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 May 9, 2024.
All of the films’ descriptions come from their distributors.
You can vote using the following link until Sunday October 22nd:
Civil War, dir. Alex Garland, USA/Great Britain, 2024. In English with Polish subtitles.
This film is an unforgettable cautionary tale, a universal story of the ethics of looking and the real face of war.
The United States is on the brink of collapse. The president incites citizens to fight against the “alliance between Florida and the western forces of Texas and California.” Along with a group of photographers, war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) attempts to get to Washington, the epicenter of dramatic events, to conduct the last interview with the president.
Alex Garland is one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers. In addition to such films as Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Men, he is also the creator of the series Devs and the author of the screenplay for the zombie horror 28 Days Later directed by Danny Boyle.
In addition to Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog, The Beguiled), the cast includes Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Wagner Moura (serial Narcos), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune), and Jesse Plemons (Killers of the Flower Moon).
Joika, dir. James Napier Robertson, USA/New Zealand/Poland, 2024. In English with Polish subtitles.
Joy, a young, ambitious ballerina leaves her home and family in her native Texas for the world of ballet as one of the first American women who have been accepted to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
Jooy Womack trains to one day become a Primabalerina. Behind the beauty of ballet, however, lurks a world filled with rivalry, and Joy must transcend the limits of her body and mind, putting at risk her health, relationships, and maybe even her entire life in a journey of discovery and understanding what it really means to be the best.
Perfect Days, dir. Wim Wenders, Japan/Germany, 2024.
Hirayama is a lonely sixty year old who cleans public bathrooms in Tokyo's Shibuya ward. The camera carefully observes his daily ritual: getting ready to leave in the morning, doing his work with great care, and his visits to the city bath, popular bistro, or favorite antique shop.
For a person whose work is mundane, usually considered the worst possible occupation, the protagonist of Wenders’ latest film has unusual interests: he reads quality literature (although not necessarily recent literature), listens to music from the 1960s and 1970s on cassette tapes in his car, and uses his noon break at work to take photographs. Like a real artist, Hirayama subjects his photographs to ruthless selection and collects them in a private archive. He also gains the viewer's affinity through his collection of tree saplings, which he finds in the park and later nurtures at home. The few snapshots that are a minor disruption of Hirayama's everyday routine and deal with his past suggest that the life of an urban hermit is his conscious choice, while the celebration of the mundane makes him a happy person who loves the world and people.
This time, Wim Wenders, whose recent films often were documentaries, has this time made a drama that is greatly reminiscent of a documentary. Apart from Hirayama, the film's second protagonist is the Japanese capital, while the Tokyo bathrooms we see in this unusual portrait of the city are real works of art designed by noted architects.