A day in the life of student Andrzej who, between the morning and late afternoon, gives up on his studies, breaks up with his partner, and decides to join the army. Before his departure, Andrzej tries to straighten out his life, and encounters Barbara, who he sees as the woman he always waited for.Read More »
Forty-year-old Edyta is in crisis. She sleeps at hotels, and when her money runs out she uses the internet to find men who are looking for sex. Edyta spends nights in the homes of the nameless men but, instead of the promised sex, she takes advantage of their involuntary hospitality. She reaches a turning point, however, when she meets a young artist named Patryk.… In his minimalist movie, debuting director Tomasz Wasilewski makes smart use of the tension resulting from the lack of information his story provides viewers about the protagonists. Faces and gestures reveal the characters more than words, with the brittle, unnameable atmosphere that pervades the entire film playing a fundamental role.Read More »
The Dead Class (1975), by Tadeusz Kantor and the Cricot 2 company, is considered one of the most innovative and influential works of twentieth-century theatre. The breakthrough first version of the production – performed to great critical acclaim, but only rarely seen live by audiences outside Poland – was documented on film in 1976 by the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda.Read More »
PLOT: HANDS UP! is a Polish drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It is the fourth of a series of semi-autobiographical films in which Skolimowski himself plays his alter ego, Andrzej Leszczyc. The film was originally made in 1967 in monochrome. In a twenty minute section (filmed in colour) added by Skolimowski in 1981 he explains how the original was withheld by Polish censors of the time, and that this was a principal cause of his leaving his country; however following liberalisation in Poland, he was invited to resuscitate it. The introduction includes, apart from some fictional apocalyptic passages, shots of Beirut ruined by the civil wars of the 1970s, where Skolimowski is working as an actor on Volker Schloendorff’s German film CIRCLE OF DECEIT, and also shots of London featuring demonstrations in favour of Solidarnosc, Speaker’s Corner, and an exhibition of Skolimowski’s own paintings. These sections include cameo roles by Bruno Ganz, David Essex, Mike Sarne and others. Some of the music in this introduction is from the 1970 choral work « Kosmogonia » by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.Read More »
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Pawel and Lidka are from different worlds but they somehow meet each other in a night club. He’s a young lad from a wealthy family, she’s an attractive dancer. They fall in love and go out of town but their happiness doesn’t last long.Read More »
“Kung-fu”. One of the genre-defining works of the cinema of moral concern. A group of friends, who drifted apart after March 1968, gets back together again to help of them, after he gets in trouble with the higher ups at work. The friends’ help brings results.
Awards: 1979 – Polish Film Festival, Gdańsk, best directorial debut; 1980 – 33rd International Film Festival, Locarno, FIRPESCI award; 1981 – Film magazine’s “Golden Camera” for the best film dealing with contemporary issues in 1980.Read More »
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Film traces the fascinating saga of princely Polish dynasty in years 1900-1935. In 1900 Prince Hans von Teuss entertains Emperor Wilhelm II with a bison hunt at his palatial residence. He finds out many years later that his wife was emperor’s lover and divorces her. In the ’20s, during the Silesian uprisings, Prince’s son Konrad befriends foreman’s son. In 1932, the Prince, now married to younger Marisca, becomes paralyzed and confined to wheelchair. His diabolical elder son takes over the ruined estate and unknown to his father becomes associated with Hitler’s supporters.Read More »
In the near future, the indifferent activist announces that he will commit suicide at midnight on New Year’s Eve in protest against the reigning slavery in Poland. His plan is questioned when he finds an abandoned slave girl in the garbage and decides to help her regain her freedom.Read More »
Set during the World War I in a prison cell. A newspaper satirist, a safecracker and a clerical murderer have been loaded into a common cell until the investigation into their supposed crimes has been finished. The journalist takes copious notes on the situation hoping to publish them later as a novel. The writer catches typhus and in his feverish delirium is no longer able to distinguish between the reality and fantasy of his writing.Read More »