>>> FADE OUT (Poland)
A drama/ romance. The protagonist’s loss of sight becomes his powerful psychological and emotional adventure.
Peter is a renown neurosurgeon, a lone wolf focused solely on his professional life. The last operation he performs is that on Maria, a beautiful ballet dancer, who has had an accident in the theatre. The operation turns out to be a piece of a surgical miracle, and Maria, by this time deeply infatuated with Peter, like so many women patients, leaves hospital hoping she will be able to dance again.
Meanwhile, Peter starts having problems with his eyesight. He is forced to quit his job, which for him means quitting everything that he has been used to care for. Having probably the last chances to see the world that is mercilessly disappearing, he starts to feel as if he himself was disappearing. For some time he loses his grip on the reality, and we see him turn from anger to fear, then from self-pity to madness and despair.
Meanwhile, Maria successfully, and against all odds, indeed goes back to dancing. Peter learns about it, and obsessively starts frequenting her shows: not for the beauty of them, but to look at the miracle his hands were once able to perform, and to measure the progressing limitation to his eyesight, which he observes against the background of Maria’s dynamic dance. After some time Maria notices him and invites him to her home. She shows him the scar after the operation, and at this point Peter breaks down completely, leaves her and, desperate and broke, goes away to kill himself in a car crash.
But instead, he meets a hippy hitchhiker. She gives him attention, and takes him on his last journey through the visible world, which he seems to be noticing for the first time. This adventure helps him regain his balance. Peter returns home, and now, ready to face up to his fate, he starts practicing living in the dark. Maria, who observes him, herself unobserved, realizes his situation, and his quiet struggle, his determination, change her admiration to love. When she finally reveals herself to Peter, he is emotionally ready to accept her and his own feelings.
For a moment their new happiness is broken when Peter finally loses the last remains of his eyesight. His first reaction is total panic, as the real thing is not the same as his no matter how determined practices. But the next morning brings more calm. He goes out to the forest, for the first time in total darkness. And we leave him clapping to the first rays of the rising sun, maybe to congratulate himself on his perseverance, or maybe to honour the world around, with which, paradoxically, he has found a new intimate contact.
Eliza Borkowska
Born in Olsztyn, Poland, in 1972.
Screenwriter. She also works as a translator into English (e.g. 2004-2005 a project for the Jewish Historical Institute
Holocaust Survivor Testimonies, ŻIH, IN-B, Warsaw 2005).
A graduate of the English Institute, Warsaw University, also studied in Centre for British and Comparative Cultural Studies and Theatre Studies Centre, University of Warwick, Great Britain. Scholarships in Misano Adriatico Translation School, Italy, Glasgow University and Edinburgh University, Great Britain. PhD in literary studies from Warsaw University in 2002 (a dissertation on pre-Romantic British poetry and the philosophy of language). 1996-2002 lecturer in the English Institute, Warsaw University (academic courses on the history of British literature). Since 2002 lecturer at the High School of Social Psychology in Warsaw (lectures on British literature, academic courses on narratology, British poetry, drama, and prose, BA and MA seminars on British literature).
Filmography:
Fade Out (Ściemnienie) (co-writer Piotr Borkowski) - a feature film, 2005; optioned by Henryk Romanowski, FILMCONTRACT/ 2006
Na wspólnej (a TV serial) - co-writer Piotr Borkowski, 8 episodes in 2002-2003, produced for TVN television channel
Other current script projects:
Unicorn Union (feature, co-writer Piotr Borkowski)
Marta (feature, co-writer Piotr Borkowski)
Piotr Borkowski
Born in Olsztyn, Poland, in 1972.
Screenwriter. In 1991 graduated from the English Institute, Warsaw University; also studied in American Studies Centre in Warsaw, Centre for British and Comparative Cultural Studies, Film Studies Centre and Philosophy Department, Warwick University, Great Britain, and Journalism School in Warsaw. Scholarships in Misano Adriatico Translation School, Italy, and Glasgow University, Great Britain. PhD in literary and cultural studies from Warsaw University in 2002 (a dissertation on the cinema of David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and Peter Greenaway). 1996-2004 lecturer at the English Institute, Warsaw University (academic courses e.g. on British culture, American genre cinema, the cinema of Charlie Chaplin). Since 2003 lecturer at the High School of Social Psychology in Warsaw (academic courses on British culture, the cinema of Charlie Chaplin, historical conventions of film narration,
licencjat and MA seminars on British and American film).
2004-2005 assistant to Robert Draba, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw. 2005-2006 co-ordinator of the international promotional campaign "Warsaw City Properties. Aim High" for the City of Warsaw, in co-operation with Jones Lang LaSalle and TBWA.
He received grants from Polish Script Agency (1996, 2000, 2004) and Andrzej Munk Foundation (2004). He was a participant in Script Factory Workshop in Warsaw (2005), 2004-2006 associated with the Pracownia and Pracownia 2005 projects in the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing.
Filmography:
Gra na dwoje (The Game For Two) (feature) - co-writer Maciej Górski, Polish Script Agency grant - 1996
Spojrzenia (The Gazes) (feature) - Polish Script Agency grant, an early draft later transformed into Fade Out/ Ściemnienie - 2000
Przejście (Border) (feature) – co-author Maciej Górski, Polish Script Agency grant - 2004
Na dystans (From A Distance) (feature) - co-writer Maciej Górski, the Andrzej Munk Foundation grant - 2004, development in the Pracownia project in the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing - 2004-2005, scheduled director Maciej Górski
Trójka do wzięcia (Three Ones To Take) (feature) - co-writer Bartek Konopka, development in the Pracownia 2005 project in the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing - 2005-2006, directed by Bartek Konopka
Fade Out (Ściemnienie) (feature) - co-writer Eliza Borkowska, development during Script Factory Workshop, Warsaw-2005, optioned by Henryk Romanowski, Filmcontract/ 2006
Na wspólnej (a TV serial) - co-writer Eliza Borkowska, 8 episodes in 2002-2003, produced for TVN television channel
Miejsce ponad pustką (A Place Beyond Emptiness) - a documentary for Michał Bogusławski's "Małe ojczyzny" ("Little Homelands") series, Channel 2 of Polish TV - 1997
Other current script projects:
Unicorn Union (feature, co-writer Eliza Borkowska)
Marta (feature, co-writer Eliza Borkowska)
Dół (The Ditch) (feature, scheduled director Leszek Molski, scheduled production company: Filmotwórnia)
Utopia (feature, co-writer and scheduled director Jacek Nagłowski, scheduled production company: Centrala)
