I NEED THE HANDSHAKES
PerSo Short
by Andrei Kutsila
Bielorussia / Polonia, 2020, 18’
Original title: Uścisków twoich mi potrzeba
Director: Andrei Kutsila
Script: Andrei Kutsila
DOP: Andrei Kutsila
Editor: Andrei Kutsila
Production: Beata Krasicka
SYNOPSIS
A small hamlet lost in the endless Belarusian province. Walentyna, who is 92 years old, lives in a little cottage off the beaten track where she takes care of her daughter who was born paralysed. A frightfully beautiful film about limitless sacrifice, great power of imagination and poetry which can replace reality.
Director Statement
I accidentally entered a village house, where I saw a woman’s immobilized body on a bed. She was fed by an old mother through a pipe. Later I learned that a paralyzed woman is an unknown poet. I decided to open her microcosm to Belarus and the whole world.
PerSo Short
Andrei Kutsila
Film director, born in 1983. In 2007 he earned his degree in International Journalism from the Belarusian State University and two years later he graduated from the Belarusian Academy of Fine Arts in Minsk. Since then he has collaborated with various producers and TV stations as a freelance filmmaker and participated in many international education programmes (including IDFAcademy and Berlinale Talents). In 2018 he won the IDFA award in the Best Medium-Length Documentary Film category for “Summa”. In 2019, he was awarded with the Silver Hobby-Horse for the best documentary film in the National Competition of the Krakow Film Festival. He is a winner of the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship granted by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the author of the following films: “Focal distance” (2008), “Kill the Day” (2010), “Fight For” (2011), “Enough! To Freedom …” (2012), “Love in Belarus” (2014), “Guests”(2015), “Passing BY” (2016), “King of the Hill” (2017), “Summa” (2018), “Strip and War” (2019) and “I Need the Handshakes” (2020).