Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Here the author shows hierophany in a symbolic way - the manifestation of holiness in the world, described by Mircea Eliade, historian and philosopher of religion.

A journalist receives amazing news - it is the first time that a pacemaker powered by nuclear energy has been implanted. The information gives hope for the extension of human life. But it also causes confusion and dangerous ideas to destroy humanity. Someone is trying to get a pacemaker that contains high-powered plutonium particles.

Animated impression depicting the relationship between man and horse...

King Piechuch XII was always cold because he was really lazy. His palace was full of furnaces. One day, the furnaces broke down, the king began to run around the palace in panic. Unexpectedly, this was how he warmed his body up.

A short story of life and death takes place in naturalistic, disgusting scenery. Blood, dirt and flies above a dying corpse create a frightening atmosphere of decomposition.

A doctor working on finding a substance that would inhibit the growth of certain types of cancer learns that he has cancer. He decides to try an unproven drug on himself.

Two brothers on the threshold of adulthood still live with their mother and grandmother. In an apartment, they fight for even the smallest bit of autonomy, and each of them has a different strategy for moving around this difficult terrain. However, the family portrait is not complete - it lacks the father, whose significant absence returns with a dull tone in the telephone receiver.

A dream journey of a certain official who dreams of fulfilled love and a better life with himself as the office director.

The bodies of the lovers become one in the bosom of nature, near their country cottage. The moment is interrupted by the man and his thoughts – he has to go in order to earn money. They spend autumn and winter separately - she yearns alone, he works hard in a mine and a forge. In spring, when the woman runs towards the man in order to welcome him, she sees a dead man walking. She manages to recognize him only by the pendant that she gave him. In her embrace, the man regains his strength. Gold coins fall to the ground and merge with golden rod, the Polish mimosa. Stylistic paintings refer to oil painting and hold the subsequent phases of the figure's movement, which gives the impression of plane movement.

A man is a guest of the EDEN Hotel. He can enjoy its luxuries with no limits, except for one room. The room becomes the most interesting place for the man. The animators illustrate the biblical story with a beautiful cutout and a philosophical commentary. The film was made in the cut-out technique. Its background is based on the style of old engravings and contemporary graphics.

A picture of a metaphorical relationship between a huge cauldron and its guardian - the stoker called Guzla, who puts fuel into the giant furnace. The coexistence of two forms: technical and organic leads to the interpenetration of worlds.

There is a national festival, ‘In the Land of Dumplings’, in Bychawa. This peculiar event and a spectacular photograph of a NASA astronaut have a common denominator – a small commune in the region of Lublin. The view is beautiful from afar, but what do little homelands look like from up close?

"Dismay" is a magical and brutal story set in a Masurian village, about the extraordinary bond between a father and an eight-year-old daughter, and about the terrible consequences of trying to take away a hypersensitive girl from an alcohol-addicted musician. Little Ula does not know that at her First Communion party, instead of the long-awaited mother who has left her father, a curator from the social welfare centre will appear, ready to take her to an orphanage at once. However, the girl will never allow anyone to take back what she has managed to save after her mother left. Together with her father, a local organist, against all odds, she believes her mother will come back and she is still waiting for that moment. The joyful, May day of the First Holy Communion will turn into a nightmarish triumph of the wild world of Masurian nature, which is little Ula’s only ally.

The protagonist goes for a crazy run within his own consciousness trying to recognize consecutive versions of himself. What will happen when his egos finally meet?

Meticulous and mesmerising paint-on-glass animation is characteristic for this atmospheric film by the Polish director, who takes us on a bus ride one Monday afternoon. The melancholic ride through a rainy city reminds the main protagonist what it would be like to escape the everyday routine of jammed streets.

Quiet observation of a physically handicapped woman. The initial images, reminiscent of footage shot for patient records, reveal that effortless movement isn’t always a given. Luckily a sun-drenched day makes every walk a little better.

“The Fool is the second film – on dreaming and failing. Dureń – which is the original title- also equals the card game of Durak. “The Fool” could be summarised as a film that became a contradiction of what it was meant to be and at the same time everything I always wanted it to be”. – KG

A Russian spy enlists naïve Nadia to seduce ministry official Henryk Barczyński and discredit him, but their staged affair turns into genuine love.

One of Jadwiga Singer's analitical, conceptual films, showing how, using the simple tool of a 16 mm film camera, we are able to manipulate the conception of reality.

A walking area, work in the tailor’s workshop, a modest meal, an everyday dose of medications taken under the control of medical personnel, an extremely crowded cell – it is a day like every day. No needless words. A moving story of Russian prisoners who have been put into a psychiatric hospital to serve their sentences. It was filmed in Chernyakhovsk (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Syczowce (Smolensk Oblast).

Bendkowski tests in this film the expressive potential of the cinematic medium. The work is based on an attempt, characteristic for this artist, to balance an incredibly colorful, spectacular visual layer with a faithfulness to a rigorous, rationally constructed structure of the work. -1,2,3... Avant-Gardes. Film/Art between Experiment and Archive, ed. Ł. Ronduda, F. Zeyfang, Warsaw 2007.

Film focuses on story of a woman whose fears and obsessions are taking over her everyday routine, transforming her life into all-embracing jungle. It symbolizes the struggle with personality disorders while being in a relationship with beloved one. It is an visual analysis on separation anxiety disorder that occurs mostly in childhood but can be present at all stages of life.

Rio, a young fisherman, lives in the kingdom of Lailonia. He is in love with Muria, who he considers the most beautiful girl in the world. When he is called up to the army, he does not forget Muria even for a second, despite being exhausted and facing numerous obstacles. Film from the ‘Fourteen Tales from Lailonia Kingdom by Leszek Kołakowski’ series.

“Can a fascist say "I love you" in another language?” asks Johannes Gierlinger the director of Remapping the Origins. The polish city of Bialystok is the birthplace of Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof a Polish medical doctor, inventor, and writer mostly known for creating Esperanto in 1873 while still in school, a constructed language that he believed could be a universal tool to help bridge the gap between different languages. But Bialystok is also the birthplace of David Abelevich Kaufman, known worldwide as Dziga Vertov, one of the most important cinema theorist ever, Soviet pioneer, revolutionary filmmaker, documentary, and newsreel director. The city is also the place where anarchistic communes were organized during the Russian Revolution and where the Nazis build a ghetto for Jews.

Documentary about kids in summer camp.

The action is placed in a cramped flat in Warsaw’s district of Ochota. A father and a son, both bedridden, live in a fascinating symbiosis. The son, a well‑known photographer Bernard ben Dobrowolski, is lying in bed because a chronic condition has deformed his body and immobilized him. The father, Dominik, has recently suffered from a stroke. Now they are taking care of each other and crowds of visitors move through their room.

One day, She notices, that something strange is going on with Him... "Beside oneself" it’s a short animation film about confrontation between ideas of things and a real world. Do we live with real people, or only with our imagination of them

The story of a farmer who's also a railway worker, and his family.

When the nefarious Ambaras tries to rid the land of Filibiblonia of litterature, Miki and his book loving friends must find a way to stop his evil schemes.

The various phases of work in a spinning-mill, and the harsh working conditions of the women spinners, cause them physical pain and breathing diseases, not compensated by low wages.

A young couple are driving a car. They are overtaken by another car. A game has thus started.

An unusual documentary film asking whether classical music can heal places affected by war and suffering, taking the viewer on a cinematic journey through unique and sinister sceneries. It weaves the stories of three outstanding pianists, a Pole, a Korean, and a Syrian immigrant, who prepare for special concerts, where no one would expect to hear live music.

The animation invites us into the world of beetles, who have been given the task of rolling dung balls at their school. Will they all rise to the challenge? What can we learn from observing beetles rolling balls of poo?

It's St. Andrew's Eve, and a night of boozing and fortune-telling is just what Boner needs. What he doesn't need is two demons also refusing to be sober.

A dark comedy about a North African immigrant who is desperately trying to get deported from the Polish town where he lives.

A film about a famous photographer who was working for many Polish newspapers, documenting historical events in Poland. Since December 1981, during the Martial law, using his camera hidden in a glove, he managed to capture the warfare: tanks on the streets of Warsaw, soldiers suppressing manifestations and many more.

Cash, a car and a mobile phone... as well as fish. A group of tough men from near Warsaw organize a new form of entertainment. Their customary meetings over alcohol and drugs start to include fights between aggressive aquarium fish, which are, of course, accompanied by bets for large sums of money. Such is the extent of this hobby that one of the characters hopes that his champion will contribute significantly to the purchase of a new Subaru.

A story about a family in which a disabled child has appeared, requiring constant care. His disability crossed out many of his parents' plans and dreams. In the film we can see how his father is coping with the situation. He makes reflections, searches for the sense of difficult experiences, and with love performs daily activities with his son. "By constantly looking into one's own inner self, it is possible to live together in difficult situations, to leave one another, to apologize, to forgive," he says.

A lonely lumberjack tries to cut down an old tree in the forest. He hits it for the first time using his axe. He doesn’t carry on because the tree resembles a living creature. The seasons pass. A natural disaster strikes, people and animals die because of that. The crown of the old tree becomes a shelter for a woman.

The first Polish color animated puppet film. An impressive adaptation of one of the works of Hanna Januszewska.

When the war broke out in Ukraine, the parents sent Vlad and his sister to Poland to ensure their safety. They themselves remained in the conflict-torn country. Vlad is expected to look after his younger sister, but his thoughts constantly flee to his homeland and especially to his father, who has been called up to the army.