''Tricks'', () is a 2007

Polish film The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations. A ...

written, directed and produced by Andrzej Jakimowski starring Damian Ul, Ewelina Walendziak and Tomasz Sapryk. ''Tricks'' is Andrzej Jakimowski's follow up to ''

Squint Your Eyes Squinting is the action of looking at something with partially closed eyes. Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squinting helps momenta ...

'' (), his 2002 debut.

Plot

A charming bittersweet narrative unfolds from director Andrzej Jakimowski. This is the story of siblings Stefek, 6, and Elka, 18, along with Elka's car mechanic boyfriend Jerzy during one sun-drenched summer. The siblings live with their mother who is a shopkeeper. Their father has left their mother for another woman, unaware of Stefek's existence. After a chance encounter at the local railway station, and despite a denial by his sister that this was his father, Stefek decides to challenge fate to engineer another meeting. He believes that the chain of events he sets in motion will help him get closer to his father who abandoned his mother. His sister Elka teaches him how to bribe fate with small sacrifices. Tricks played, coupled with a number of coincidences eventually bring the father to the mother's shop but the long-awaited reunion does not immediately materialise as expected. As a last chance, Stefak tries his good luck with the riskiest of his tricks.

Cast

* Damian Ul as Stefek * Ewelina Walendziak as Elka *

Tomasz Sapryk Tomasz Sapryk (born 17 November 1966 in Warsaw, Polish People’s Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that ...

as Father of Stefek and Elka * Rafal Guzniczak as Jerzy * Iwona Fornalczyk as Mother of Stefek and Elka * Joanna Liszowska as Violka * Andrzej Golejewski as Homeless * Grzegorz Stelmaszewski as Turek * Simeone Matarelli as Leone

Distribution and response

''Tricks'' received a warm reception from the audience at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

whilst at the same time gaining critics' approval. Iain Millar from the American channel Bloomberg wrote in his review: "The success of ''Sztuczki'' is due mostly to the incredible intuition of Jakimowski as a director. Although not nominated for the bigger awards, ''Tricks'' received attention from many film festivals. The film was chosen as Poland's official submission to the

81st Academy Awards The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2008 and took place on February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 ...

for Best Foreign Language Film.

Awards

Polish Film Festival The Gdynia Film Festival aka FPFF (until 2011: Polish Film Festival, Polish: ''Festiwal Polskich Filmów Fabularnych w Gdyni'') is an annual film festival first held in Gdańsk (1974–1986), now held in Gdynia, Poland. It has taken place every ...

**Best Cinematography - Adam Bajerski **Golden Lion - Andrzej Jakimowski *

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival (), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South Ame ...

**Special Jury Award - Andrzej Jakimowski *

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

**Best Actor Award - Damian Ul *

**Label Europa Cinemas - Andrzej Jakimowski **Laterna Magica Prize - Andrzej Jakimowski

Nominations

**International Jury Award - Andrzej Jakimowski *

**Tokyo Grand Prix - Andrzej Jakimowski

References

External links

* * * (currently broken, 20 September 2009) 2007 films Polish comedy-drama films Opus Film films {{Poland-film-stub