Polish director Anna Zamecka’ Communion (Komunia), her impressive direction debut, has just been placed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on a short list of semi-finalists of the 2019 Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
It is inspired by works of fiction and nonfiction, especially Nagisa Oshima’s Boy. That 1969 film was based on real events of a Japanese family, where a boy was forced by his father to take part in risky and dangerous scams as a condition to stay with his clan.
Zamecka’s protagonist, Ola, age 12, lives with her alcoholic father, and Nikodem, her autistic brother, in a shabby and cramped apartment outside Warsaw. Made head of the family, she is responsible for holding the household together.
Zamecka had a background in journalism, anthropology, and photography studies before completing the Dok Pro Documentary Program at Wajda Film School in Warsaw.
She continues to have close ties with the family members, who are her film’s subjects.
The docu was shot in just 35 days over the course of one year, mostly within the confines of a small apartment.
Communion world premiered at the Locarno Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix of Semaine de la Critique (Critics Week).
Communion also played to great acclaim at the True-False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri.
