Experimental Docs From Poland, Cuba Win in Amsterdam

Maciej J. Drygas’ Trains, a Polish found footage documentary styled as a collective portrait of the impact of 20th-century industrial innovation on the people of Europe, has won best film at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world’s leading documentary festival.

The IDFA international jury was unanimous in picking Trains, which it praised for its “bold and inventive use of archive footage” in telling a story of the “positive and negative consequences of modern industrial innovation. It harnesses the magic of cinema and as an audience, we are haunted by our present historical time, even while we bear witness to the past.” The best film honor comes with a €15,000 ($15,800) cash prize.

French filmmaker Auberi Edler won IFDA’s best director prize for An American Pastoral, a portrait of a small conservative town in Pennsylvania, and the ideological battle that erupts around a debate over the curriculum of the local public school.

“By simply looking and listening, this director reveals the current complexity at the heart of the United States,” the jury said. “Her deep commitment to observation allows the viewer to come face to
face with the communities in the film and provides critical insight into the results of the last
U.S presidential election.”

Chronicles of the Absurd by Cuban director Miguel Coyula, which looks at the Kafkaesque experience of Cuban artists, who face government oppression at home, and dogmatic anti-regime critics abroad, took top honors for best film in IFDA’s Envision sidebar, with the jury singling out its radical form and political commentary.

The 37th IDFA runs through Nov. 24.