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Using TV as his background, Piątek brings back the archive footage, and it s almost sad to see all that now, with kids building three-metre-tall igloos because they “want to achieve something extraordinary”, and so does everyone else on that day. In theory, at least, as – possible spoilers ahead –
Prime Time is a story about a potentially revolutionary gesture running up against a wall of bureaucracy and other people s apathy, the extent of which Sebastian (
Bartosz Bielenia) is about to discover.
A young man with the kind of baggage the debuting Piątek only lets you glimpse, he is desperate enough to hijack a TV studio in order to deliver his message live, without exactly stating what said message would be – in keeping with the film s insistence on not explaining a damn thing, ever. The fact that he takes two people, a well-known presenter and a security guard (
In 2016,
Jodie Foster set out to “bring back the grown-up summer movie” with
Money Monster, the story of a desperate young man who walks into the taping of a television show and holds the host hostage on air. The movie failed both at the box office and with critics, because it was an overwrought mess that was trying to say way too much in the space of just over two hours. While Jakub Piątek’s new film
Prime Time has a setup that’s almost identical, it succeeds where Foster’s film failed, and at just a fraction of the budget and only a 90-minute runtime by simply focusing on the story.
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Prime Time
Starring Bartosz Bielenia, Magdalena Popławska, Andrzej Kłak, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Dobromir Dymecki, and Monika Frajczyk.
SYNOPSIS:
In 1999, Sebastian locks himself in a TV studio. He has two hostages, a gun, and an important message for the world.
Dog Day Afternoon.
Network.
The King of Comedy. The touchstones are myriad for Polish filmmaker Jakub Piątek’s satirical thriller debut, which while saying little new about the insidiousness of the mass media engine, nevertheless succeeds enough as a modest, claustrophobic acting showcase.
On New Year’s Eve 1999, 20-year-old Sebastian (Bartosz Bielenia) sneaks his way into a TV studio and, using a gun, interrupts a live broadcast. Sebastian takes glamorous TV presenter Mira (Magdalena Poplawska) and her security guard (Andrzej Klak) hostage, while demanding that the live feed be restored so that he can broadcast his own message to the world.
29-01-2021
The success of the New Horizons Association industry events. Films developed during the NH and AFF festivals in the program of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival
Prime Time, reż. Jakub Piątek, fot. Tomek Kaczor
Prime Time, Jakub Piątek s debut film produced by Kuba Razowski (Watchout Studio), will have its world premiere in the feature film competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was developed as part of the international programme New Horizons Studio+ 2019 organized by the New Horizons Association and Creative Europe Desk Polska. In the summer of 2020, right after the shooting began, fragments of the film were presented to the international industry at the largest industry event in Poland – Polish Days (project organised by NH Association and Polish Film Institute). The film aroused great interest and received one of the main awards – the Screen International Award.
Here are the 72 feature films in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which will mostly screen online
The festival will be shorter with limited in-person events, to avoid spreading COVID-19.
(Daniel Power | courtesy of Focus Features / Sundance Institute) Robin Wright directs and stars in the drama Land. It s an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. | Updated: Jan. 5, 2021, 12:33 a.m.
With everything that will be different about the 2021 Sundance Film Festival a shorter event, with fewer films, most of it happening online the quality of movies on the slate has stayed constant, said the festival’s new director, Tabitha Jackson.