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The Best Polish Documentary at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity! In the Rearview with two awards at the biggest documentary film festival in Poland
BEST POLISH FILM AWARD
In the Polish Competition at the 20th MDAG, 11 films competed for the Best Polish Film Award and EUR 3,000 prize. The best was selected by the jury: Anna Tatarska – film critic, journalist, Eric Hynes – curator of the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) and Sirkka Möller – member of the selection committee of the Panorama section at the Berlinale.
Justification: In a world that is desensitized by cruelty and war, creating a film that moves us by showing us what we think we already know is a rare accomplishment. By stepping aside and focusing on the survivors, Maciej Hamela gives their stories and their grief a safe space in the back of the minibus that evacuates them into an unknown future. IN THE REARVIEW is an example of a simply yet effectively constructed documentary film that is non-extractive – giving back as much as it takes. Hamela reaches an honesty that does not betray his protagonists, and which is needed today maybe more than ever.
THE ARTHOUSE CINEMA ASSOCIATION AWARD IN THE POLISH COMPETITION:
The main prize is support for the promotional campaign of the winning film in cinemas in the amount of PLN 8,000. At the deliberations on 16th of May, 2023, the jury consisting of Magdalena Cichocka – Kino Bajka (Darłowo), Rafał Mościcki – Kino Meduza (Opole) and Piotr Szczyszyk – Kino Pałacowe (Poznań), unanimously decided to award the film In the Rearview by Maciej Hamela.
Justification: In the Rearview is a moving documentary about the escape of people who overnight became war refugees. The car driven by the director of the film, Maciej Hamela, turns into an asylum of sorts. Traversing hundreds of kilometers, in an act of heroic help, it becomes a space for conversations, confessions, a moment to catch a breath and even medical transport. It functions as an important reminder of the scale of the tragedy we have been witnessing since February 24, 2022. This film is a universal warning, an indictment and an extremely courageous testimony of the time of war, the dramatic situation of millions of people who are our neighbours. In the Rearview is a modest, precise and – most importantly – urgently needed film for all viewers in Poland, to keep remembering Ukraine more than a year after the start of Russian aggression.
