Pawel Pawlikowksi

Polish-born filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski makes documentaries whose unique blend of lyricism and irony won him many fans and awards around the world. From Moscow to Pietushki is a poetic journey into the world of the Russian cult writer Venedikt Yerofeev, which won Pawlikowski an Emmy and other awards. Dostoevsky's Travels is a road movie with a St. Petersburg tram driver, the only living descendant of Fyodor Dostoevsky, as he travels rough around Western Europe dropping in high-minded humanists, aristocrats, monarchists and the Baden-Baden casino - in his quest to raise money to buy a second hand Mercedes. The absurdist Tripping with Zhirinovsky, a surreal boat journey down the Volga with the Russian would-be dictator (Zhirinovsky) won Pawlikowski the Grierson award for the Best British documentary in 1995. In the late 1990s Pawlikowski moved out of the documentary genre in the strict sense with his intimate hybrid film Twockers that mixes documentary and drama in a story set on a housing estate in Yorkshire. His first drama feature Last Resort(2000) was followed by My Summer Of Love (2004). Loosely based on Helen Cross’ novel, Future projects of Pawlikowski include an adaptation of Vernon God Little, an original story entitled Dreamcatcher, and a Georgian-language adaptation of Young Stalin.

For today’s documentary world glutted by glorified reportage and popular portraits with mass-appeal, Pawlikowski’s films represent a body of work consecrated to authorship, daring and originality. In addition to a rare sense of irony, each film offers an ode to those typical pleasures associated with world cinema - framing, editing and use of music.

Filmography

My Summer of Love (2004)
Last Resort (2000)
The Stringer (1998)
Twockers (1998)
Tripping with Zhirinovsky (1995)
Dostoevsky’s Travels (1992)
Serbian Epics (1992)
From Moscow to Pietushki (1991)