“Bread and Salt”, a debut feature written and directed by Poland’s Damian Kocur, has received the Special Jury Prize in the Orizzonti (Horizons) category at the 79th International Film Festival in Venice.
The Horizons jury was made up of Spanish director and scriptwriter Isabel Coixet, Italian director Laura Bispuri, American director and scriptwriter Antonio Campos, Algerian director Sofia Djama and French film critic Edouard Waintrop.
The protagonists of ‘Bread and Salt” are two brothers, both of whom are pianists. Tymoteusz, a student at the Warsaw Academy of Music, returns to his hometown in provincial Poland for a vacation. It is a small town where time has stood still, particularly during a hot summer.
A newly opened kebab bar run by Arab owners serves as a meeting place for local youth. It is there that Tymoteusz’s brother, Jacek, a pianist who failed to enter the music academy, spends time with his friends.
Over time, Tymoteusz, who is soon due to leave for Western Europe to continue his studies thanks to a foreign grant, is confronted with a conflict between his peers and the kebab staff. Fear and a sense of threat begin to develop in intimidated foreigners.
The two brothers are played by non-professional actors, the brothers Tymoteusz and Jacek Bies, both of whom are pianists in real life.
Damian Kocur, 38, is a graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, southern Poland. Several of his shorts have won awards at international festivals.
“Bread and Salt” is among twenty features competing for awards at the Polish Film Festival which opens in the Baltic city of Gdynia on Monday, September 12.
(mk)