I have a great pleasure to invite you all to the 4th Film and Art Festival TWO RIVERSIDES in Kazimierz Dolny, Janowiec by the Vistula River and Puławy.

The motto of this year’s edition of the Festival is A DIFFERENT WORLD and it can be interpreted in many ways. The very visit to Kazimierz Dolny and Janowiec makes me feel in a different world. Here we can watch films in beautiful sceneries of the Small Market Square, waterside of the Vistula River, the Janowiec Castle, the interior of the Synagogue, the cinema tents. We travel to a different world every time the lights go out and the screening begins, and this year we’ve prepared over 240 such moments. The films have been carefully selected for you. It may seem quite a lot, but it’s necessary in order to give everyone a chance to create a DIFFERENT WORLD of their own.

There are three retrospectives in our program this year- the retrospective of Carl Th. Dreyer, the master working during the transition from silent to sound cinema; the retrospective of Philippine director Brillante Mendoza, the naturalist; and the retrospective of Lech Majewski, the citizen of the world and great visionary- each of them presenting the outstanding directors as artists searching bravely for new shapes of their visuality and emotional expression.

This year we will host artists from Poland and from all over the world: from Mexico, USA, Cuba, Japan, Germany, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. Jan Hrebejk, Krzysztof Zanussi, Filip Bajon, Lech Majewski and the unforgettable Jerzy Stefan Stawiński will make their confessions during the Cinema Lessons. The last meeting will be very special, proving that everything is possible at TWO RIVERSIDES FF.

My DIFFERENT WORLD is full of sounds- hence the Festival section called ‘Music, My Love’,  hence different concerts and Józef Skrzek’s performance. Together with the SBB band this multi-instrumentalist will take us on a wonderful music journey. For some this journey will mean travelling to the time of their youth, for others a sensational discovery. We wanted very much to hold concerts on our floating scene, but the Vistula River said: no. Apparently she is not ready yet, thus we need to wait for the 5^th edition of the Festival.

Meetings with artists, vernissages, music and theatre performances at the Festival Club and first of all the heated disputes make this festival come alive. That is the reason why I thank all people and institutions for helping us organize this event. I would like to thank the TWO RIVERSIDES team, the great young people who are very important because they take care of the merits and the technique. Finally I would like to thank all volunteers. And now… let’s get to work – IT IS TIME TO START THE FESTIVAL.

Grażyna Torbicka

Artistic Director of Film and Art Festival TWO RIVERSIDES