Comrades

Joanna Janikowska / Poland, Italy / 2024 / World Premiere / 61 min.

synopsis

Simone, Francesca and Olivia are three young people from Bologna who are members of the Communist Renewal Party. Full of life, they take part in demonstrations and party meetings and believe that they can change the current world, dominated by ruthless capitalism and pressure for performance, for the better. At least until the moment when it turns out that it is almost impossible to change the minds of the older party members and the unsuccessful attempts to win new supporters intersect with the difficulties in their personal lives. Comrades is an empathetic time-lapse portrait that shows how the current young generation is losing its illusions due to social pressure and turbulent internal changes, and how difficult it is to keep faith in what we believe makes sense.

“By telling the stories of Olivia, Francesca and Simone, I try to show topics shared by many 20-30-year-olds: overstimulation, confusion, and awareness of social inequalities, accompanied by a difficulty in translating their good intentions into actions that bring about real change.” — Joanna Janikowska

Quote source: CineLink Industry Days

biography

Polish filmmaker and editor Joanna Janikowska studied Multidisciplinary Individual Studies at the University of Warsaw and worked as an assistant director under Piotr Stasik, but her professional career is linked to Italy, where she not only studied but also participated in a number of film workshops and projects and made a medium-length documentary In Cammino. Comrades is her feature debut.

more about film

director:	Joanna Janikowska
cast:	Simone Gimona, Olivia del Bravo, Francesca Sparacino
producer:	Anna Gawlita
script:	Joanna Janikowska
photography:	Joanna Janikowska
editing:	Michał Poddębniak, Pola Krzesiak, Edoardo Morabito, Joanna Janikowska
co-producer:	Giovanni Labadessa, Joanna Janikowska, Karolina Błażejczak
production manager:	Anna Gawlita