Ela - Sketches on a Departure

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


Love - Or Memory of Judith R.

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


Love - Or Memory of Judith R. has been selected for a number of international film festivals, including the 41st Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the 57th Kraków Film Festival KFF and the 30th International Short Film Festival FILMFEST DRESDEN. It was co-produced by German TV broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) as part of the MDR Kurzkino initiative.


PAX EUROPA (WT)

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.

Set in northern Poland not long before the fictional collapse of the European Union, PAX EUROPA delves into what it means to keep a family together in times of political upheaval and unrest. Suspended in time, the film tells the story of yesterday's heroes thrown into the struggles of today - creating a historical reimagining rarely seen in cinema.
PAX EUROPA was part of the Semaine de la Critique's first feature development program NEXT STEP where it won one of the prizes entailing a three-week Pop Up Film Residency in Bratislava.