The film, Closure, follows a father’s search for his teenage son, who went missing in Poland’s Vistula River.
In a programme note, the Sundance Festival writes: "The Vistula River is hauntingly transformed into a purgatory for grieving father, Daniel, as he painstakingly scours each of its winding turns, pulled between the uncertainty of life and death in his search for any trace of his missing son, Krzysztof."
The note adds: "Director Michał Marczak intuitively lets his camera drift between the placid surface of Poland’s longest river and the murky secrets of its depths, mirroring the stoic façade and inner tumult of a father torn between hope and grief.
"As weeks stretch into months and years, Daniel’s search slowly expands beyond the physical realm, and into the digital world, when he begins to chart the darkened halls of his son’s online footprint in an effort to understand how systems of connectivity can lead a generation to the abyss of isolation."
Closure is competing in the World Cinema Documentary category.
Born in 1982, Marczak is a graduate of the Fine Arts Academy in Poznań, western Poland. He also studied at the California Institute of Arts.
In 2016, he won the best director prize in the World Cinema Documentary category at Sundance for All These Sleepless Nights.
The Sundance Film Festival, held annually in Park City, Utah, runs until February 1 and is one of the world’s leading showcases for independent cinema.
(mk/gs)