DOCU/LIFE

The Argentinian Lesson

Year
2011
Country
Poland
Duration
56’
Director
Wojciech Staroń

The film's visual aesthetics, its rhythm and composition parallel the narration of a fiction film, while it shows a process of slow integration of a boy of 8 or 9 into a completely strange cultural environment. The main character is the director's son Janek, who comes to Argentina from Poland with his mother, a teacher of Polish. He goes to a new, Argentinian school, where he is surrounded by a language he has never heard before. Slowly, he befriends with an 11-year-old Marcia, who although a child herself, has to take care of her family’s existence. This friendship and the new environment change Janek.

Production
Staron Film, TVP SA
Director
Wojciech Staroń

Wojciech Staroń was born in 1973 in Poland. He graduated from the Cinematography Department of the National Film School in Łódź. Cinematographer of numerous feature and documentary films, such as Savior’s Square by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze, Six Weeks by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, Vodka Factory by Jerzy Śladkowski, and El Premio by Paula Markovitch – the one that earned him the Silver Bear for the Best Cinematography at the Berlinale 2011. Staroń is a member of the European Film Academy and the Polish Society of Cinematographers (PSC), an association of feature filmmakers.

Selected Filmography

Time of Duration (1998), Siberian Lesson (1998), El Misionero (2000), Babilon.pl (2004), For a Moment (2005), Mrs. Nikifor (2005), Towards the World (2007), Argentinian Lesson (2011)

22 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
 6 — 13 
June 2025
La Machina
DOCU/LIFE
La Machina
Year
2011
Country
Poland
Director
Thierry Paladino
Duration
52’
DOCU/LIFE
Gagarinland
DOCU/LIFE
Gagarinland
Year
2010
Country
France, Russia
Director
Vladimir Kozlov
Duration
86’
DOCU/LIFE
Paradise Hotel
DOCU/LIFE
Paradise Hotel
Year
2010
Country
Bulgaria
Director
Sophia Tzavella
Duration
54’’
DOCU/LIFE
The Castle
DOCU/LIFE
The Castle
Year
2011
Country
Italy
Directors
Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti
Duration
90’
DOCU/LIFE
Abendland
DOCU/LIFE
Abendland
Year
2011
Country
Austria
Director
Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Duration
90’
DOCU/LIFE
Autumn Gold
DOCU/LIFE
Autumn Gold
Year
2010
Country
Germany
Director
Jan Tenhaven
Duration
94’
DOCU/LIFE
Katka
DOCU/LIFE
Katka
Year
2010
Country
Czech Republic
Director
Helena Trestikova
Duration
92’
DOCU/LIFE
When China Met Africa
DOCU/LIFE
When China Met Africa
Year
2010
Country
UK, France
Directors
Nick Francis, Marc Francis
Duration
75’
DOCU/LIFE
Planet Kirsan
DOCU/LIFE
Planet Kirsan
Year
2010
Country
Poland
Director
Magdalena Pieta
Duration
50’
DOCU/LIFE
Gangster Project
DOCU/LIFE
Gangster Project
Year
2011
Country
Germany, Republic of South Africa
Director
Teboho Edkins
Duration
55’
DOCU/LIFE
Ramin
DOCU/LIFE
Ramin
Year
2011
Country
Latvia, Georgia
Director
Audrius Stonys
Duration
58’
DOCU/LIFE
Himself He Сooks
DOCU/LIFE
Himself He Сooks
Year
2011
Country
Belgium
Directors
Valerie Berteau, Philippe Witjes
Duration
64’
DOCU/LIFE
People I Could Have Been And Maybe Am
DOCU/LIFE
People I Could Have Been And Maybe Am
Year
2010
Country
The Netherlands
Director
Boris Gerrets
Duration
53’
DOCU/LIFE
How Are You Doing, Rudolf Ming?
DOCU/LIFE
How Are You Doing, Rudolf Ming?
Year
2010
Country
Latvia
Director
Roberts Rubins
Duration
62’
DOCU/LIFE