse game afresh. Don’t get lost in the labyrinth of false trails and suspicious behaviour, and try to get to the bottom of everything before the truth gets out on its own.
Original title: False Flag: Episode 1
Director: Oded Ruskin
Cinematographer: Nadav Hekselman
Produced by: Tender Productions
Distributor: Keshet International
Israel, 2015
Golden Life
Still from "Golden Life," photo by Stalter György,
courtesy of HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
The suburbs of big cities are full of wealthy and influential people who made their fortunes by ignoring the law and social rules. Golden Life’s (anti)hero is one such person; an intelligent conman living in an affluent Budapest suburb who had to cross many lines to get his family where it is now. Many years have passed, however, and the man has matured, his youthful bravura giving way to a strong desire to start an honest life. But it’s not easy to leave one’s shady dealings when unpaid bills are piling up and the family isn’t able to resign from its expensive way of living. Gabor Krigler created this TV series based on the Finnish format in Helppo elämä, making a multidimensional and dramatic, yet also humour-filled, tale of different aspects of human nature. In turn, the pilot episode’s director Zsombor Dyga went the distance to make sure every viewer was able to see themselves in the characters’ attitudes and actions.
Original title: Aranyélet: Még pár éved van, aztán nem lesz több móka
Polish title: Złote życie
Director: Zsombor Dyga
Cinematographer: Gábor Marosi
Produced by: Laokoon Filmgroup, HBO Europe
Distributor: HBO Hungary
Polish distributor: HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
Hungary, 2015
Kettering Incident, The: Anna
Still from "The Kettering Incident,"
courtesy of British Broadcasting Corporation
The protagonist of this Australian drama series, created by Victoria Madden and Vincent Sheehan, is a woman suffering from mysterious blackouts who leaves her turbulent London life only to return to her Tasmanian hometown of Kettering. She left it as a 14-year-old girl after she was found covered in blood, with amnesia, wandering through the nearby forest, while her best friend had gone missing. Upon her arrival, the woman is met with aversion and suspicion by the locals, who have become divided over the years because of ecological and ideological issues. Suddenly, another girl goes missing without a trace and the nightmare begins all over again. The Rowan Woods-directed pilot episode of The Kettering Incident revolves around the ways in which human nature and memory work, while simultaneously taking the viewers on an exciting journey to the scenic heart of Tasmania with its misty woods and wilderness that guard many secrets.
Original title: The Kettering Incident: Anna
Director: Rowan Woods
Cinematographer: Ari Wegner
Produced by: Porchlight Films
Distributor: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Polish distributor: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Australia, 2016
Ku'damm 56: Lieben - aber wie?
Still from "Ku'damm 56," courtesy of ZDF Enterprises GmbH
A tale of the struggle for women’s rights and social transformations in Germany told to the rhythm of rock ’n’ roll’s bravado. Berlin, 1956. One of the daughters of the conservative owner of a reputable dance school rebels against the arbitrary rules making women subservient to men. She wants to decide for herself how to live and with whom to share this life. This means she is looked down on by not only her mother and sisters, who have already found the men they want to safely marry, but by all of society. However, the generational storm is on its way to shake up the conservative thinking of post-war Germany. The Ku’damm 56 mini-series, produced by Nico Hofmann and Benjamin Benedict, tells the story of the not-so-distant past when women were treated as an attractive bonus to their men, though the first episode directed by Sven Bohse is full of the spirit of youth and hopefulness – and dancing that can bridge generations.
Original title: Ku'damm 56: Lieben - aber wie?
Director: Sven Bohse
Cinematographer: Michael Schreitel
Produced by: UFA Fiction
Distributor: ZDF Enterprises GmbH
Germany, 2016
Night Of, The: The Beach
Still from "The Night Of," courtesy of HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
This miniseries, created by Richard Price and Steven Zaillian and based on the British TV show Criminal Justice, is set against the background of the cultural, national, and racial melting pot that makes up a large part of modern New York’s identity. The Night Of’s protagonist is a naïve and shy American-Pakistani student who becomes the main suspect in a murder case... though he does not remember if he is guilty of the crime. Major supporting roles went to the police ethos that demands each case and piece of evidence be double-checked, the American justice system that in theory should exist above all divisions, and the city that never sleeps, watching indifferently over the human drama that goes on within its boundaries. The pilot episode, directed by Zaillian himself, is a masterclass in creating visual suspense and building a believable, complex world that is filled with living and breathing characters with different attitudes, faults, and reactions.
Polish title: Długa noc: The Beach
Director: Steven Zaillian
Cinematographer: Robert Elswit
Produced by: BBC Drama Productions, BBC Worldwide Productions, Film Rites, Home Box Office (HBO)
Distributor: Home Box Office (HBO)
Polish distributor: HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
Ramona: Ramona
Still from "Ramona," courtesy of AndrésWood Producciones S.A.
Chile, the late 1960s. After the unexpected death of their mother, two country girls leave their volatile father to start a new life in the capital, Santiago. When they arrive there, however, they are quickly conned and robbed, and made to realise that they cannot trust anyone, especially those who claim to want to help them. The girls do finally find a friendly soul in a local prostitute, who teaches them how to live and survive in a big city. Growing up in a world that is completely indifferent to their existence, the girls have to take each and every job they can find, all while trying not to get tainted by the cynicism and world-weariness of their surroundings. The series was created by Andrés Wood, who also directed Ramona's pilot episode, and it deals with the everyday life of Chilean people some fifty years ago, while simultaneously telling the tale of three brave, hopeful women and their struggle with cruel fate.
Original title: Ramona: Ramona
Director: Andrés Wood
Cinematographer: Miguel Ioan Littin-Menz
Produced by: Andrés Wood Producciones
Distributor: Fly Content
Chile, 2016
Vinyl: Pilot
Still from "Vinyl," courtesy of Home Box Office Inc.
Terence Winter, Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, and Rich Cohen created a TV series about the chaotic, exciting, and frantic musical 1970s, when the failure of the hippie movement and the ever-growing nightmare of the Vietnam War made America look for new roads to go down. The protagonist is a record label executive and the owner of the label American Century who struggles in this new reality, while also struggling with serious drug and family issues. He decides to risk everything that he has achieved in order to find and promote a future star and renew his long-lost passion for music. Vinyl’s pilot episode, directed by Martin Scorsese, takes the viewer on a journey to awesome rock concerts, insane underground events full of youth energy, crazy private parties in enormous villas, and even more. It also gives us a peek behind the scenes of the music industry and international business meetings. But it never forgets about its main characters, beautiful in all their faults, who helped to create this world.
Original title: Vinyl: Pilot
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto
Produced by: Jagged Films, Cold Front Productions, Home Box Office (HBO)
Distributor: Home Box Office (HBO)
Polish distributor: HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
Westworld: The Original
Still from "Westworld," courtesy of Home Box Office Inc.
Westworld the TV series, created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan, is based on Michael Crichton’s film of the same name. It brings to life a futuristic amusement park, made to resemble the bygone world of the nineteenth century’s Wild West. After entering its premises, the establishment’s wealthy guests can do whatever they desire, whether that’s becoming brave and reckless adventurers, impersonating men of law and order armed with Colts and strong moral codes, or murdering, raping and doing other evil things. All as a part of safe, artificially created, and fully controlled virtual reality entertainment. However, in the Jonathan Nolan-directed pilot episode something goes terribly wrong, and the park’s technologically advanced androids, created solely for the purpose of entertaining its visitors, begin to behave in an unpredictable way. Is this a sign that somehow they have gained consciousness? Are humans from the park in danger? What exactly does it mean to be human?
Original title: Westworld: The Original
Director: Jonathan Nolan
Cinematographer: Paul Cameron
Produced by: Jerry Weintraub Productions, Kilter Films, Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television
Distributor: Home Box Office (HBO)
Polish distributor: HBO Polska Sp. z o. o.
USA, 2016
