Weightless (Marta Hryniuk, Nick Thomas, Poland/Netherlands, 2023) + Short film (Burial) + Q&A

UK Premiere; World Premiere at IFFR 2023

Prompted by the complexities of her own family stories, Khrystyna Bunii travels across remote south-west Ukraine, to the transnational region of Hutsulshchyna, in search of personal photo archives. There, she encounters silent traces of a generation and a community silenced by the Soviet state. The struggles of breaking the silence passed down in historical memory and the poetic correspondence between the researcher-protagonist and the filmmaker guide the flow of the film subtly and naturally, providing the framework for the voices, faces, and stories revealing themselves along the way. Made as a close collaboration between the film’s directors and its protagonist, Weightless combines observational and direct cinema styles with staged performance and elements of documentary-essay.

Presented with a live Q&A with Marta Hryniuk and Nick Thomas.

Short: Burial (Jerzy Czachowski, Poland, 2022)

Poland today, after the publication of the near total abortion ban regulations. A man and a woman bury a chest on the random field, and the owner of the land calls the police. The couple is detained and interrogated about the mysterious contents of the chest.

Samizdat is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI.

Accessibility

English subtitles, partial SDH captions (only for Burial)

Financial support to attend the festival is available to eligible applicants via Samizdat's Access Fund.

Burial:

Content notes: references to abortion, depictions of grief, alcohol consumption.

Access notes: occasional loud sounds (sirens).