The Ultimate Joker
Jerzy Urban, the master of propaganda and political spin at the peak of the Cold War, is back today on a mission to conquer the Internet, fight the Church, troll the right-wing populists in power, and leave this world on his own terms. A political animal and provocateur extraordinaire at the end of this life has harnessed the power of YouTube and became one of the oldest active online influencers to provoke and shock even more people in even more places. 87 years old Urban is inspiring the liberal youth of his country to question everything the nationalist and conservative powers feed them. Welcome to the world of a former communist government spokesman, the ultimate Polish Joker, and the man who always lands on his feet.
House in a Bottle
"In Poland, people drink, have drunk, and - if nothing changes - will continue to drink. Alcoholism appears in complete families, incomplete ones, wealthy and poor, intellectual, working-class. We wanted democracy? Here we have it.
One and a half million Polish children are raised in families with alcohol problems.
What about those who grew up and still carry this experience?" - ask the authors of the reportage that became an inspiration to make a film about an experience that is very personal, yet terrifyingly common. How do Adult Children of Alcoholics build relationships with themselves and the world? How do they cope with shame suppressed for years, the need for control, loneliness, fear of intimacy? Today, they still play roles they were trained for in the past: they are Heroes, Scapegoats, Peacemakers, Mascots, or Invisible Children. Therefore, House in a Bottle
is a sober film. By design, its topics are neither alcoholics nor alcohol. We are interested in adults stuck in roles that once helped them survive but today prevent them from living. The film starts with a portrait of the director’s relationship with her brother with whom she never talked about their childhood. But what does
the film bring that a book cannot? She therefore invited four friends to participate in the film and – inspired by the books characters - to share their stories. The film becomes an attempt to reconnect with the brother and make sense of the past and understand who they - a director and her friends - are today.