THE UGLIEST CAR
Grzegorz Szczepaniak| Director | Grzegorz Szczepaniak |
| Producer | Grzegorz Szczepaniak, Joanna Popowicz – Anagram; TVP |
| Writer | Grzegorz Szczepaniak |
| Camera | Marek Kozakiewicz |
| Editor | Jerzy Zawadzki, Grzegorz Szczepaniak |
| Sound | Michal Fojcik |
| Music | Mikolaj Majkusiak |
| Cast | Kazimiera Rozycka, Bogdan Rozyck |
| Screening | Saturday 10 November | 14:45 hours | Filmhuis Den Haag |
| Original Title | NAJBRZYDSZY SAMOCHOD SWIATA |
| Year | 2017 |
| Length | 47 min |
| Country | Poland |
| Subtitles | English |
| Section | POLISH FILM PEARLS |
A heartwarming, humorous documentary of a man who drives his 94-year-old mother in an old, rusty Wartburg, righty called ‘The Poland’s Ugliest Car’. Winner of Grand Prix for the Best Polish Film at the Krakow Film Festival.
Synopsis
The youngest protagonist of the documentary is Wartburg, almost museum-ready automobile over 50 years of age. The car is still on the road, driven by Bogdan, who’s accompanied by his mother Kazimiera. This road movie which takes place between the concentration camp of Majdanek in Poland, and a former Nazi labor factory in Germany is actually a journey into the past, retracing the memories from the war. It is also a portrayal of an extraordinary relationship between mother and son. Bogdan devotes almost all his time to Kazimiera – except for the moments when he proudly presents the quaint ugliness of the car to the people he accidentally meets.
Festivals & Awards (selection)
Krakow IFF, 2017 – Golden Hobby-Horse for the Best Polish Film; Student’s Jury Award | Gdynia FF, Poland 2017 | IDFA, Amsterdam 2017 | Watch Docs HRFF, Warsaw 2017 – Audience Award | Docpoint IDF Tallinn 2018 | Ljubljana IDF, 2018 | Vilnius IFF, 2018 | CineDoc Tbilisi, 2018 | Taiwan IDF, 2018 | Beldocs IDF, Serbia 2018 | Neisse FF, Germany 2018 – Special Award of Filmverband Sachsen | Shanghai TV FF, 2018
Director's bio
Grzegorz Szczepaniak was born in 1984 in Lublin, Poland. He is a guitarist by education (graduate of the F. Chopin University of Music in Warsaw), and a film editor (graduate of the Film School in Lodz, Poland). His short documentary ‘Snails’ (2015) won many prizes, a.o. the Silver Eye Award at the Jihlava IDFF, the Audience Award at the GoShort and a Special Mention at the Traverse City FF in the United States. ‘The ugliest car’ is his first long documentary.