Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, we are about to begin the 8th Film and Art Festival Two Riversides. We will open on a very strong note: a Palme d’Or, “Winter Sleep” directed by Turkish artist Nuri Bilge Ceylan, one of the leading film artists today. His film is a story about the difficult coexistance of different worlds: tradition and modernity, prosperity and poverty, erudition and wisdom. This is what characterises this year’s Two Riversides.

Similar issues are addressed in Ken Loach’s “Jimmy’s Hall,” Atom Egoyan’s “The Captive,” Andriej Zwiagincew’s “Leviathan,” Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Of Horses and Men,” and Paolo Virzì’s “Human Capital.” Also, master Volker Schlöndorff shows us how to deal with even the worst of situations in his  “Diplomacy.”

Contemporary cinema proves that its power lies in its diversity: that of culture, topic, and style. This is apparent in the feature and documentary films presented as part of “World Under Canvas.” Young artists seek inspiration from the classics, and add some of their own outlook on things. This is reflected in our international short films competition.

This year’s special guest at the festival will be the master of cinematic realism, Swedish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Jan Troell. 83-year-old Troell, referred to as one of three best Swedish directors (the other two are Bergman and Bo Widerberg), keeps on making films. His artistic activity at this ripe age confirms what the 95-year-old Manoel de Oliveira once said: “youth comes with age.” This youth is also shared by the heroine of our small retrospective, 86-year-old Italian Lina Wertmüller. An apprentice of Federico Fellini, she was the first female director in the history of film to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Artistic youth is still ahead of Małgorzata Szumowska, and that is why we present her works at this year’s festival. We begin with her first academic etudes, and end with her film ”In the Name of,” which was screened during the main competition at the Berlin festival and received the Teddy Award for bravely dealing with difficult and controversial topics.
 
Pirjo Honkasalo, cinematographer and director of features and documentaties, is the next woman impersonating artistic bravery. She comes from Finland, where she received every possible award and distinction. We show her famous documentary trilogy, where the sacred clashes with the profane, and her new feature film “Concrete Night.” I hope that many people will find Honkasalo’s works to be a discovery of this festival.

As always, our guests from Poland and abroad shall meet with the audience in the “I Love Cinema” Café, which will hold the “Cinema Lessons” with Allan Starski, Paweł Pawlikowski, Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, Tadeusz Sobolewski, and Bogdan Dziworski. We also invite you to literary meetings at Kuncewiczówka.
 
May this catalogue guide you and guarantee that you will not miss out on anything interesting and unique. I would like to thank our sponsors, partners, and media patrons, who believe as hard as we do that often the seemingly impossible can be possible. You can organise a film and art festival in a place that has no cinema. Long live passion, imagination, and professionalism!
 
We invite you to Two Riversides 2014.

Grażyna Torbicka, Artistic Director

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