Polish filmmaker amazed at Indian response to `Venice`

''I shall have a beautiful life'', begins the poignant story of noted Polish filmmaker Jan Jacub Kolski's 'Venice', which premiered to a packed hall at IFFI. The director says he was "astonished" with the Indian response and consider it a compliment to his craft. The film, which hovers into the dreams and realities of a Polish child during World War II, piped Roman Polanski's latest 'Ghost Writer'.

Panaji: `I shall have a beautiful life...`, begins the poignant story of noted Polish filmmaker Jan Jacub Kolski`s `Venice`, which premiered to a packed hall at IFFI.The film, which hovers into the dreams and realities of a Polish child during World War II, piped Roman Polanski`s latest `Ghost Writer` which was also being screened at the same time. The film is based on famous Polish writer Wlodzimierz Odojewski`s short story `Season in Venice`.

"The response was unexpected but it is the best compliment. I am honoured. My films bond on an emotional level and the response shows they are being understood. Indian culture is much older than ours. I am honoured to be here," Kolski said. The director``s ``Jasminum`` was screened at IFFI in 2006 but this is his first visit to India. "What happened to me in India is astonishing. I am a bit scared by it and will take sometime to understand. I came to know that the kind of cinema I make is very Indian. Something similar happened to me in Japan and Germany, which means that I make universal films. It is a new discovery of me," he added. The director said that apart from IFFI, he has been invited to other film festivals in India. "I have been invited to Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai and I am looking forward to my next visit to India. The first things that you notice in this country are the structures. Hopefully I will find more time to study them, know the country better and if I put little more effort I may learn Hindi," Kolski said. ``Venice`` hovers between dream and reality and tells the story of a voyage which never happened. It is about a child``s dream to visit Venice, the most romantic city in the world during the war. He transforms his rural family house in the never visited Venetian world even as the war rages just outside the window. When asked about Polish cinema``s obsession with war, Kolski``s said that though he cannot speak for others, his work has certainly been affected by the war though he never experienced it personally. "I can only speak for myself. It so happens that the good Polish films are about war. Oppression seems to be a good environment for filmmakers. I never experienced the war but it affected me as the trauma that my father went through. He loved me but not the way I wanted and this deficit of love and beauty has stamped my creative world," he said. Polski creates a beautiful world of a child``s dreams and aspirations in ``Venice`` through magic realism and he admitted that it was not easy inhibiting the mind of a child. "It is always very difficult to understand a child``s curiosity. It has to come from within. I think most of the people in their 50s become cynical and a cynical man can``t do this. He can``t make this kind of cinema and I think he should not attempt it," he said. Polski, who also teaches filmmaking in Poland, is currently working on two projects a big budget Polish-French co-production and a small film. "I do too many things together. Currently I am working on a huge budget Polish-French co-production while my second movie will be made within a small budget. It may sound insane but I am trying to make the film the way my students do. It is a contemporary story about love. I want to show them that good cinema can be made without too much of money," he added. PTI