89mm from Europe

89mm from Europe (Polish: 89 mm od Europy) is a 1993 Polish short documentary film directed by Marcel Łoziński,[1] looking at the 89 mm difference in track gauge between Russian and European railroads after the Cold War.[2] It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.[3][4][5]

89mm from Europe
Directed byMarcel Łoziński
Written byMarcel Łoziński
CinematographyJacek Petrycki
Arthur Reinhart
Edited byKatarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk
Production
company
Studio Filmowe Kalejdoskop
Distributed byTelewizja Polska
Release date
  • 1993 (1993)
Running time
12 minutes
CountryPoland
LanguageRussian

Plot

The film shows the fundamental differences between Western and Eastern Europe even after the end of the Cold War, based on one detail: the width of the railroad tracks. 89 mm from Europe shows the efforts of Belarusian workers who collectively replace the wheels of trains passing through the former Soviet Union on the Polish-Belarusian border near Brest. The title 89 mm is the difference between the track gauge in Europe (1435 mm) and in the former USSR (1524 mm),[6] with a historical explanation dating back to the 19th century; a different gauge was to prevent German military trains from quickly penetrating the borders of Tsarist Russia.[7]

Awards

89 mm from Europe was the first film by Łoziński in which he really reached an international audience after the fall of the Eastern Bloc. The documentary was nominated for an Oscar for the best short documentary and for the European Film Awards for the best documentary, it also won the Grand Prix of the Montreal Film Festival.[8][9]

Accolades

References
  1. Docufest 1995|International Documentary Association
  2. MUBI
  3. "NY Times: 89mm from Europe". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  4. "The 67th Academy Awards (1995) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  5. `FORREST GUMP' NAILS DOWN 13 OSCAR NOMINATIONS - Desert News
  6. "FilmPolski.pl". FilmPolski (in Polish). Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  7. Kopczyński, Krzysztof (2013). ""Widzieć, aby wiedzieć". O filmie Marcela Łozińskiego 89 mm od Europy". Prace dedykowane profesor Swietłanie Musijenko, idea i wstęp Jarosław Ławski; red. nauk. Anna Janicka, Grzegorz Kowalski, Łukasz Zabielski (in Polish). Książnica Podlaska im. Łukasza Górnickiego: 215–218. ISBN 978-83-63470-13-5.
  8. "FilmPolski.pl". FilmPolski (in Polish). Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  9. "Marcel Łoziński: Życie jest jak film dokumentalny [WYWIAD]". film.dziennik.pl (in Polish). 18 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  10. Documentary Winners: 1995 Oscars
  11. European Film Academy: European Film Awards Winners 1993
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