Tricks

Part of our “New U.S. Indies and World Cinema” program.

Director: Andrzej Jakimowski
Country: Poland (2007)
Language: Polish with English subtitles
Running Time: 96 minutes
Screening: Saturday, March 28, 2009, 1:oo p.m.

The charming, bittersweet narrative unfolds from siblings Stefek, 6, and Elka, 18, and Elka’s car mechanic boyfriend during a sun-drenched summer in a provincial Polish town. The siblings live with their shopkeeper mother, whose husband dropped her for another woman years earlier, and Stefek’s worldview is shaped by his sister’s bargaining with destiny. When Stefek notices a commuter in the train station who reminds him of his father, he begins to trick fate in order to keep the man in town and reunite his family.

An official selection at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival, Tricks is Poland’s candidate for this year’s foreign-language film Oscar. Winning awards at more than 20 film festivals, Tricks premiered in 2007 at Venice Days where it won the Prix Europa Cineamas Award for best European film as well as the Laterna Magica Award. The 2008 Miami International Film Festival awarded Tricks its Grand Jury Prize, as did the 2008 New York Polish Film Festival.

See a preview and film clips of Tricks.