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Małgorzata Szumowska

Małgorzata Szumowska

Directing

Biography

Małgorzata Szumowska is a Polish film director, screenwriter and producer. Her film "In the Name Of " (2013) received the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, and received the Grand Prix at the 32nd annual Istanbul Film Festival.

Known For

Bodies (of War)

A documentary that uses a multi-narrative structure focused on the physical body's response to the invasion of Ukraine. The first plotline follows wounded soldiers at the Superhumans rehabilitation center in Lviv. The narrative charts their physical recovery, tracking the painful process of healing and learning to operate advanced prosthetic limbs. The second storyline centers on Dana Vitkovska, a transgender Ukrainian artist and performer exiled in Warsaw. Her journey explores identity transition, the trauma of displacement, and the reclamation of her body through dance. The final narrative thread follows the artistic collective Open Group. The artists translate the violence of warfare into physical performance, capturing refugees as they reproduce the raw, terrifying sounds of bombings using their own voices and body language.

Bodies (of War)

2026Movie
33 Scenes from Life
5.1

The Polish artist Julia and her husband Piotr, a talented and successful composer, live in Kraków. When Julias's mother, Barbara falls ill with stomach cancer, the life of the family is falling apart. Julia accompanies her mother to death, but her husband Piotr is at rehearsals in Cologne and leaves her to cope with this difficult situation. Only her friend Adrian is at her side. Her father Jurek is also overwhelmed by the impending loss of his beloved wife. After the death of the mother her father takes comfort from alcohol. Shortly after the father dies. Julia found only in the arms of Adrian to rest, but this in turn destroyed her marriage to Piotr. After the loss of the parents and break up of the marriage she is now alone in the world with an uncertain future where Adrian is of little help

33 Scenes from Life

2008Movie
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February 24, 2022: Russian troops are flooding into Ukraine. After the initial shock, how do you respond? For Marine Hugonnier, it was by using her own weapons – film and images – driven by what she describes as, “a desire to create a common front and a common image”. This is her declared agenda. She takes a two-pronged approach, first travelling to the Polish border and filming once she arrives. Then, transporting supplies to Kyiv. Despite the fact these images were shot in March 2022, the troubling paradox is that they already seem to bear the weight of history. This is like a frozen moment, at the point when the war had only just become a threat rather than a reality crushing both bodies and the landscape.

Dispatch from Przemyśl (Notes for a Democratic Europe)

2022Movie