HANOI-WARSZAWA

Hanoi-Warsaw

Polonia. 2009. Color. 30 min. Ficción. 35mm.
  • Film Director: Katarzyna Klimkiewicz.
  • Producer: Boguslaw Kisielewski.
Smuggled across borders, cheated by immoral intermediaries, trailed by police, at the mercy of foreigners – such is the fate of illegal immigrants from Vietnam who try to settle in Poland. Among them is young Mai Anh, whose boyfriend works at a bazaar in Warsaw. Their meeting in a foreign country won't transpire as they had imagined. This film debut leaves no doubts as to the fate of refugees: in their new lives in the 'promised land' they're constantly hounded and frequently need to deny their identity. In the struggle for survival under these new circumstances, such values as solidarity, friendship and love won't prevail. The film's creators present this phenomenon from a very intimate perspective, without resorting to predictable narrative methods or simple generalizations in their evaluation of the protagonists.

Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
Katarzyna was born in 1977. She graduated from the Directing Department of the Polish National School of Film, Television and Theater in Łódź. Her documentary 'Wasserschlacht – The Great Border Battle', produced with Andrew Friedman, received the Berlin Today Award at the 2007 Berlinale. Her documentary works include Krystian Lupa's 'Labyrinth' (2003) and 'Nothing to Lose' (2009).