NEWS

08/06/2017

“Birds Are Singing in Kigali” in Race for the Crystal Globe

“Birds Are Singing in Kigali”, directed by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze, will be screened in the Main Competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“Birds sing in Kigali” is the first Polish film about refugees. The plot begins in 1994, on the eve of the Rwanda genocide. A Polish ornithologist (Jowita Budnik), who studies the decrease in the population of vultures in that part of Africa, saves a young Rwandan girl (Eliane Umuhire) from the ravages of the bloody civil war in her country. But Poland does not offer them deliverance. Both women, crippled by their experiences, are unable to reenter the routine of everyday life.

BIRDS ARE SINGING IN KIGALI dir. Joanna Kos Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze

“We haven’t had a movie like that yet” – writes Łukasz Maciejewski, who accompanied the crew of “Ptaki…” in Rwanda. “After disappointing experiences with filmmakers who often approached the subject of genocide cynically and with a bias, the government of Rwanda for many years stopped issuing permits for shooting films about the ethnic purge on Rwandan locations. They changed their mind after meeting with Joanna and Krzysztof Krauze.

The Rwandan artists working on the set of “Ptaki śpiewają w Kigali” stressed the fact that no foreign filmmaker has ever created anything that so acutely and fairly reflected their own feelings and memories from that time.

The Krauzes did prepare meticulously for this project. They always do, but the Rwandan issue required special alertness, which is why Joanna and Krzysztof repeatedly visited Rwanda, and Joanna herself overall spent several years in Kigali.

The directors definitely aim for the shock factor, or trying to work a “hot button issue”. Their first priority was understanding the matter, getting as deep as possible into the hearts and souls of Rwandans, and finally filtering these emotions through their own sensibility and juxtaposing them with Polish mentality. The result is a film that is both private and universal, an auteur movie with tremendous commercial potential that has all it takes to move the hearts of cinemagoers around the world.”

BIRDS ARE SINGING IN KIGALI dir. Joanna Kos Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze

After the list of Karlovy Vary competition entries was announced by the festival, Joanna Kos-Krauze said: “It’s great news not just for me, but for the entire Polish cinematography. It’s proof that Polish films are being noticed around the world. I’d like to stress that the Czech festival’s decision is a beautiful gift for us, filmmakers, especially in the current climate. It shows that we are not destroying culture, that there’s no need to upend everything. A film like ours requires state backing, but it shows that we know what we’re doing and that it is being appreciated around the world.”

Asked about the topic of her film, she added: “It’s very easy to start a genocide – even though it’s something of a process that the society prepares for gradually. In our film, we talk about the price being paid by the people who survived a genocide. It’s a film about mourning, about healing from pain. And about the fact that everyone dreams of not being a refugee, a third class citizen.”

“Ptaki śpiewają w Kigali” is the last film directed jointly by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze, who died in 2014. The creative duo have had a special relationship with the Karlovy Vary festival. Their films have received several awards at this important European film event, including a Crystal Globe for “My Nikifor” and a special mention for “Papusza”.

The 52^nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will take place on 30 June – 8 July 2017. More information can be found at the festival website: www.kviff.com.

— Red. (translated by Wojciech Góralczyk)

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