The London Film School is immensely proud of recent graduate Elzbieta Piekacz, whose script BLANKETS OF LOVE was selected at the recently concluded Milano Film Festival (8th to 18th September 2016). BLANKETS OF LOVE received a special mention from the jury.
The short film, which was Piekacz 's graduation film, and her 3rd short film, was amongst ten selected films whose creators were invited for an Open Land pitch presentation in front of Film Industry professionals. Piekacz is a graduate of the European Academy of Photography in Warsaw and the London Film School, an accomplished actress/writer/director. Piekacz is the director of, TANGO SHOES; director-writer, production designer, editor, producer of EMBRACE which screened during Greenwich International Film Festival 2015 and International River Film Festival 2016. Her film AND YOU SLEEP was recently selected for Global Short Film Awards 2016.
BLANKETS OF LOVE is a film about Akiko, a thirty year old Japanese woman who works in a Central London hotel as a housekeeper. Akiko travels to England from Japan hoping the distance will help her cut the emotional attachment with Takahama who, after a 10 year relationship, has abandoned her for another woman. She is isolated, connecting with people only through the belongings in their rooms, observing them through the window. She has never shut the door on the past, she is still waiting for a sign from Takahama that he wants her to return.
Elzbieta Piekacz says: 'My first inspiration to write the screenplay "Blankets of love" was from working in a London hotel. I was fascinated by superficiality and the illusion that place and the disjointed worlds of employees and guests. Hotels as a "Tower of Babel", the intersection of people on the way from different parts of the world, cultures in “Hotel-city” that is London on it’s own. The hotel rooms as metaphorical - symbolic image of the subsequent stages of life, to the greatest mystery, the mystery of the end. The beds as a vehicle through all our life. The bed sheets, like shrouds, reflecting the most intimate moments. Starting of the scarf Santa Veronica puts with love on the face of suffering Jesus on his way to the cross when he was still alive. The Turin shroud that shows his face when dead. Positive and negative - life and death.' (sic)
The Milano Film Festival looks for new avenues for the promotion of both Italian and international talents, as well as the rediscovery and re analysis of cinema's greatest figures. It's the result of months of research, travels, discussions and visions: in every language, format, genre duration and from every country of the world. A continuous dialogue between the workgroup, students, production companies, directors, film schools and international distribution, The Milano Film Festival is a cultural proposal of quality, a democratic and open festival, platform of information and discovery of the present, laboratory for younger people and an international meeting place. The cinema activates public areas and collects in front of the screens 100,000 people from all over the world, in September for two weeks in Milan: palaces are open as exchange and socialization spaces. Squares, theaters, auditoriums, roads, alleys, corridors, parks, suburbs, parks, museums, galleries are all crowded by people of all ages all day. Public spaces of the city are always open, hospitable, and lively.
Credit Film Still: http://m.stopklatka.pl