Dorota Wardęszkiewicz

Composed from the conversations that the director holds with people passing by in the street under his Warsaw apartment, each story in 'The Balcony Movie' is unique and deals with the way we try to cope with life as individuals. All together, they create a self-portrait of contemporary human life, and the passers-by present a composite picture of today's world.

The life of a female weaver is thrown onto the socio-political canvas of pre-war and post-war communist Poland through the use of expressive allegorical and symbolic imagery in this imaginative take on the documentary form.

The protagonist of the film is Tomasz Machciński, a man with a hundred faces, or rather with one face, but one that is both a material and a work of art. Machciński photographs himself disguised as famous people.

The Polish village of Stare Juchy has been pulled apart. A third of the population left to work in Iceland, and those who stayed behind—most of them from the older generation—are hoping for their return. But by now their children and grandchildren are settling into new lives on the other side of Europe. The distance separating them is great and the journey expensive, so they don’t get to hug each other very often. The best alternative is intensive contact by Skype.

The content of the film is a set of reflections of the author reflected in unusual combinations of trick shots based on the principles of geometric division of the frame. People and the city walls around them, their everyday life presented in an unusual way, create conditions for personal perception of the film by each viewer individually.

What does it mean to be awake in a world that seems satisfied to be asleep? Kris and Michal push their experiences of life and love to a breaking point as they restlessly roam the city streets in search of answers, adrift in the euphoria and uncertainty of youth.

A group of teenagers run away from a computer game camp after group leaders confiscate their computers and cut their access to the Internet. The impossibility to escape to the virtual world makes it equally impossible to stay in the former reality. The youngsters are found 20 days later in the forest, deeply traumatised by hiding in silence and the knowledge that one of them is forever lost.

A Polish vehicle traverses the roads of Ukraine. On board, people are evacuated following the Russian invasion. This van becomes a fragile and transitory refuge, a zone of confidences and confessions of exiles who have only one objective, to escape the war.

A film on the world's most bizarre charity: based on the idea that sex can change the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the internet.

Writer Slawomir Mrozek recalls his past as he prepares himself to move out from Mexico and resettle in his native Poland. He discusses his youth, career and emigration, while walking down his vast Mexican ranch La Epifania.

What are the limits of personal sacrifice? The film tells the story of a match factory worker who takes up a remarkable challenge. We observe several crucial months in her life as she attempts to turn her dreams into reality. It’s the story of an extraordinary transformation, and about a love that gives her life meaning.

Documentary about preparations of Krystian Lupa's play based on Kafka's “The Trial”.

A film about the possibilities of our brain. A poetic journey deep into the world of thoughts of people with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Where do the boundaries of our minds lie, and how much does culture confine or even extinguish our creativity in everyday life and even in love? In the film, we meet people of various ages who experience autism to differing degrees on the spectrum of the illness. With some, there is practically no contact at all, whereas others at first glance give the appearance of being “healthy.” Each of our subjects is a separate world and a unique means of seeking his or her own path in life.

Four nights in Caracas. A documentary essay about chaos and civilization.

Relationships with the people you love most are often the most complicated. This is the problem Hania and her mother Ewa face during their sessions with a psychotherapist, filmed intimately and with the utmost respect by director Paweł Łoziński. The camera always focuses on one person at a time, revealing every emotion hidden behind the words and silences. The empathetic therapist carefully but purposefully peels away the hard layers under which mother and daughter shield themselves. Little by little, the personal tragedies that hamper their communication rise to the surface, as well as the source of the longing for love and acknowledgement that they find so hard to fulfill.

An intimate portrait of the city and its people. We meet the characters in the NYC subway and we follow them to the surface finding out about their lives, cravings, passions, hopes and dreams - sometimes lost and sometimes still waiting to be fulfilled. What comes out of it is an emotional tale of solitude that haunts us in 21st century western world.

Two acclaimed documentary film-makers - father and son - drive from Poland to Paris to see the place where the ashes of the father's mother are buried. What accompanies them on the way are resentments, quarrels and sincere confessions.

Alexei is a nineteen year old recruit being flown in to perform his military service on the frontier of northern Russia. The base is one of few such remaining outposts on the Arctic Ocean. There are five other seasoned and long serving soldiers stationed here, each with their own personal story or secret that has caused them to retreat from the real world. Their training and breaking in of the new arrival is sometimes humorous, at times harsh. Gradually, they each reveal something of themselves in their daily interactions and private moments as they continue their absurd duty in this snow covered no man's land, hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement.

Norbert, the protagonist of the film, is a priest. But also a father and a criminal convicted of bank robbery. His future is uncertain, as is his family's.