Female Film Critics 24/375
Oppressive political policies often come most alive when embedded in strong personal stories. That’s the case in writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War. In 1949 Poland, three workers travel the countryside in a van collecting folk music on audiotape all in honor of the nation. A favored few singers and dancers will be chosen to represent their People’s culture.
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A tenacious Polish teen who’s had to grow up too soon takes center stage in Anna Zamecka’s powerful documentary Communion. The film invests viewers deeply in Ola as she works every angle she can think of to bring her family back together, even though the odds seem stacked against her.
Communion, a Polish documentary that feels like one of those gritty kitchen-sink British dramas from the early ‘60s, does a compelling job of depicting the emotional damage done when adults lack the maturity to take responsibility for their actions.
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Communion is an intimate, immersive documentary that Zamecka has shot and structured like a feature. It opens right in the middle of a small moment — a boy struggling to put on his belt — and we’re pulled immediately into the family dynamics.
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Filmmaker Anna Zamecka makes an impressive directorial debut with this story about 14-year-old Ola Kaczanowski and her family. The documentary uses an unobtrusive fly-on-the-wall approach without narration, as we watch as Ola handling all the household chores.
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