Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF | 2017 | FICTION | 25' 40" | DCP | Colour | 5.1 | Polish OV
Ela lives in a small provincial town in Poland. Her daily life is stuck in a routine, balancing work and family. But Ela has a dream: Like many young Polish people, Ela, too, wants to escape the tristesse of the housing estate and move West, into a better life.
KAROLINA ROMUK‑WODORACKA, BARTOSZ SAK, KAROLICA PORCARI, MIKOŁAJ TRZYBIŃSKI, BJÖRN HEIENBROCK
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Oliver Adam Kusio / PRODUCER Simon B. Stein / CINEMATOGRAPHER Marco Müller / EDITOR Anna‑Lena Laura Engelhardt / MUSIC Azadeh Zandieh / SOUND DESIGNER Azadeh Zandieh / PRODUCTION DESIGNER Fanny Welz / COSTUME DESIGNER Janina Kuhlmann / GAFFER Jakob Reinhardt
Ela - Sketches on a Departure has won the GOLDEN HORSEMAN for best short film at the 29th International Short Film Festival FILMFEST DRESDEN and was selected for the short film competition of the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes (amonst others). In 2017 it was shortlisted for the German Short Film Award LOLA and scored the Deutsche- Film und Medienbewertung's top certification mark for outstanding quality.
Born to Polish parents who settled in Germany before his birth in search of a better life, Oliver Adam Kusio carries with him the remains of the deracination which also haunts his cinema. Ela - Szkice na Pożegnanie (Ela - Sketches on a Departure) is the melancholic and solar portrait of the hope and pain a definite uprooting can stir. Shot "like a jazz piece" in the director's own words, this intimate gesture, yet universal in scope, bears its author's experience in documentary and evokes heroines of the Dardenne brothers and Andrea Arnold. A powerful poem.
- Carole Milleliri
MDR & Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF | 2018 | FICTION | 30' 00" | DCP | Colour | 5.1 | German OV
Janusz, a man in his late 40s, is confronted with the sudden death of his estranged wife. To cover up for all his failings, he hires a young prostitute to act as his girlfriend and join him for the funeral in the village he left many years ago.
BEA BROCKS, ROBERT GALLINOWSKI, IRIS BÖHM
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Oliver Adam Kusio / PRODUCERS Simon B. Stein, Joshua Domnick/ CINEMATOGRAPHER Marco Müller / EDITOR Michał Kuleba / MUSIC Marcus Sander / SOUND RECORDIST Till Lorenz Aldinger / SOUND DESIGNER Azadeh Zandieh / PRODUCTION DESIGNER Fanny Welz / COSTUME DESIGNERS Belle Santos, Ran Chai Bar‑zvi / GAFFERS Hendrik Römer, Jakob Reinhardt
In development / treatment stage | 2021 | FICTION | 120' 00" | Colour | Polish OV
In the seaside village of Naruszewo, where most inhabitants work for Ukrainian oligarch, a journalist and shipyard worker are driven to reckless political action by their foster-daughter. In the face of dire consequences the couple has to decide whether to keep sheltering the teenager or hand her over to the authorities.