Polish documentary ‘Trains’ directed by Maciej J. Drygas has won the IDFA Award for Best Film in the International Competition. The film also received the IDFA Award for Best Editing in the International Competition which went to Rafał Listopad.
The Jury statement for IDFA Award for Best Film:
“The jury was unanimous. This is a bold and inventive use of archive. The film shows us routes to 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 IDFA Award for Best Film goes to Trains by Maciej J. Drygas.“
The Jury statement for the IDFA Award for Best Editing:
“This film was masterfully edited. Both image and sound took us on a journey moving seamlessly through time. The film confronts us with history both subtly and with exacting precision and without a single word of dialogue. The IDFA Award for Best Editing goes to Trains by Maciej J. Drygas.”
Synopsis
Trains opens with a quote from Franz Kafka: “There is plenty of hope. An infinite amount of hope. But not for us.” These words hang like a dark cloud over this found footage documentary, which creates a collective portrait of people in 20th century Europe, capturing their hopes, desires, dramas, and tragedies.
Powerful scenes showing steam locomotives and railroad cars being assembled feel like a celebration of human ingenuity and labor. People dressed in festive attire embark on a rail journey. But these cheerful scenes soon make way for military transport: soldiers being deployed to the frontlines—quickly followed by civilians evacuating, a procession of ragged prisoners-of-war, and amputee soldiers.
Times change, the pattern repeats. The archival material in this wordless film evokes an inevitable cycle of delight and destruction, beauty and bitterness. The image of a tangle of railroad tracks and switches raises the inevitable question: Which route will humanity choose?
