![New Horizons 2021: political jokes and a manifesto about crossing gender boundaries [RELACJA]](https://i0.wp.com/ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/FdCk9kpTURBXy84Y2U3NTljNWE5ZjM2OWU5MGQ5M2E1YTg2YmY5MzRlOS5qcGeTlQMAAM0N5M0H0ZMJpjgwZDIxMAaTBc0EsM0CdoGhMAE/agathe-rousselle-w-filmie-titane.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "New Horizons 2021: political jokes and a manifesto about crossing gender boundaries [RELACJA]")
- The 21st New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław will last until August 22. The online part will end on August 29
- During the opening gala, the mayor of Wrocław jokingly referred to the vote in the Sejm on the amendment to the Broadcasting Act
- The opening film was the intense “Titane” by Julia Ducournau, the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or in Cannes
- More such stories can be found on the main page of Onet.pl
New Horizons 2021: “reassumption in a year”
Jacek Sutryk, the mayor of Wrocław, who spoke right after the main organizers: Roman Gutek and Marcin Pieńkowski, as the city’s host, said: – Welcome to the city of happiness; the city of openness; city of tolerance; a city that loved art and culture. (…) Wrocław is also a fortress of solidarity; Wrocław is a city of freedom; a city that loved freedom, including … free media, of course.
And further: – Dear friends, we are starting the festival. And if someone ran out of impressions after the festival, we can always say goodbye with a word that has made quite a sensation since yesterday – that is, we invite you to a reassumption next year.
The room where they sat, among others Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, head of the jury of this year’s New Horizons main competition, or Konrad Imiela, director of the Capitol Musical Theater, burst out laughing. Sutryk referred to the controversy regarding the vote in the Sejm on an amendment to the Broadcasting Actwhich, according to many journalists, experts and opposition politicians, is aimed at TVN.
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Jacek Sutryk and Roman Gutek during the opening gala
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New Horizons 2021: Cannes revelation at the opening
In the end, however, silence fell in the Capitol Musical Theater, the lights went out, and the darkness of the hall was lit by the opening film – a revelation of this year’s Cannes festival, or “Titane” by Julia Ducournau. French victory on the Cote d’Azuralthough considered shocking by many, this historical event – the director became the second woman in history, after Jane Campion, to be awarded the Palme d’Or.
And it must be admitted that Ducournau does not play in compromises – due to the blunt scenes during the shows, the Cannes festival audience left the halls, some of them fainted and vomited, professional medical help turned out to be necessary several times. Anyway, he was very similar balance of the controversial cannibalistic horror “Meat”, her full-length debut. Then she was called “the queen of the gore” and “the chief extremist of the new French cinema”.
“Titane”: a visually stunning unmanageable ride
In Wrocław, the viewers did not leave the show in such large numbers (I saw one or two people), but the show physically affects the viewer and can be painful (the audience repeatedly relieved the growing tension with laughter, other times some viewers looked away), but it is necessary to – just like on the occasion of “Meat” – the director’s message could actually be heard.
It does not make sense to summarize the plot of “Titane” here, because Ducournau changes the genre costumes as he sees fit. Brutal body horror, a dark lust thriller, a touching family drama, cyberpunk, philosophical sci-fi in the spirit of “Ghost in the Shell” – what is not here …
The unlimited imagination of the French director takes us on a visually stunning, uncompromising, created with a claw (and perfectly played, especially by debutant (!) Agatha Rousselle, but also the acclaimed actor Vincent Lindon), a ride to talk about crossing the beaten definitions of sexuality, fluid gender and fuzzy identity, show the hell of women, toxic masculinity, challenge the principles of social coexistence; finally – to create a parable about the need for closeness and unconditional love, where gender or sexuality do not matter much.
Gender is not a determinant of anyone’s identity. Gender does not define us. I’m not a woman, just a person. I am myself – exclaims Ducournau with his film, asking for all the excluded. And very well!
- The 21st New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław will last until August 22. The online part will end on August 29.
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