Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Andrzej Strumiłło's reflections about his life and work.

A Warsaw insurgent receives a card with a prayer from his daughter.

A film awarded the main prize in the documentary category at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The picture depicts the everyday life of Vietnamese people.

At the height of the protests in Kiev's Maidan Square, a piano, about to be used as a barricade, is rescued by a music student. The bashed up piano becomes a symbol of the revolution, reigning over the square, singing along with the protesters and fuelling their fervour.

Love affairs need to be finished quickly. Sometimes it’s just not that simple.

"Jotes" is a company from Łódź that manufactures machines. The documentary shows the individual technological stages of its production.

The protagonist of the film, a retired miner from Silesia, has covered over 80,000 kilometers on foot. He is about to begin his third circumnavigation of the globe. He practices a rare and little-known sport in Poland: ultramarathon running. In two days of continuous running, he is able to cover 378 km – the distance from Bielsko-Biała to Warsaw. What is commonplace for him is impossible and crazy for the average mortal. His achievements are impressive: third place in the world championships in the 48-hour run and second place in the European championships in the 24-hour run. Despite this, he remains unknown to most people.

A comedy of errors: guitarist Bugi mistook his girlfriend for a marijuana plant, an angry police lieutenant mistook his duty for the TV show "The Bold and the Beautiful," and a certain unsubtle romance between a junior journalist and an audiotele presenter was washed away into the Indian Ocean by a tsunami...

The main character is a young boy who spends holiday on camp organized for people with Down syndrome. Camera follows the conversations of Daniel and his friends. Boys, as boys – they talk about girls. Absolutely seriously. They ask themselves about: “What being close gives you?” or “What is the right way to express love?” Searching for answers is not just an issue for teenagers, but a problem that everyone has.

Elżbieta Jodłowska, author of the play Climacterium i już (Menopause and Now), decided that she would break another taboo. She created a two-hour-long tragic farce about hot flashes, skin spots, obesity, attacks of hysteria, failing memory and fading libido. She enriched the show with songs and dance. The performances are received with standing ovations.

Mołtajny in Masuria is a small, post-collectivization village, where time has stopped. Among the beautiful natural landscapes live here people without perspectives. However, enormous poverty and unemployment appears to the viewer as if from the background of the film - the first is the world of children's games, shown through the eyes of the director's son, Johnny. Together with their friends they collect snails, learn how to ride a bike and organize contests in spitting at a distance. They repeat what their parents teach and sometimes resemble a tiny copy of adults.

Leon Bukowiecki is an extremely colourful personality of the Polish film milieu. A well-known and distinguished critic, one of the founders of the Film Weekly, creator of the Film Discussion Clubs, and a great lover of cinema, he talks about how, as a child, he was bitten by the X Muse bug and devoted his entire life to it, watching an average of 4-5 films a day. Good and bad films - because he felt obliged to watch the worse ones too. This meant that, years later, he could proudly describe himself as the 'most filmic' man among those he knew.

Film, or rather reportage, tells the story of Halina, a poor woman living in the Bieszczady mountains, who is raising 13 children all on her own, and despite difficult financial situation won't let any of them be taken away to an orphanage. The mother and the 13 kids share the house with dogs, cats, and other animals, mainly caught by the older children who are forced to hunt rabbits, sometimes bring in a fish for dinner or fry a lizard.

A documentary about the last moments of the Polish United Workers' Party.

A portrait of David, a boy diagnosed with autism.

There is no single universal truth about the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Each camp survivor has their own unquestionable truth - which may vary from the truth of their campmate from their neighbouring bunk. The films contains brief testimonies of numerous eyewitness. As a result, the images and histories seen and told in the film contain an unusual degree of intensity and emotion.

Stefan Półchłopek was born in 1916 in Krosno, and twenty years later began studying law at Jagiellonian University. And it was this former chairman of the national council who, having resigned from prominence honors, took up running dance evenings at a holiday home in Krynica. "Giving people joy, smiles, and maybe even happiness" - this is the goal of the elderly ringleader. The message of the film takes on additional meaning with the director's dedication.

“What is the policy of burying particularly distinguished people? – asks the manager of the municipal cemetery. First of all, you have to be guided by the honest attitude of a party member - he replies after a moment. These and other similar "reflections on the passing of time" give an answer to how one should have lived in the communist system in order to deserve a burial place in the alley of the distinguished (or at least in the alley of the "meritorious").

The interweaving of the book (Chłopi, "Peasants") and the actual reality of the time in Lipce Reymontowskie. What transformations occurred in the villagers under the influence of their participation in the realization of the series "Peasants" (1972), an adaptation of the book?

A young Silesian woman concentrates on her daily activities in the school-work-home rhythm. Thanks to her imagination, she sees fragments of a play focused on the history of Silesia, precisely German repressions experienced by the inhabitants of the region during World War II. When she joins a theater group in her free time, it turns out that she is the winner of a drama competition. Barbara Tkacz took first place in the School Youth National Competition. The participants had played in the "Jedenastu" play. We watch fragments of this spectacle at the beginning of the film. It is staged by the "Reduta Śląska" People's Theater from Chorzów. The history of this amateur organization dates back to 1933. It features non-professional actors, however, the theater employs professional directors, set designers, and composers.

The documentary explains the basic principles of filming a scene in general, medium and close-up.

Szczesliwice, despite its cheerful name, is a place visited by few people. The central dumping site in Ochota has already become an urban legend. The narrator provides us with statistical data, he also, in a literary way, develops the legend of treasures and treasure hunters. The rubble from Warsaw, ruined by the war, was taken to Szczesliwice, including any lost valuables. The protagonists, junk collectors, talk about the things they find there. The landscape of the dump is shrouded in fog, it looks like a post-apocalyptic desert in the city. There are people wandering around it who seem hypnotized by the vision of fortune. Today, after land reclamation, Szczesliwicki Park and its facilities are located there.

Passengers are waiting on the platform of the dingy railway station. They are depressed and resigned. The dignitary stands behind the rostrum – he announces an cancels more and more trains. None of the trains arrive.

A popular productions collaboration with Samuel Holloway. An experimental essay film shot in shot in New Zealand, Berlin & Warsaw featuring material shot at sites including Warsaw Archives and Pawiak Prison c.2000. Featuring a collection of video and film footage, third revision openly fluctuates between blur and displacement of image and focus; often the images are re-filmed off the computer screen and are further ‘corrupted/compromised’.

An anonymous character is trying to get out of a strange corridor.

In a world where touch is forbidden, young masseuse Nina works using hand extensions to avoid direct physical contact. She attends ‘self-touch’ sessions and repeats mantras about safety and distance. But one day, she meets Zocha — and everything changes.

A short film about two people living next to each other.

After the war ends, 25-year-old Stepan arrives in Kyiv to conquer the city and its club scene. But memories of occupation and captivity haunt him every night, making it impossible to escape his past.

An attempt to resolve a question that, to all appearances, seems easy, but which, ultimately, is not: where am I?

30-year-old Pawet lives in a constant rush, unable to reconcile his factory job with caring for his dying father. When Syrian immigrant Ali runs into his car, Pawet decides to strike a risky deal with him.

Excerpt from a discussion between a man and a woman at a sawmill. An adaptation of a short story by Yuri Kazakov.

​"Sceny wydarzeń w Paryżu" (1898), directed by Bolesław Matuszewski, is an early Polish documentary film capturing scenes of events in Paris. The film was produced by Paryska Fotografia Lux-Sigismond et Comp.

A scripted documentary. The authors speak with primary school pupils on substance dependence.

The year 1905: a young revolutionary, Stefan Okrzeja, carries out a bomb attack on a police station. He is captured and sentenced to death by hanging. He is followed by other revolutionaries who stand up to fight for their rights and privileges. 'Death of Okrzeja' is one of the more enigmatic films in FINA's collection. Its cast remains anonymous, we do not know its proper title, even the year of production is uncertain. The final scenes featured an authentic participant in the events in question, Ignacy Daszyński. This is a rare example of a Polish fictionalized documentary film from the 1920s.

A story about passion and fighting against adversity. 25-year-old Paweł, dreams of becoming a coach of Arsenal London but at the moment he coaches Red Dragons, the worst football team in the whole country.

Friends ride through Rataje district in Poznań, exceeding time in Google Street Views

All sciences emerge from two questions. History is not science but a field of knowledge. It caused a tragedy of projection and coping of Hegel and his students, leading to a fascinating mistake; art history.

We learn the story of a married couple who lose their farm due to debt. The local authorities decide to accommodate a new resident with them. "I can't accept this. It's as if they murdered me, tore me apart, ripped out my heart," says the main character, who is forced to watch as the new tenant systematically destroys her life's work.

Anna is expecting her first child, which has stirred up new feelings about her own childhood and her ability to be an adult. The situation is further complicated by the fact that her father is in a coma after a stroke. At this intersection of life’s different phases, Anna is forced to learn how to let go of the illusion of control in order to move forward.

Abu Haraz is a Sudanese village on the River Nile, where the villagers lead simple happy lives. Soon they will all face a major change - the large dam is being built and their village is going to disappear under water.

In a secluded village in Podlasie, Tomasz is left alone when his wife and daughter go on vacation. During a hunting trip, he wounds men, leading to the development of a dangerous bond.

Aleks is a quiet fencer at a new school who tries to win a fencing tournament while dealing with a flirtatious girl and her aggressive brother.

The entire ground is covered with paving stones. The paver continues to work until he reaches the edge of the forest. The trees fall one after the other. When he stands before the last tree, he experiences an epiphany and begins to retreat.

A sleepy drag queen wakes up to talk about a dream performance on Rupaul's Drag Race that didn't go as she had imagined… SEVEN.mp4 is an experimental collage film, which mixes a real-life voice message with 3D animation and club-like lights. This short video explores the visuals of queerness - can a film LOOK queer, before we understand its story? Three iconic drag artists from Poznan, Poland were digitized for the project.