Documentary Films - Competition 2013 / The Man Who Made Angels Fly / United Kingdom, France, Poland 2013
Deferring to the power of suggestion, Polish director Wiktoria Szymańska eschews a standard biopic of one of the world’s top living puppeteers, Michael Meschke, focusing instead on his uncanny ability to imbue his puppets for a few minutes with living emotion and inimitable expression.
Michael Meschke is one of the world’s top puppeteers. At the age of five, he and his family escaped from Nazi Germany to Sweden. From there, after graduation, he set off around the world, traveling with his puppet ensemble for over six decades. During that time he amassed a collection of over 3,000 marionettes that must now vacate unsuitable basement storage in a Stockholm museum. But each has its own story and unmistakable personality, whether the charismatic Don Quixote, the lovely Penelope, the inquisitive Baptiste, or the mysterious Antigone. Deferring to the power of suggestion, Polish director Wiktoria Szymańska eschews standard biopic methods, focusing instead on Michael Meschke’s uncanny ability to imbue his puppets for a few minutes with living emotion and inimitable expression. In charmingly filmed scenes, the master induces his "actors” to portray the gamut of archetypal human emotions – from love, regret, and passion, to the fear of death.
64 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Wiktoria Szymańska
/ Screenplay Wiktoria Szymańska
/ Dir. of Photography Wojciech Staron
/ Music Florencia di Concilio
/ Editor Wiktoria Szymańska
/ Producer Greg Dawis
/ Production Luna W.
/ Contact Wiktoria Szymańska
Wiktoria Szymańska (Gdańsk, Poland), director, producer, writer, and painter, studied at the Wajda School in Warsaw and at the Sorbonne’s film and art department (2004-05). Currently, her work environment alternates between London and Paris, although she lived previously in New York where she worked in experimental film and theater. Her documentary Themerson and Themerson (2010) was presented by several TV stations and at numerous international festivals (e.g. Nyon, Leipzig, Wrocław, Lisbon, Nantes); at the Art of the Documentary, the film won the Future Media award. Szymańska also worked on a number of television programs for Arte TV, and she conducts workshops in Rio de Janeiro and at the École du Louvre in Paris. In 2009 she initiated cooperation with colleagues from ESoDoc on the European multimedia project Stories from the Bench.
Wiktoria Szymańska
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Poland
E-mail: [email protected]
Wiktoria Szymańska
Film Director
Florencia di Concilio
Music Composer
Greg Davis
Film Crew
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