The Culture Commission of the PhD Students’ Association of the Jagiellonian University invites you to vote for the film we will watch during the next edition of the Doctoral Students’ Film Club, which will take place on Thursday February 29, 2024.
You can vote using the following link until Sunday February 11th:
This time, you can choose one of the following films (all of the following descriptions come from the films’ distributors).
20,000 Species of Bees, dir. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Spain 2023. In Spanish, Basque, and French with Polish subtitles.
Considered the best Spanish film of 2023, 20,000 Species of Bees won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Ten-year-old Sofia Otera is the youngest actress in the history of the Berlinale to win this award. In 20,000 Species of Bees, she plays a character who, one hot summer, amidst buzzing beehives, poolside babble, and family arguments begins to feverishly look for her place in the swarm.
A child who questions accepted norms, rules, and traditions will cause long-hidden secrets to come to the fore, while the women in the family will evaluate their own choices and repressed desires. Her child-like rebellion will remind them that there are many ways to manifest the truth about oneself.
Estibaliz Urresoli Solaguren’s directorial debut is a tender, delicate film about acceptance, filled with awe at the diversity of the world, which has room for 20,000 species of bees. Why does such the wealth of ways in which human personality, sex, or gender can be manifested provoke such opposition? 20,000 Species of Bees is also a moving portrait of a family that is like a beehive: everyone has their own role to play, and everyone protects one another. There is a place for lost mothers, brave daughters, outsider aunts, and grandmothers who guard family secrets. Although this beehive is buzzing with emotions and in it different generations and life experiences clash, each of its inhabitants has the right to want their own life for themselves.
Kos, dir. Paweł Masłona, Poland 2023. In Polish with English subtitles.
Sharp as a saber, Kos is a captivating, action-packed, emotional, and modern universal tale of people who in the name of liberty and equality overcame each other’s prejudices and the differences that separate them.
It's the spring of 1794, and Poland is at boiling point. Tadeusz “Kos” Kościuszko has returned to his homeland and is planning on leading an uprising against the Russians, mobilizing both the Polish nobility and peasants in the process. He is accompanied by his faithful friend, the former slave Domingo. Armed with a search warrant, the ruthless Russian Rittmaster Dunin chases after Kościuszko, wanting to capture the general at all costs before he can spark a national rebellion.
At the same time, a young peasant, Ignac, a nobleman's bastard son, dreams of receiving his coat of arms and estate from his illegitimate father, Duchnowski, who before dying made reference to him in his will. After the father’s death, the boy must run from his half-brother Stanisław who does not want his father’s will to be executed. Ignac steals the will and has only two days to appear with it in court and prove his aristocratic title. When fleeing, he encounters Domingo. A strong sense of understanding is forged between the two men, even though they don't know one another’s languages. Together, they flee to the colonel's wife's manor house, where Kościuszko is hiding, waiting to negotiate with magnates.
The Boy and the Heron, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan 2023. In Japanese with Polish subtitles.
Oscara® winner Hayao Miyazaki once again invites audiences into his world. Missing his mother, the young Mahito goes to a magical place shared by the living and the dead. There, death approaches its end, while life finds a new beginning.
After his mother’s loss, Mahito and his father leave Tokyo and move to the country. Detached from his new surroundings, he begins to explore the unfamiliar town and house. One day, he accidentally encounters a mysterious gray heron that speaks in a human voice and becomes his unexpected guide. The bird gradually helps the boy to untangle the mystery of life, taking him to a magical world where the past and present mix.
The Boy and the Heron is the latest visionary animation by the master Hayao Miyazaki who is making his comeback to movie screens in style after a ten-year absence. Proclaimed a masterpiece in Japan, the film is not only a tale of loss and passing; it is also a masterwork of unlimited imagination.