Poland

  • Kuba Czekaj – Baby Bump (2015)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaKuba CzekajPolandQueer Cinema(s)

    Quote:
    If Walt Disney, Todd Solondz, and David Lynch were to collaborate on a film, it might resemble Kuba Czekaj’s Baby Bump, a gruesome coming-of-age story that is never afraid to test the limits of cinema. Completely disregarded traditional filmmaking rules, the film finds its deranged cast interacting with its sarcastic quasi-narrator for a unique result.

    It takes around ten minutes for Baby Bump to venture into immensely inappropriate territory, as a pre-teen girl offers to show a boy her “tits” in exchange for some marshmallows. The film only gets weirder and wilder from there, with Mickey House (Kacper Olszewski) trying and failing to grow up without horribly embarrassing himself. There isn’t much of a narrative. Instead, Baby Bump is comprised of a collection of somewhat intertwining scenes dealing with adolescence, body image, sexual identity, and mental health.Read More »

  • Jan Jakub Kolski – Jasminum (2006)

    2001-2010ComedyJan Jakub KolskiPolandRomance

    Minowo monastery is a modest place of poverty, yet full of magic. Five monks live here, three of them have qualities: each body radiates a different fruit.
    One day, Natasha and five year old daughter Gienia visit the monastery. Natasha has a fix old painting talent. Little girl with one of the monks forged friendship. Monk quiet life becomes the girl’s curiosity and unrest.
    This is a movie about love, full of sweet and fragrant … …Read More »

  • Marek Koterski – Dzien Swira aka Day of the Wacko (2002)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaMarek KoterskiPoland

    Quote:
    24 hours in the bitter life of a frustrated divorced teacher who stays in the vicious circle of his numerous obsessions.

    Marta Jazowska for culture.pl wrote:
    Afilm portraying the painstaking life of a 44 year literature professor with obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Divorced, pedantic and frustrated his life consists of a series of rituals performed around the simplest every tasks. Capturing his unbearable stagnation and anger, the film is about isolation and lonelinessRead More »

  • Krzysztof Kieslowski & Tomasz Zygadlo – Robotnicy 1971 – Nic o nas bez nas AKA Workers ’71: Nothing About Us Without Us (1971)

    1971-1980DocumentaryKrzysztof KieslowskiPolandPoliticsTomasz Zygadlo

    Quote:
    “We tried to draw a broad picture showing that the class which, theoretically at least, was said to be the ruling class, had somewhat different views from those which were printed on the front page of the Trybuna Ludu.”
    — Krzysztof KieslowskiRead More »

  • Marek Piwowski – Rejs AKA The Cruise (1970)

    1961-1970ComedyCultMarek PiwowskiPoland

    Quote:
    Life in Poland is satirized in this standard comedy drama about a group of people who take a short cruise together, a brief vacation along a river before the demands of life and work are faced again. The wide mix of passengers goes from one end of the personality spectrum to the other, and the close quarters make mingling, talking, and interacting all the easier. Sight gags and sharp wit keep the cruise, and the comedy, rolling along at a good pace.Read More »

  • Andrzej Zulawski – Diabel AKA The Devil (1972)

    1971-1980Andrzej ZulawskiArthouseHorrorPoland

    Quote:
    At the climax of Harold Pinter’s vaguely allegorical but wholly chilling play The Birthday Party, the broken hero is being taken away by strangers, no doubt to a bad place. The locals, who have no idea what sort of political act of terror is being committed, stand by helplessly, but one of them rises and says, “Stan, don’t let them tell you what to do!” Even though Pinter never makes a specific point of reference as to what deplorable regime is imposing its will, the viewer intuitively understands the message. So it is with Andrzej Zulawski’s The Devil. International audiences unfamiliar with Polish politics might not know or care that his horror film was based on actual events from the turbulent 1960s, during which communist authorities provoked a group of Warsaw students into staging anti-censorship protests. Read More »

  • Krzysztof Kieslowski – Trois couleurs: Blanc AKA Three Colors: White (1994)

    1991-2000ArthouseComedyKrzysztof KieslowskiPoland

    Quote:
    The most playful and also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave Paris for his native Warsaw when his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for divorce (her reason: their marriage was never consummated) and then frames him for arson after setting her own salon ablaze. White, which goes on to chronicle Karol Karol’s elaborate revenge plot, manages to be both a ticklish dark comedy about the economic inequalities of Eastern and Western Europe and a sublime reverie about twisted love.Read More »

  • Krzysztof Kieslowski – Trois couleurs: Rouge AKA Three Colors: Red (1994)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaKrzysztof KieslowskiPoland

    Quote:
    Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion, with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.Read More »

  • Various – Erotica 2022 (2020)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaPolandVarious

    Quote:
    Four Polish female filmmakers have partnered with four top female Polish authors on film project “Erotica 2022.”

    The film is directed by Olga Chajdas, Katarzyna Adamik, Anna Kazejak and Anna Jadowska. The writers are Joanna Bator, Olga Tokarczuk, Gaja Grzegorzewska and Grażyna Plebanek.

    In a statement, the filmmakers said: “In a world where women are products, motherhood is an obligation, sexuality is oppressed and men are as primal as ever, four female characters face the world of absurdity, sick encounters, lack of true emotions and loneliness. The film depicts a fake world – yet very believable.”Read More »

Back to top button