Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Michal Tarkovsky's twenty-minute etude begins with a long monologue in which we hear overlapping voices recorded from television. The magma of sounds appears against a background of blackness that lasts for more than a minute on the screen. We then observe a series of images ripped from the television set. Out of the chaos emerges information about the Highland Academy, which has resumed its activities. The theme of the session will be measuring the world. The bicentennial of the first balloon flight will also be celebrated, with the Montgolfier brothers as guests of honor.

A poetic impression of a tree that becomes a matchstick.

The film begins with a sequence of shots showing the journey a tree takes from being cut down to arriving at the sawmill. The narrator analyzes forest management and the timber industry and warns against the excessive exploitation of forests. The camera films wooden furniture and other wooden objects, logging and timber transport work. The film ends with shots of destroyed nature.

An intimate take on the emotions related to awaiting a baby and the grief after the infant’s loss. The pain accompanying the parents was depicted by means of visual symbols and metaphors. An economical, surreal story about a personal tragedy which, at the same time, is a remarkably beautiful observation of the love between two people who are trying to overcome a trauma together.

Out of the 30 students that graduated from Karalina's class at a Minsk conservatory, only one chose to remain in the country. The totalitarian Belarus is gradually becoming deserted, and well-educated people are migrating in droves to the furthest reaches of the world in search of happiness, better career opportunities and a dignified life. I Grew Up As You Slept is a story about emigration, nostalgia and longing for one's family, friends and country. Karalina's film journey, during which she visits her grandmother, who lives in the depopulated Belarusian village of Achaniany, is primarily a journey through time to the land of childhood and memories.

In 1939 Janusz Klarner reaches the Nanda Devi East peak in the Himalayas. Everything that happened later seems to have been a consequence of this act. Breaking of taboos cannot be forgotten in a country that is being reborn in the new communist order.

The 19-year-old Krzysztof is a frequent gym-goer. He gets a job in a safeguarding company, which takes him to a Opera Music Festival. When the protagonist hears an aria for the first time in his life, his distance related to the world of classical music diminishes. Moved by the art so far unknown, he decides to take up singing lessons. Opera changes not only his preferences but also lifestyle.

Pawel and Wawel gathers unique images and sounds from a journey through Iceland that position themselves between documentary gesture and performative strategy. The starting point and anchor of this trans-genre diary film, road movie, documentary film project, is the film festival initiated by Krzystof Kaczmarek “Wha's the difference between Pawel and Wawel,” which more or less unsuccessfully tours the island with Polish classics.

The officials in one ministry have the very same dream about the president. During an urgent meeting, the officials discuss what they should do, since everything suggests that this nightmare will soon become a reality.

The document consists of recordings collected in the years 1982-1987 by an informal group that included Jacek Petrycki, Bohdan Kosiński and Marcel Łoziński. The film reveals the backstage of the activities of the anti-communist underground, shows the everyday life of hiding oppositionists and the Polish reality of the 1980s.

Animated short film

The manufacture of a new weapon in the pre-WWI naval arms race.

Action drama. Bartek has just completed his military service. He goes home by train. He gets off the train, looks around to find his girlfriend, Karolina. She was supposed to collect him from the station, but she's not there…

A young married couple is torn apart by WW1. When the news comes of her husband's death, Wanda marries another man, not knowing that her loved one is somewhere deep in the east.

The first musical adaptation of Bolesław Prus' novel. The premiere took place at the Musical Theater in Gdynia in February 2010. The stage adaptation focuses on the tragic love story of Wokulski and Izabela Łęcka, deliberately omitting many of the novel's subplots.

A former Ukrainian soldier tries to rebuild his life in Warsaw. When his pizza delivery is late, something breaks. The man sets off on a bicycle chase through the city, chasing something more than just a lost order.

When Malgorzata Szumowska was an elementary school student, she had a diary in which her friends, acquaintances and loved ones wrote in. Now she has a movie camera. So she decided to ask her friends to repeat this old entry in a new form - on film. The attempts to record their statements become the material from which Szumowska creates a documentary film that is - paradoxically - in a way directed against the documentary.

A profile of a man who is employed in four institutions as: a central heating stoker, a maintenance man and a worker "for everything". The etude is a picture of his work, a story about his children, his studies and his family life.

Dead Grandpa is trying to leave his house and reach the afterlife. Unfortunately, his family don't want to believe he’s gone so each time he runs away, they bring him back.

A documentary portrait of Anna Kulczycka. After her husband's death, she became a custodian of the collection of carpets and rugs created by the Kulczycki family. The protagonist tells about the complicated history of the collection, about the relationship between her and her husband and about their common interests. She presents the treasures of the collection.

Presented at the 12th Documenta in Kassel, Them is a recording of a social experiment performed by the artist. Żmijewski organised a workshop to which he invited four groups representing divergent ideological mindsets: members of nationalist Młodzież Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youth), women strongly attached to the Catholic Church, young Polish Jews and leftist organisation activists.

The familiar chicken egg conceals the profound mystery of life.

In 1930s Warsaw, wealthy Andrzej Dowmunt returns from Africa, becomes entangled with a spy, and later marries Marta after exposing the espionage plot. When his former love Ewa dies tragically, Andrzej takes in their son Janek to raise him together with Marta.

Paweł Kalina is a technician by education, but he cannot find a job and works in one of Warsaw's dance clubs as a bartender and singer. There he meets Ellen Ward, a young American journalist who is about to return to the US. Paweł, enchanted by the woman and deluded by the desire to realize his dream of a certain invention, wants to follow her.

Poles on the barricades of the October Revolution. A documentary from the communist era, showing the profiles and fates of people who gave their lives for the idea of illusory egalitarianism.

Wasko analyses the relationship between space, sound (the microphone), and image (the camera). In this film/performance, the viewer becomes an active participant of the projection by making it possible to translocate sound from the visible space to the invisible space, and back.

Krystyna, the main character of the film, is a 60-year-old poor pensioner from the deep provinces, who sells homemade honey by the road. One day, Russian prostitutes start working on the same road. Krystyna does not like the new company. He soon comes into conflict with one of the girls and accidentally comes into possession of her wallet with the daily takings. Contrary to the heroines' expectations, further events bring the two women closer together.

A short film about famous controversial hairstylist Kajetan Kay Gora and androgynous model known from Poland’s Next Top Model, Mateusz Maga. This movie shows their work and cooperation in the field of modeling an styling. It shows their way from the beginning of their careers, how they reached their current position in their professions and how they have made their dreams come true. It is about going through many obstacles and how important is to follow your dreams, live your life to the fullest and be yourself.

Łopuszna is located on the Dunajec River, 100 km south of Cracow. It is the kingdom of trout and salmon, one of the greatest tourist attractions of Podhale. In addition to that, it has been the home of Polish highlanders for centuries.

"Color of November" is a contemporary portrait of the relationship between two young women in the month of November in Poland. It is a hybrid narrative-doc short that explores cross border perspectives on the relationship between identity, space and memory in the post globalization era.

Story about youthful love

Polish avant-garde animation with changing colors and shapes that suggest birth followed by heavy distortion and building to a face in the swamp.

An almost deserted museum, a guard wearing high heels, a cinephile thief and a Monet painting. These are the ingredients of a mysterious affair appropriated by Guy Slabbinck and Amir Yatziv. In 2000, Beach in Pourville by Monet, exhibited at the National Museum of Poznań, disappeared, replaced by a crude copy. The painting would be found 10 years later in the home of Robert Z., who here personally presents his own version of events for the first time.

The camera records the trajectory and dynamics of Robakowski's movement: he walks, turns and spins with his head up in the woods.

In a historic Lemko church in the region of Podkarpacie, a quiet, relentless battle is being fought against wood-boring beetles that are destroying the church structure. An entomologist, in an attempt to save the church, resorts to radical measures bearing a historical burden.

The adventures of the water sprites, creatures living in Lake Goplo, whose fur is coveted by Goplana. The beavers come to the rescue of the water sprites, and Goplana and her henchmen receive their just punishment.

This series was written by Marian Pilot, one of the leading representatives of the so-called 'peasant trend' in contemporary Polish literature. The writer outlined the image of the village at the turn of the 1980s on the example of the Małolepsza family from the village of Gudzewo. They manage a few hectares, the older children left for the city, they settled in, one of the sons even became a lawyer. Twenty-year-old Bolek stayed with his parents, a boy willing to "fight and drink", wandering with his peers as crude as he was, lonely, because most of the girls fled to the city.

Kasia, an energetic 16-year-old, lives in Nowa Huta. Her mother has no job. They live on their father's modest pension. Kasia is doing her apprenticeship at a small hair salon. She believes that if she becomes a professional hairdresser, she will change her life for the better. In the meantime, she develops a close, online relationship with a mysterious boy signing himself as Italiano.

A document about Variété- polish cold wave band from the 90s.

The leitmotif of this editing film is the images of the first May marches, which were noisy every year during the communist era. The streets of Warsaw are walked by properly formed and organized masses of people, and from the grandstand they are greeted by successive leaders. There is an atmosphere of more or less artificially inspired enthusiasm. As time goes by, however, more and more images appear, contrasting with this idyllic vision of a constant holiday. Alongside images of official ceremonies, materials showing competitive, independent celebrations, organized by the illegal opposition, and pacified with the help of properly trained ZOMO troops, find their permanent place.

A powerful and emotionally charged documentary that tells a story of heroism, sacrifice and an unbreakable human bond. The film recounts the true events of 28 August 2013, when US Army Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis gave his life to save Polish Lieutenant Karol Cierpica during a deadly Taliban attack on the Ghazni base in Afghanistan. Ollis, just 24 years old, made the ultimate sacrifice, shielding Cierpica from a suicide bomber in a moment of instinctive, selfless bravery.

Andrzej has completed a two-year social rehabilitation course at a centre for former prisoners, the aim being to facilitate his return to reality. Despite his efforts, society refuses to forget about the past. The industrial landscape outside Andrzej's room window and the repeated voicemail sound intensify his loneliness.

Using Aspergillus niger mold, we observe culture breeding and the formation of spores. Microscope images show the structure and method of mold reproduction, the properties of which are used in the production of citric acid.

An Andrzej Krauze Cartoon