Directors and scriptwriters: Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski
DoP: Piotr Rosołowski
Editor: Karoline Schulz, Andrzej Dąbrowski
Sound: Marcin Lenarczyk, Tomasz Wieczorek
Music: Maciej Cieślak
Producer (Poland): Anna Wydra
Producers (Germany): Ann Carolin Renninger, Thomas Kufus
In Abkhazia, a war-torn country close to Crimea-Ukraine, patriotism runs rather deep. Perched on the shores of the Black Sea, the unrecognized splinter state used to be a beach getaway for lucky Soviets, but palatial hotels now sit in post-Communist ruin. For Abkhazian Sports Minister Rafael, however, everything's looking up. He's hopeful that the mysterious Domino World Championship he's organizing will finally put his beloved motherland on the world's radar and madly in love, he's willing to overlook that his dear wife is a foreigner. A proud Russian opera singer, Natasha gave up her home and custody of her Russian daughter to take a chance on a new life. But when locals won't warm to her and troubles cloud Rafael's "sports" event, their bright future and even national pride start to wobble. From the Oscar nominated team of "Rabbit à la Berlin" comes a visually stunning Black Sea black comedy - giving us a profound look at life under Russia's spell.
Director
Elwira Niewiera
lives and works in Berlin
Elwira Niewiera is a Polish director and researcher. Her feature documentary debut, "Bulgarian Stories" was presented at a number of international film festivals and had art-house cinema distribution in Germany. Elwira worked also as first assistant director and researcher on the Academy Award nominated documentary "Rabbit à la Berlin". Since 2008 she is Executive Director of the Polish-German cultural foundation Nowa Ameryka.
Director & cinematographer
Piotr Rosołowski
lives and works in Berlin and Warsaw
Graduated as a cinematographer from the Katowice Film School. Awarded with a scholarship of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Writer and director of the documentary "The Art of Disappearing" (premiere at Visions du Réel 2013, special mention at RIDM and Jihlava IFFF), co-author of "Rabbit à la Berlin" - Academy Award nominated short film documentary. Director of Photography of many awarded feature and short films, among them: "On the line" dir. Reto Caffi - Academy Award nominated short fiction and "Nowhere in Europe" dir. Kerstin Nickig - main prize at the Sarajevo Human Rights Film Festival. He was a participant of European Film Academy Master Class 2006, Ex Oriente Film 2005 and Documentary Campus 2007.
Prize of the Interreligious Jury - Visions du Reel - Nyon, Switzerland, 2014
GOLDEN HORN for the Director of the Best Film - International Competition - Krakow Film Festival - Krakow, Poland, 2014
THE AWARD OF THE POLISH SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS (PSC) for the best cinematography - International Competition - Krakow Film Festival - Krakow, Poland, 2014
GOLDEN HOBBY-HORSE for the Director of the Best Film - National Competition - Krakow Film Festival - Krakow, Poland, 2014
Visions du Reel, Nyon, Switzerland - main competition
Hot Docs, Toronto, Canada - special programme 'Love Factually'
Krakow Film Festival - international documentary competition
Produced by
Otter Films & zero one film
in coproduction with
rbb
in association with ARTE
Funded by
Kuratorium junger deutscher Film,
Polish Film Institute,
Research Scholarships „Grenzgänger“ Robert Bosch Stiftung