The program was created in cooperation with the Ad Arte Foundation – a Polish foundation that promotes audiovisual culture and specializes in short films. One of their largest projects is the Short Waves film festival.
Age restrictions: Recommended for viewers aged 15 and older, accompanied by parents.
The films are shown with Ukrainian and English subtitles.
BE SOMEBODY
Director: Michał Toczek
Country: Poland
Duration: 26 minutes
Wiktor is an ordinary guy, an electrician, who moves into a new flat with his family. Soon the protagonists find out that the flat used to belong to Lech Wałęsa. Wiktor’s wife, Sylwia, decides to turn their new home into a museum and her husband into a re-enactor of the former president. Her obsession forces Wiktor to confront the legend of Lech Wałęsa - first democratically elected president of Poland.
TIGER SOUP
Director: Kacper Świtalski
Country: Poland
Duration: 36 minutes
The film tells the story of Stasiek, a welder from communist Poland who emigrated to the USA in the 1970s to work in the world's largest traveling circus – “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey”. Having one goal in mind – earning a better living for his family, Stasiek is forced to leave his wife and daughters for three years. These are three long years of living in a cramped train car, facing the hardships of emigration and longing for a family. With the first money he earns, Stasiek decides to buy a photo camera and a movie camera to document his time in the US. "Tiger Soup" not only presents the exciting adventures of our main character in the US but also outlines a universal picture of emigration.
A BEAUTIFUL WILDFLOWER MEADOW
Director: Emi Buchwald
Country: Poland
Duration: 30 minutes
Landscape architect Emil is fighting an unequal battle against a world of people uninterested in the beauty of nature. Because of his neurotic stubbornness, he plunges into a spiral of absurd events, while still trying to be a good father.
SUCH MIRACLES DO HAPPEN
Director: Barbara Rupik
Country: Poland
Duration: 14 minutes
One day, all the statues in the area come to life. They leave the roadside shrines and pedestals and calmly set off straight ahead, all in the same direction. They do not even stop for a moment. People watch the phenomenon with growing anxiety.