THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE FOREST
POLISH TITLE: W LESIE SĄ LUDZIE
REPRESENTED BY KFF
A lonely man limps down the road. A truck drives up to him. Several armed men jump out of it. They capture the limping man and transport him to the forest. The only witnesses of the scene are people from a nearby village. Since 2021, situations like these are commonplace on the Polish-Belarussian border of the EU, which is the scene of an ongoing refugee crisis. An animated documentary whose creator happens to live in a town by the border.
- GENRE:
- documentary / animation
- COUNTRY:
- Polska
- RUNNING TIME:
- 10'
- YEAR:
- 2023
- COLOUR:
- colour
- DIRECTING:
- Szymon Ruczyński
- SCRIPT:
- Szymon Ruczyński
- DOP:
- Szymon Ruczyński
- EDITOR:
- Szymon Ruczyński
- SOUND:
- Szymon Kucharski
- ANIMATION:
- Szymon Ruczyński
- PRODUCTION:
- Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna
Szymon Ruczyński »
Born in Hajnówka, Poland, in 2000, Szymon Ruczyński is a student of Animation at the Lodz Film School. He grew up in Białowieża, a village in the centre of the ancient Białowieża Forest which is the source of inspiration for his award-winning films “Reason” and “The Wildwood Diptych”. In 2021 and 2022 Szymon participated in bringing humanitarian aid to the refugees hiding in the forest. He uses mixed animation techniques to tell stories about socially relevant problems he witnesses.
AT FESTIVALS:
- 2023 Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canada, 2023 (screening)
- Animateka 2023 International Animation Festival, Slovenia, 2023 (screening)
- 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, Greece, 2024 (screening)
- International Animation Film Festival Fantoche 2024, Switzerland, 2024 (screening)
- MAX3MIN Festival 2024, Italy, 2024 (screening)
- 63rd Krakow Film Festival 2023, Poland, 2023 (competition)
- 37th Leeds International Film Festival, United Kingdom, 2023 (competition)
- 2023 PÖFF Shorts, Estonia, 2023 (competition)
- 36th Premiers Plans Film Festival, France, 2024 (competition)
- 36th Premiers Plans Film Festival, France, 2024 (competition)
- 16th Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2024 (Special Mention in the New Arrivals Competition, Youth Jury Winner)
- Ennesimo Film Festival 2024, Italy, 2024 (competition)
- Anifilm 2024 International Festival of Animated Film, Czech Republic, 2024 (competition)
- 21st Vienna Shorts International Short Film Festival, Austria, 2024 (competition)
- 64. Zlín Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2024 (competition)
- 47th Norwegian Short Film Festival, Norway, 2024 (The Golden Chair for Best International Short Film)
- 39th Valencia International Film Festival - Cinema Jove, Spain, 2024 (competition)
- 30th IFF ART FILM KOSICE, Slovakia, 2024 (competition)
- 22nd Ischia Film Festival, Italy, 2024 (competition)
- Tbilisi International Student Film Festival! 2024, Georgia, 2024 (competition)
- 25th Lucania Film Festival, Italy, 2024 (competition)
- Hiroshima Animation Season 2024, Japan, 2024 (competition)
- 13th Quebec City Film Festival, Canada, 2024 (competition)
- Festival of Migrant Film 2024, Slovenia, 2024 (competition)
- Lille International Short Film Festival 2024, France, 2024 (competition)
- Young Film Fest 2024, Czechia, 2024 (competition)
- 20th Monterrey International Film Festival, Mexico, 2024 (competition)
- 38th Edmonton International Film Festival, Canada, 2024 (competition)
- ANIMAGE – 14th International Animation Festival of Pernambuco, Brasil, 2024 (competition)
- 21st Balkanima Festival, Serbia, 2024 (competition)
- 24th European Short Film Festival of Nice, France, 2024 (competition)
- Primanima World Festival of First Animations 2024, Hungary, 2024 (competition)