My Town

Growing up in a depressed industrial region in Silesia, a torpid place that seems to trap its unfortunate inhabitants like quicksand, young Gozdzik does his best to lighten things for his small circle of friends in a bleak apartment complex. After all, it's not as though jobs are plentiful enough to give him anything else to do. Gozdzik secretly stocks a barren pond with fish so his indolent, alcoholic father will at last succeed in catching something. He contrives a lonely old neighbor's dream date with the loveliest girl in town. He shields his family from a beloved uncle's disgrace. And for himself…What? A future would be nice. And a future anywhere but here would be nicer. The Polish television anthology series “Generation 2000,” which last gave us the haunting “Bellissima” (27th CIFF, 2003), serves to showcase the debut work of some of Eastern Europe's brightest emerging filmmakers, and Marek Lechki's feature bow, a sad and funny snapshot of desperate lives, marks another auspicious entry. (In Polish with English subtitles)