Stan nieważkości (State of weightlessness) shows the first attempts to tame space. It is a philosophical film essay about human constant yearning for transcendence, technological development which should help achieve the goal, and the price humans pay for their dream. Maciej Drygas talked to Russian cosmonauts and their families, to a rocket constructor, a pioneer of space medicine and to participants of medical experiments. He also obtained records of conversations between Earth and orbital station from a journal dictaphone of Valeri Polyakov, a cosmonaut, as well as unique archive records and documents from the history of Russian cosmonautics. This rich and sometimes sensational material was for Maciej Drygas the foundation for a fascinating film, in which admiration for space and joy from fulfilled dreams clash with the mystery of cruel medical experiments conducted on humans and people - and with tragic catastrophes and death.
Directed by: Maciej Drygas
Written by: Maciej Drygas
Cinematography: Andrzej Musiał, Stanisław Śliskowski
Music: Paweł Szymański
Sound production: Andrzej Żabicki
Cut: Dorota Wardęszkiewicz
Produced by: Studio Filmowe Logos, 1994
Co-production: ADR Production, Canal +, Telewizja Polska - I Program
Maciej Drygas is a film and radio director, a teacher and screenwriter, one of the most renowned Polish documentary filmmakers. He was born in Łódź in 1956, and graduated from VGIK, All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. He was an assistant to Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kieślowski, and a laureate of numerous international festivals and prestigious awards. One of his most important films, 'Hear My Cry' (1991) is about Ryszard Siwiec, who in an act of protest set fire to himself during a harvest festival at the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. For the film, Drygas received among others a Felix - European Film Award. He compares his work of a documentary filmmaker to one of an archaeologist, who often needs several years to research the topic and collect materials. Maciej Drygas authored also a libretto to Paweł Szymański's Qudsja Zaher opera, which premiered in April 2013.