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| 2005 NYFF Films Introduction Good Night, and Good Luck Regular Lovers The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Methadonia L'Enfant (The Child) Bubble The Squid and the Whale I Am Capote Something Like Happiness Sympathy for Lady Vengeance Manderlay Tale of Cinema Breakfast on Pluto Through the Forest The President's Last Bang Who's Camus Anyway? Three Times Paradise Now Tristram Shandy Gabrielle The Sun The Passenger Cache (Hidden) | I Am Dorota Kedzierzawska, Poland, 2005, 100 min.  An eleven-year-old (Piotr Jagielski) escapes from an orphanage and returns to his hometown where the other kids call him "Mongrel" and his young alcoholic mother (Edyta Jungowska) kicks him out again. Undaunted, he sets up quarters on his own in an abandoned barge. "Mongrelšs" survival strategies and day-to-day encounters show hešs not only resourceful but a fundamentally good person. He and an unhappy girl his age (Agnieszska Nagorzycka) from a posh house nearby discover therešs affection and love in each otheršs presence. "Mongre" forages, sells scrap metal, and deals with some of the adults in town. Dreaming of being a poet some day, he avoids the bad kids who chase him and sniff glue and doesnšt drink or smoke. Prize-winning cinematographer Arthur Reinhardt used systems of bungee cords to stay close to the young actors and eschewed steadicams and handheld cameras. Panovision Polska actually donated funds and equipment. The resulting gorgeous soft-colored sepia-toned wide-screen images make this quiet film beautiful to behold, and the director has an extraordinary way with child actors. Composer Michael Nyman (who did the scores for five Peter Greenaway films as well as The Piano, Gattaca, and The End of the Affair) has provided music thatšs both sweeping and intimate. This is no Ratboy or 400 Blows: this boy is marginal and independent enough to create his own world -- at least for a while. (Chris Knipp) |
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