Film Archive

Floating Skyscrapers

East of the West - Competition 2013 / Płynące wieżowce / Poland 2013

Young athlete Kuba, who lives with his mother and girlfriend Sylwia, makes the acquaintance one evening of Michal, a guy of similar age. A fragile bond gradually forms between the two young men, yet unfavourable circumstances begin to complicate matters.... This visually compelling gay romance offers a sensitive take on issues concerning the unmasking of human sexuality, the quest for identity, and the desire for social acceptance.

Synopsis

Young athlete Kuba lives with his mother and girlfriend Sylwia; he spends a lot of time training and preparing for his swimming competitions. At a gallery opening, which he reluctantly attends with Sylwia one evening, he meets Michał, a guy of similar age. While Michał is aware of his homosexual orientation, Kuba, until now experiencing a relatively satisfactory heterosexual relationship, is still finding out who he is. A fragile bond gradually forms between them, yet unfavourable circumstances begin to complicate matters.... In his visually compelling romance, talented young Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski offers a sensitive take on issues concerning the unmasking of human sexuality, the quest for identity, and the desire for social acceptance. The film also delivers a superb portrayal of the way in which we muddle through relationships. Floating Skyscrapers, which director Wasilewski describes as "the first Polish LGBT film,” boldly raises the theme of homosexuality, until now a considerably taboo subject in the film’s country of origin.

About the film

93 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Tomasz Wasilewski / Screenplay Tomasz Wasilewski / Dir. of Photography Jakub Kijowski / Music Baasch / Editor Aleksandra Gowin / Producer Roman Jarosz, Izabela Igel / Production Alter Ego Pictures / Cast Mateusz Banasiuk, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Bartosz Gelner, Katarzyna Herman, Olga Frycz / Contact Films Boutique

About the director

Tomasz Wasilewski (b. 1980) initially took a course in film direction at the Film and Television Academy in Warsaw (2001) and later studied film and television production at the National Film School in Łódź (PWSFTviT, 2006). He shot the short feature Nawiść (2001) and the short documentary One-Man Show (Show jednego człowieka, 2008) and worked as an assistant director on Małgorzata Szumowska’s 33 Scenes from Life (33 sceny z życia, 2008). His feature debut In a Bedroom (W sypialni) was screened in its international premiere in the Forum of Independents at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2012 and subsequently enjoyed success at a number of other international festivals. Floating Skyscrapers is his second feature.