Do You Speak Chopin?

A documentary about the 17th edition of the Chopin Competition. Despite the great splendor that accompanies the event, the film is surprisingly low-key. The director does not spend much time on the official part of the competition, concentrating instead on what is happening on the periphery. He shows a performance of Chopin's works at a place that seems simultaneously extravagant and yet perfectly appropriate, the airport named for the Polish composer, and a dance inspired by Chopin's music performed by a group of artists on one of Warsaw's streets amid a wave of the surprised passersby. In addition, he speaks with a number artists who are, without exception, completely devoted to their art and, at the same time, strikingly unpretentious. Their conversations touch on both technique and emotion, the two components that musicians have to constantly try to balance. (New Horizons International Film Festival)