Human Rights In Cinema Competition

BIRDS ARE SINGING IN KIGALI
PTAKI SPIEWAJA W KIGALI

• Director: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
• POLAND / 2017 / DCP / Colour / 113´ / Polish; Turkish, English s.t.

• Screenplay: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
• Director of Photography: Krzysztof Ptak, Józefina Gocman, Wojciech Staroń
• Editing: Katarzyna Lesniak
• Music: Pawel Szymanski
• Cast: Jowita Budnik, Eliane Umuhire, Witold Wielinski, Ciza Remy Muhirwa
• Producer: Joanna Kos-Krauze
• Production Co.: Kosfilm
• World Sales: Kosfilm

- 2017 CHICAGO Best Director, Best Actress

- 2017 KARLOVY VARY Best Actress

- 2017 POLISH FILM FESTIVAL Best Actress, Best Editing, Best Feature

Director Krzysztof Krauze takes an unusual and daring look at the refugee crisis in his final film Birds are Singing in Kigali, which he completed with his wife Joanna Kos-Krauze before his death in 2014. In the center of the film are two women: Anna, a Polish birdwatcher who was in Ruanda during the genocide, and Claudine, a Tutsi who barely escaped the atrocities. These two women refuse to play the roles of victim and saviour as they try to “stay together” in Poland where they escaped to, and get rid of the bloodstain the land that one day will be returned to left on them.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.