Mondovisioni. I documentari di Internazionale

The review Mondovisioni: the documentaries of “Internazionale” tells the complexity of our time through exemplary and unfiltered stories that engage and involve us.

THE PLOT

In 2021, the border area between Poland and Belarus became a forbidden zone, three kilometers wide, where refugees found themselves brutally trapped. They had become the stakes in a political clash: Belarus had deceived them by promising safe passage to the EU, but in Poland they were turned away and forced to return beyond the border. Once back in Belarus, however, they were sent back towards Poland: a horrific stalemate in a hostile and dangerous territory. Maciek lives with his family on the Polish side of the border and welcomed an exhausted Syrian refugee, twenty-seven-year-old Alhyder, into his home. After regaining his strength, Alhyder contemplates his next steps. Where to go without endangering himself or Maciek? The tension is palpable in this sensitive and discreet documentary, which portrays the emotions on the faces of the Polish family members and their guest without sensationalism. The situation is disastrous, and a solution seems impossible. Yet, at the same time, the film is permeated with the warmth of solidarity and human contact.

THE DIRECTOR

Zuzanna Solakiewicz is a writer and director, graduated in Humanities from the University of Warsaw. Between 2005 and 2009, she lived in Israel, where she studied film directing at the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School in Jerusalem, before completing an internship at the Łódź Film School. Her documentary 15 Corners Of The World won the Critics' Week at the 2014 Locarno Festival, the award for Best Documentary at the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, and other accolades.  The Soil from 2021 was presented at the Krakow Film Festival, DocsMX in Mexico City, and the RAI Film Festival in London.

Zvika Portnoy graduated in photography from the BEZALEL Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 2007, and in Cinematography and Directing from the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School in Jerusalem in 2011. He is a member of the Israeli Association of Photographers, the author of several photographic exhibitions and video art, and a cinematographer on numerous short films, feature films, and documentaries, including the acclaimed 15 Corners Of The World directed by Zuzanna Solakiewicz. Since 2011, he has been living and working in Poland.