The film’s protagonists 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.
Jacek Bromski, president of the Polish Filmmakers’ Association, has described Bread and Salt as one of the best products to have come out of the Warsaw-based Andrzej Munk Studio.
The movie was shown last year in the New Directors/New Films Review at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Bread and Salt is set to compete for awards at the Polish Film Festival in the Baltic city of Gdynia in September.
(mk/gs)