Jan Ijäs’s short documentary film Waste no. 5 The Raft of the Medusa (2018) was awarded with a honorable mention at On Art Film Festival, held in Poland. Held from June 21 to August 25, the festival is the biggest open air film festival in Central Europe. During over two months 93 movies were shown in many prestigious locations, including National Museum in Warsaw, The Amphitheatre at Łazienki Royal-Park, Królikarnia Palace,  Museum MOCAK in Cracow, and Wrocław Contemporary Museum.

Previously awarded at IndieLisboa with Amnesty International Award, Waste no. 5 The Raft of the Medusa parallels the wrecked boats of the African immigrants on the Italian Lampedusa island and the abandoned cars of asylum seekers that have travelled from Russia to Salla, Finnish Lapland with Théodore Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819), located in Louvre. Based on true events, the subject of the painting is the 1816 shipwreck of Méduse, a frigate with administrative personnel on their way from France to African colonies. The passengers of the ship rescued on a raft they built and left drifting on the open sea with fatal consequences. Over the years, the painting has become a universal symbol for both despair and hope.

Media artist and filmmaker Jan Ijäs lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Ijäs works with documentary, fiction and alternative film. The films of Ijäs deal with serious and difficult social themes, like migration into foreign and hostile societies. Ijäs’s films have been shown very widely abroad by over a hundred film festivals and as installations in museums and galleries.

On Art Film Festival, June 21 – August 25 2018, Poland

More information: On Art FF