What happens to letters addressed to Santa? To deceased relatives? To God? Academy Award-nominated director Marcel Lozinski captures with beautiful photography the birth, delivery and reincarnation of undeliverable letters in Poland.

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself: 
Marcel Lozinski, born in Paris in 1940, is one of the best known of European documentary film directors. His credits include the Oscar and Felix nominated documentary 89 MM TO EUROPE, the multi-award-winning ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN (over 30 international awards including Prize IFFS Oberhausen 1995), SO, IT DOESN’T HURT (co-production with ARTE, awarded Grand Prix in Leiptzig 1998) and many others. Winner of the Andrzej Wajda FREEDOM PRIZE (Berlin, 2004) for the whole of his work, he has a strong commitment to ensuring the future of Polish and European documentary film through mentoring young Polish directors from initial script ideas through creative development to production. He is the chief of documentary department at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors, Warsaw.

What inspired this film?  How did you find your subjects?
Andrzej Wajda sent me a dispatch on Gazeta Wyborcza, the main newspaper in Poland. I always do a very detailed documentation. This time I did the documentation of the running of the Polish Post and I chose people for my film.

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
The intimacy of shooting the women working in the 2nd Post Office in Koluszki, Undeliverable Letters Department.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
Bergman, Fellini, Forman.

What is your all time favorite documentary?
THE MUSICIANS of KAZIMIERZ KARABASZ, Poland, 1960.

What other projects are in the pipeline?
A film about three women arrested in the 1950s in Poland, victims of the Stalinist terror.

Why did you become a filmmaker?
Because I wouldn't like to work as an engineer (this was my profession).

What are some of your creative influences?
Milosz Forman.

Did you go to film school?
Yes. The Film School of Lodz, Poland.

What do you shoot on?
More often on the film reel 16 mm or 35 mm.

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?
I have just found my film materials from 40 years ago that were restrained by the censorship in communist Poland.

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
I heard that it was a very amazing festival.