Floating Skyscrapers

Floating Skyscrapers
Polish theatrical release poster
Directed byTomasz Wasilewski
Written byTomasz Wasilewski
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyKuba Kijowski
Edited byAleksandra Gowin
Music byBaasch
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Film Point Group (Poland)
  • Galapagos Films (Poland, home video)
  • Matchbox Films (United Kingdom)
  • Films Boutique (worldwide)
Release dates
  • 18 April 2013 (2013-04-18) (Tribeca)
  • 22 November 2013 (2013-11-22) (Poland)
  • 6 December 2013 (2013-12-06) (United Kingdom)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryPoland
Language
Box office$137,832 (Poland)[1]

Floating Skyscrapers (Polish: Płynące wieżowce) is a 2013 Polish drama film written and directed by Tomasz Wasilewski, and starring Mateusz Banasiuk, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Bartosz Gelner and Katarzyna Herman. It follows the story of Kuba, an aspiring professional swimmer who falls in love with another man to the disapproval of his mother and to the surprise of his girlfriend, who tries to hold on to him and their relationship.

Premiering at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, the film is the first Polish production that primarily deals with the topic of same-sex relationships,[2] and is often paired together with In the Name Of by Małgorzata Szumowska—which covers the same themes in a different manner—as films that attempt to challenge existing local social and cultural norms on homosexuality.[3][4] Set in Warsaw, the film is noted for using the urban landscape and its largely clean, straight aesthetic as a means of conveying the existence of these strict pre-existing social conventions, which the film's storyline attempts to deviate from.[5][6]

Reactions to the film by both critics and the general public were mixed. While some have praised the bravery of the film for covering a topic generally considered by Polish society to be taboo, as well as for its cinematography and soundtrack, others have criticized the film's flat storyline and character development, as well as its predictable, conventional, tragic end.

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