Polish director Skolimowski appeals for more films on immigrants

By Agnieszka Flak

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski on Wednesday pleaded for more films to made about migrants, saying immigration was one of the world’s biggest problems.

Speaking at the Venice film festival where he was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement, Skolimowski said migrants deserved to be looked at in a “sympathetic way”.

“I was an immigrant myself for many years, so I know how one feels being forced to leave your own country and then trying to find a new place,” the 78-year-old told a news conference.

“That’s maybe the main subject of the films that should come in the near future,” he added.

Skolimowski was born in Lodz, Poland and has made some 17 films in a 50 year-career that has taken him to London, Los Angeles and back to Poland. He is considered one of the leaders of the European New Wave of film making of the 1960s.

The director whose “11 Minutes” featured in Venice last year, said most of his own films dealt with outsiders. 

“I care about people who are somehow on the margins of society, those who are called losers or those who cannot really find a place in their life,” he said.

“Some of them are really tragic figures, some may have some hidden agendas,” he added. “Whatever they are, they are still people… and we should try to learn about them, to understand them.”

The Venice film festival opened on Wednesday and runs until Sept. 10.

(Reporting by Reuters Televsion)