Marcin Sauter: I Grew Up as You Slept

An ordinary story told in an extraordinary way. Because Marcin Sauter is not “only” a skilled director, he is a cinematographer who knows about composition and framing of images. This film has no boring moments, it is intense and full of emotions and beauty. And the music reflects the atmosphere of melancholy surrounding the granny and the granddaughter, when they meet in the countryside of Belarus, the country Karalina (who, according to credits at the end of the film, bears the same surname as the director) has chosen to leave to have more opportunities to develop her music career. In a scene with two friends, also from the music school, it is obvious that she is not the only one, who has left or wants to leave their home country… an ordinary story.

The film operates in present and past. Black and white images constitute the childhood, when berries were picked in the garden, cut to today, where the same action in colour takes place with wonderful granny and red-dressed granddaughter in the picture. The director has made his aesthetic choice. Scene after scene, situation after situation are a pleasure to watch.

An award for this poetic film tonight at the Krakow Film Festival closure?  

For me no objections!

Poland, 2018, 50 mins.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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