''Tricks'', ( pl, Sztuczki) is a 2007 Polish film written, directed and produced by Andrzej Jakimowski starring Damian Ul, Ewelina Walendziak and Tomasz Sapryk. ''Tricks'' is Andrzej Jakimowski's follow up to ''

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'' (), 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 shopkeeper mother. 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 re-union does not immediately materialise as expected. As a last chance Stefak tries his good luck with the most risky of his tricks.

Cast

* Damian Ul as Stefek * Ewelina Walendziak as Elka * Tomasz Sapryk 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 *

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as Turek *

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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 ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

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 (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 year sinc ...

**Best Cinematography -

Adam Bajerski Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

**Golden Lion - Andrzej Jakimowski *

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

**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. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be th ...

**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 {{Poland-film-stub