Section: Polskie Horyzonty

Tonia

Marcin Bortkiewicz

PL, 2021, 81 Min

Tonia's father absolutely loves his daughter, and also loves the beer - and if grandmother has her way, he is to leave his Polish hometown for three months and head to a construction site in Italy. The father is already going Mediterranean with his chic suit and plenty of hair gel. And yet 11-year-old Tonia wants her father to stay in this family saga rich in comedy and poetry, which adds spice to this search for dark family secrets with its imaginative slapstick interludes.

Director Marcin Bortkiewicz is no stranger to the FFC, having featured back in 2016 with his chamber play-like feature film debut WALPURGIS NIGHT - a dialogue with an ageing opera diva who survived the concentration camps as the playmate of an SS man. Just like back then, Bortkiewicz also varies the tone between burlesque and existentialism in his new film, surprising his audience with shifts from emotional depth to slapstick and back whilst all the while avoiding any sense of frivolity. A well-judged mix of styles from Poland, almost certainly influenced by Bortkiewicz' experiences as a father of four children and as the husband of a psychiatrist; as well as his basic attitude that "people (are) funny (…), which isn’t to say that we don't also deserve compassion, or that we aren’t dramatic at times” (https://www.laf.org.pl/tonia). With TONIA he demonstrates how a good dose of humour can help to make this discrepancy that bit more bearable.

Weltspiegel (large hall), Glad-House: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation

Drehbuch
MARCIN BORTKIEWICZ

Kamera
ANDRZEJ WOJCIECHOWSKI

Ton
AGATA CHODYRA

Schnitt
PIOTR MENDELOWSKI

Ausstattung
KINGA BABCZYŃSKA

Musik
MAREK CZERNIEWICZ

Darsteller
MARIANNA AME, ADAM BOBIK, MAŁGORZATA ZAJĄCZKOWSKA

Produzent
SEBASTIAN PETRYK

Produktion
PS FILM

Co-Produktion
Polish Television (TVP S.A.)

Marcin Bortkiewicz - Marcin Bortkiewicz is a TV series, short, feature film, documentary and commercial director. Marcin’s feature debut WALPURGIS NIGHT won The Young and Cinema award for the Best Script, along with the Best Actress Award, the Audience Award, the Journalists' Award, and the Youth Jury Award at the Koszalin Debut Film Festival in 2015. His short debut DRAWN FROM MEMORY was screened at the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

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