The latest film by Olga Chajdas IMAGO was awarded the FIPRESCI PRIZE (The International Critics Prize). The award was received by the director and co-writer of the film, Olga Chajdas.
Olga Chajdas’ new film, IMAGO, had its world premiere in the PROXIMA competition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which is dedicated to new voices in world cinema. IMAGO was very well received both by critics and international audience of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
To quote Cineuropa’s critic after the premiere: ”IMAGO is as impressive as a killer song lurking somewhere on the B-side of a record by a semi-obscure but still great band from the 1980s”.
The packed audience at the Municipal Theatre in Karlovy Vary reacted enthusiastically, picking up on even the most subtle nuances of Chajdas’ latest film.
”It is so rare in art-house cinema to find such a distinctive heroine. Lena Góra (who also co-wrote the movie) has the thankless task of playing a character so painfully close to her, but she dives into it head first, relying on her perfect instincts to create one of the most memorable arthouse film characters of late”.
The audience and critics also praised Olga Chajdas’ vibrant direction, Tomasz Naumiuk’s cinematography, which succeeded in capturing the characteristic transformation in the culture of the late 1980s, Pavel Hrdlička’s rhythmic editing and the music by the outstanding Polish musician and instrumentalist, Andrzej Smolik: ”dark and gloomy, but still very much alive-and-kicking, atmosphere of post-punk music”.
“Imago” is a complex, post-punk psychological drama. It is a story about otherness, the desire for freedom, and of a woman failing to conform to the the expectations of her surroundings. Above all, however, it’s a story about the deep and complicated bond between a mother and a daughter.
The story begins in Tricity in 1987 and ends in 1989 – after the first free elections in Poland. The story’s backdrop is the rebellious Tricity music scene of the late 1980s, a cultural and social phenomenon of the period and a harbinger of revolutionary changes in Poland. “Imago” is a powerful and resounding piece of cinema about the various shades of transformation that took place back then and a portrait of a woman unlike any other in the history of the Polish cinema.
Lena Góra (known, among others, for “Roving Woman”) stars in the leading role and also co-wrote the screenplay of the film, with the remarkable Polish musician Andrzej Smolik composing the music and Tomasz Naumiuk providing atmospheric cinematography. “Imago” is the second feature film by Olga Chajdas, whose first film, NINA, won among others, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Camerimage, the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the Eagle Polish Film Awards and also received a nomination for the “Polityka” magazine’s Passports.
„Imago” is a Polish-Dutch-Czech co-production, produced by Apple Film Production in coproduction with Topkapi Films, Moloko Film, CANAL+ Polska, House Media Company supported by Polish Film Institute, Netherlands Film Fund, Czech Film Fund, Netherlands Film Production Incentive, Eurimages in partnership with City of Gdańsk