Ewa Maria Wolska is a film director, puppeteer, stop-motion animator based in Warsaw, Poland. Founder of Teatr FRAKTAL (FRACTAL Theatre), creating original, intimate, poetic performances known for rich visuality, experimental sound, and original instruments. Her most significant theatrical works made with FRACTAL Theatre include puppet performaces: „Pomelo is in love, with the frog, the rain and many others”; „Biba” and dramatic ones: „Frida la Vida!” and „Waves”, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf.

Ewa graduated from Theatre Direction at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Puppetry Art Department in Bialystok as well as from Polish Philology and Cultural Studies in the University of Lodz.

Director Statement: In my art I try to find and express the poetry of life, the unexpected, the weird, the unknown… I’m especially interested in the delicate matter of our emotions, both their power and and their charming complications. I dream about my viewers’ tears and believe in the power of katharsis.

• small. quite small (2:30 min.)
  short impression about feeling lost and helpless... a message of hope for pandemic times

• my dear quarantine (5 min.)
  My dear quarantine is a short, simple story from the time of pandemic–a poetic view of isolation, loneliness and boredom.
  The inspiration for the film came during the complete lockdown, when many of us suffered from being closed up in concrete cubes. At the same time, however, something extraordinary happened: wild animals all over the world, intrigued by the sudden silence and peace, visited city centers. Animals walked the city streets, looked into the houses through windows and fences, got to know the charms of the playgrounds and–apparently–had a lot of fun. Their curiosity and innocence contrasted with our loneliness and fears, my dear quarantine portrays that special, poetic moment.

• tears tears tears (11 min.)

Kevin McTurk is a puppet designer, puppeteer and filmmaker, a specialist in special effects inter alia Jurassic Park, Avatar, Iron Man, The Legend of Zorro, King Kong, Hellboy, Terminator 3 and others. He has also been creating his own animated films for several years.

• „The Haunted Swordsman” (16 min.)
  In this epic puppet film, a lone samurai and his odd companion - a cursed severed head-seek vengeance in a haunted world.

• „The Mill at Calders End” (13 min.)
  In the remote village of Calder’s End stands an old windmill, a repository of dark secrets. Nicholas Grimshaw has returned to this haunted place, intent on breaking an ancient family curse.
  Grimshaw’s journey takes him deep below the decaying mill, into mysterious, forgotten catacombs, where he must confront the very source of the evil that has corrupted his family.