Where the Sun Doesn't Rush

In this portrait of a farming village in Poland, almost nothing happens. Every now and again, the authorities make an announcement: usually an obituary. The village is populated by old people, sitting around and waiting to die. This, in any case, is what emerges from the way they are filmed by young director Matej Bobrik. Surely they sometimes talk and laugh, but the film focuses on the moments when they sit in a café in silence, cross the street at an exasperating snail's pace, or slurp up their farmer's soup, even more slowly -- and in close-up. There are also images of a funeral, and of the moment when the town crier announces a vacancy for a new undertaker. It is almost humorous, the gloominess of life in this village, and how close life and death are to one another: in both cases, nothing happens in the end. The only comfort offered, in the village and in the film, is nature, beautifully captured by Brobik's camera. Where the Sun Doesn't Rush is a film Brobik made as a student at the Polish National Film School. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)