BFI London Film Festival: Floating Skyscrapers

Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk), a champion swimmer, lives with his mother and girlfriend Sylwia and spends much of his time training in preparation for competitions. One evening, he and Sylwia attend a gallery opening where he meets Michał, a handsome youth of the same age, and a new relationship develops. The film follows the course of Kuba’s evolving sexuality and the effect it has on Sylwia and his family, as well as examining the response of an unsympathetic environment.

Tomasz Wasilewski’s second feature film, beautifully shot by Jakub Kijowski, is sensitively acted and sexually provocative, fulfilling the promise of his debut feature In the Bedroom. Wasilewski’s flair for widescreen composition and use of sound heralds a fresh and original talent. A courageous movie – Wasilewski describes it as ‘the first Polish LGBT film’ – Floating Skyscrapers won first prize in the East of the West competition at Karlovy Vary.