Kiniarze z Kalkuty
Poland,
1998, 58 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
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Andrzej Fidyk
- prod
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Andrzej Fidyk
- scr
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Andrzej Fidyk
- cam
-
Mikolaj Nesterowicz
- editor
-
Jan Mironowicz
- source
-
Polish Television, ul J.P. Woronicza 17 Str., 00-999 Warsaw, Poland. FAX: 48-22-647-8070. EMAIL: BWZ@Wor.tvp.com.pl
- gga award
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Golden Spire, Television: Society & Culture
-
COMMENTS
Screened with Hypnothesis. Andrzej Fidyk in person.
OTHER
“Love! Struggle! Song! Dance! Betrayal! And a story. Despair! Sadness! And proper love of man to God.” This is Mr. Battu with coming attractions for his traveling outdoor film show. No theory course needed here: “You’ll enter the very core of the film, you’ll become heroes!” Battu shouts to the people lining the road to welcome his elaborately decorated theater-in-a-truck, Battu’s Bioscope, to their village. The primal joy (and, sometimes, visceral pains) of cinema are both the subject and the effect of this colorful documentary about a humble man who is devoted to bringing Indian movies from Bollywood to the hinterlands (Mama, his wry old assistant, is slightly less humble but no less devoted). Battu’s goal, long dreamed of, is a village that has never even heard of movies. But his journeys have another, deeply personal motive: to redress the outrageous events of all-too-real life. Until he does, Battu and company are tourists in their own land of wonders, from a snake-charming village to an elephant escort and a leper colony. Like the wide-eyed spectators, they can't get enough.
—Judy Bloch
FACTOID #85
In 1996, Harvey Keitel was the first recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award, honoring “brilliance, independence and honesty” in acting. Honest he was. During the clip show at his tribute Keitel, unhappy with one of the clips, began waving his arms and shouting until the screen went black. The screen lit up with a new clip and the tribute continued.
