Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak studied acting and theatre at the Acting School in Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland, and worked as a stage performer in the Theatre of Entertainment, Chorzow. She graduated with a Master Degree from the Cinematography division of the Cinematography Institute of the Russian Federation (VGIK), in Moscow, where she studied under Vadim Yusov, DOP of Andrei Tarkovsky. In 2003, Hanna was awarded Best Producer of Documentary Movies at the International Film Festival in Krakow for Railway Station Ballad. In 2004 Hanna completed her documentary film, The Children of Leningradsky, which was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Short Documentary subject. It also received the Best Documentary Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association and was nominated for an Emmy Award in two categories: Best Documentary and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing. This film was also nominated as a Notable Video by the Adult American Library Association, and it received the Gracie Allen Award, given by American Women in Radio & Television, amongst many other
awards.
Category Archives: Women,s voices
Les Chenilles (Michelle, Noel Keserwany) France
Les Chenilles
Michelle Keserwany/Noel Keserwany
France. 2023. 30 min
Asma and Sarah meet while working as waitresses in France. They both come from the Levant and are carrying the shadows of the past with them, each in their own way. They tentatively befriend each other and find a common ground that goes back to the time when the city of Lyon was connected to their homeland via the Silk Road. A film about exploitation – then and now – and about female solidarity, friendship and solace.
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Homunculus (Golnoush Ansari) Iran
Homunculus
Golnoush Ansari
Iran. 2023. 13 min
Living in seclusion and despair, a carpenter tries to escape his misery by fitting himself inside his handmade sofa in order to get himself out of his workshop and live vicariously in a hotel café but ends up in a famous writer’s house about whom he has been obsessing for a while.
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Seconds (Liese Kuhn) South Africa. Official Section
Seconds
Liese Kuhn
South Africa. 2023. 90 min
SECONDS follows the story of Seconds Khumalo, an ageing boxer from the EastRand of Johannesburg. The Van Tonder family, whose property he lives on, andfor whom he boxes — begin to grow suspicious as years of unanswered questionsand traumas start to surface. Seconds has always trained under Pa Van Tonder, working for the family butchery in the mornings, but things start to go sour as Pa feels threatened by Seconds son, Lukas Khumalo, a budding politician.
The final count down reveals a web of lies, deceit and betrayal — an illegitimate son, an underground exploitative boxing syndicate and a dark angel called Bambi. It is time for Seconds to claim back what is rightfully his; HIS FAMILY AND HIS LIFE.
Berbú (Sevinaz Evdike) Syria
Berbú (The Wedding Parade)
Sevinaz Evdike
Syria. 2022. 70 min
Berbu is a moving film about Kurdish families in the Rojava war. It centers on Gule’s upcoming wedding, which symbolizes hope and resistance in the midst of conflict. The family’s difficult decisions reflect the challenges of Kurdish communities in war-torn regions. Despite daily adversity, they hold on to happiness, love and traditions. The direction and camerawork capture life in a war-torn town as well as strong emotions and harsh realities. “Berbu” impresses with a thoughtful narrative about love, tradition, sacrifice and resilience.
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The Empty Grave (Cece Mlay/Agnes Lisa Wegner) Germany, Tanzania
The Empty Grave
Cece Mlay/ Agnes Lisa Wegner
Germany, Tanzania. 2024. 97 min
THE EMPTY GRAVE follows the emotional journey of two Tanzanian families in search of their stolen ancestors. Their quest leads them to Germany where tens of thousands of human remains from former German colonies are stored in museum depots – a haunting legacy of colonial plunder in the early 20th century, taken for racist research and as macabre trophies. Set in the present, the film unveils the enduring traces and traumas inflicted by colonial crimes on families and communities. It navigates the obscure maze of German and Tanzanian bureaucracy, revealing the struggle to reckon with this pain.
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Cycle (Naz Caybasi) Turkey
Cycle
Naz Caybasi
Turkey. 2023. 11 min
One day, a girl living in a village sees blood on her panties. She’s having menstruation, but she doesn’t know what it is. She hesitates to ask someone and tries to discover on her own. She finally finds an answer, but that answer is only the part of the cycle she’s in.
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The Alquimist´s Dance (Arantxa Vela) Spain
The Alquimist´s Dance
Arantxa Vela Buendía
Spain. 2024. 81 min
How does María Pagés’ thinking work? Where do her movements come from? What inspires her dancing? Starting with the staging of one of her latest shows, ‘De Scheherezade’, at the Roman Theatre of Mérida, we delve into her creative process, a process that she has shared for more than ten years with the poet, writer and dramaturg El Arbi El Harti. Both helps us to deconstruct scenes and draw a line that links with their previous works. By means of a fine sense of humour, the couple reveals to us the happiness and difficulties of living and working together. María Pagés shows herself to us as a woman whose life has its center on stage, in her way of understanding flamenco. Her dance seems to be something close to meditation and her creative process, a kind of trance.
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Little Boxes (Natalie Lamb) Germany
Little Boxes
Natalie Lamb
Germany. 2023. 8.30 min
The call centre agent Ines cannot afford to lose yet another customer. Alwin, the fortune cookie writer, suffers from writer’s block and wants to cancel his phone contract. Through a strange turn of events, the two strangers will help each other.
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Mother and Daughter (Lana Gogoberidze) Georgia/France
Mother and Daughter
Lana Gogoberidze
Georgia/France. 2023. 89 min
It is 1930. A bitterly crying two-years-old child is seeing her mother off on her way to a film shooting. An elderly man turns to the mother and asks her where she was going to and whether it was worth the child’s tears.
The film is an attempt to answer this question.
The woman leaving for film shooting is Nutsa Gogoberidze – the first woman filmmaker in Georgia and one among the first in the Soviet Union.
Two years old child is me — Lana Gogoberidze. Today 95 years old film maker. In the 30s Nutsa shot two films immediately banned by the Soviet censorship. In 1937, during the times of Great Terror, she was arrested and exiled for 10 years.
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