Long Abstract

Film Programme 12:

"Only Day and Night (Tylko dzień i noc)" Grzegorz Brzozowski

"Moya (The Name We Call)" Mahfuz Sarker

Accepted films

"Only Day and Night" ["Tylko dzień i noc"]  

Tylko dzień i noc

Grzegorz Brzozowski (University of Warsaw)

2024 | 69' | Polish

Send message to Filmmaker

Film short abstract

Could any good come from a time of solitude? A radically diverse group of individuals, connecting only through computer screens, open up to share their pandemic and existential loneliness. The long-term project turns traumas into an invaluable life lesson of courage - also for the director himself.

Film synopsis

Could any good come from a time of enforced solitude? A radically diverse group of individuals, connecting only through computer screens, open up to share their pandemic and existential loneliness. The film follows them sharing the hopes and fears they experienced during the pandemic isolations and in years to follow. The long-term project, inspired by the films of Jean Rouch ("Chronicle of a summer") and Krzysztof Kieślowski ("Talking Heads"), turns traumas into an invaluable life lesson of courage - also for the director himself. As inspired by self-reflexive anthropology, the film addresses the process of filmmaking itself and involves the director as one of its characters. Due to the conditions of quarantine, the film was made only through online recording, supplemented with some cell phones, thus it explores the intricacies of building intimate connections between strangers despite the physical distance and digital means of communication. Even the greatest fear cannot overcome us if we know how to be together.

Awards:

64th Krakow Film Festival, 2024: The Maciej Szumowski Award for Remarkable Social Awareness, the justification reads: "The film has an extraordinary sense of historical timing and sensitivity in portraying the protagonists in a situation of collective danger, whose result is an exceptionally modern and – simultaneously – universal story about every one of us."

Title (original):	Tylko dzień i noc
Duration (in minutes):	69
Country(ies) of filming:	Poland, Norway
Language(s):	Polish
Year of Production:	2024
Director(s):	Grzegorz Brzozowski
Producer/Production company:	Koskino
Website or link for other info:	https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568648734037
Link to trailer (if available):	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXKI5TXlUkY&t=1s

Moya (The Name We Call)  

Moya ( The Name We Call)

Mahfuz Sarker (Shaikh Burhanuddin Post Graduate College, Anthro lens, Dhaka, Bangladesh)

2025 | 23' | Bangla

Send message to Filmmaker

Film short abstract

Set in the riverine Bathan lands of northern Bangladesh, this documentary explores the seasonal migration of herders and their cattle, focusing on the emotional, cultural, and ecological ties that bind pastoral communities to a rapidly changing landscape.

Film synopsis

The Bathan lands are vast riverine grasslands in northern Bangladesh, temporarily inhabited each year by herders and their flocks of cattle. Located on the banks of the Jamuna River, these remote lands are submerged underwater during the rainy season. In the dry season, herders migrate from their villages to these isolated areas, far from human settlements.

Set in Sirajganj, a northern district of Bangladesh, this documentary offers a sonic journey into the seasonal rhythms of cattle herders. In a world shared only with cattle, birds, and grasses, human connection unfolds through voice and sound. Herders name each cow individually; when called, the cows respond. Yet this connection carries conflict, when a cow stops producing milk or becomes economically unviable, herders are often forced to sell them. Love turns into loss, revealing the fragile balance between emotion and livelihood.

Through intimate interviews and close observation, the documentary ‘The Name We Call’ reveals a hidden soundscape of whispers, calls, and silences—a story of love, companionship, and loss, told through the act of listening between humans and cattle.

Title (original):	Moya ( The Name We Call)
Duration (in minutes):	23
Country(ies) of filming:	Bangladesh
Language(s):	Bangla
Year of Production:	2025
Director(s):	Mahfuz Sarker
Producer/Production company:	Anthro Lens
Link to trailer (if available):	https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UAXvm-v2GtXiSrNgM8QbZziPacExyrEd/view?usp=drivesdk