Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

A biographical documentary about performer Leon Dziemaszkiewicz, where artistic creation, the passing of time and coping of loss blend over the death of his loved one, the famous fashion designer Thierry Mugler.

Jurek is 23 years old and he is a history student. He lives with his loving auntie, who raises him and supports him. Feeling that she is a cause and a symbol of his existential boredom, monotony and malaise, he reaches for the hammer…

Impressions about fighting the passing of time, living in a constant hurry and the uphill battle of finding the natural tempo to life itself.

A married couple from the city goes to a lodge for the summer. Despite the idyllic surroundings, the woman is more and more anxious. The locals tell the story of a sunken tourist, the husband ignores his wife's growing fear. Meanwhile, a stranger comes to the house.

Stefan Pulman, a lonely Varsovian, spends his vacation every year in a quiet guesthouse. He makes very real marriage plans. The object of his sighs is beautiful Susanna.

In a world obsessed with youth, Sara chose to age naturally while Oskar, her partner, took an anti-aging treatment. Years later, when they reunite — divided by time but bound by the past — Sara begins a journey to reclaim lost love, confront buried emotions and find freedom.

Polish teleplay based on Ephraim Kishon's play, concerning the characters of Romeo and Juliet and their alternate fate had they survived the events of Shakespeare's play and grew old together.

The last stage of the Cycling Race Dookoła Polski: Kielce - Warsaw. The fate of the race is at stake: the Polish team still has a chance to win, it is not far from the leading Hungarian national team, in which great cyclist Haranda rides in the yellow jersey. Only the best Pole - Popiel - can take it from him. But he is a competitor - individualist, unruly and undisciplined ...

In an effort to reconnect with her grandfather, a young woman travels to northeast Poland to trace his ancestry.

In the competitive world of tourism, there are very few experiences that are out of bounds. “Danger Zone” explores the world of war tourism, catering to a growing market for ever more rare and extreme experiences.

The 1940s. Leon and his sons work on the Vistula River as sandblasters. One day the men fish a woman and her small daughter out of the river. It turns out that they are Jewish women who escaped from Warsaw, where they could not continue hiding. Leon undertakes a heroic struggle for their survival. He gives the women shelter in his home, risking the lives of his own family.

The writer Zbigniew takes part in a psychotherapeutic session, during which he tells his story.

Maria and Waldemar Nowak, a couple of officers from the Office for Foreigners, come with an unannounced visit to Lilianna and Édouard to examine whether their marriage is real or fake, serving only for the legalization of stay of Édouard, who is Algerian. The decision to grant the residence card to Édouard depends on the course of the visit. The visit tests relationships in both marriages, walks on a very thin line of the borders and ethics of officers’ examination, and explores the shades of racism.

An introverted, experienced doctor is the director of a mental hospital. Despite his friendly nature, he has long been no longer appreciated by the staff, and a younger colleague is waiting for his job.

An unassuming post office clerk finds fame and success as a motorcycle racer.

Lacking a traditional plot, the non-linear story follows the path of emotions and sensations. Based on actual events the film shows five acts – Miracle, Atonement, Regret, Prayer, Forgiveness – that might help us overcome the fear of death…

A mockumentary in which during a visit to the NATO headquarters in Brussels, a secret agent discovers the Pact authorities expect the Polish army to change its parade step.

In jail for swindling millions, a charming accountant tries to convince his fiancée that he's working abroad - while outwitting his vengeful ex-boss.

The first Polish film to discuss the failure of September 1939 Polish-German war, seen from the point of view of a university intellectual, fascinated by German culture, who decides to take active part in the conflict.

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński is secretly abducted from the Primate’s Palace and sent into solitary confinement at Stoczek Warmiński, accompanied by Father Stanisław, recently freed from Rawicz, and Sister Leonia, coerced from Grudziądz, forming an unlikely retinue in his enforced exile. As state spies and the camp commandant conspire to break the Primate’s resolve, Father Stanisław risks everything to smuggle word of Wyszyński’s whereabouts to the outside, hoping to foil the regime’s darkest “third variant.”

June 1999. Bogdan has to buy alcohol for his wife's 50th birthday. His job is made much harder by the Pope's visit in Poland and the resulting prohibition. A simple search for vodka quickly turns into a metaphysical odyssey.

The protagonists of the film are three brothers: Eino, Aho and Laje. The brothers live from the cultivation of the family land. Eino works from dawn to night. Aho likes to spend time playing at a nearby inn. Laje once helps Eino, and once accompanies Aho. Once Aho gets cheated by playing dice and losing his family land. The brothers set off in search of a job. They reach a road fork. Eino wants to go left, Aho to the right, and Laje agrees once with one, once with the other brother. The brothers, unable to convince each other for their reasons, start a great quarrel.

A documentary film about the life and work of 66-year-old Piotr Sudoł, a collector of dry bread. The director, talking about the film, described the title character as follows: "Mr. Chlebek was a person so extraordinary that everything he did had a deeper meaning for him. What mattered to him was not money, but an idea. He wanted to make people realize that they should respect bread and food". Three months after shooting, the protagonist was hit by a car while working.

A potter putting up a fireplace tells a story of a man, who decided to build a house at an infamous fire site.

The story of 16-year-old Janek, who, during a visit to his grandmother Melania's house in Toruń, befriends the teenage Zuza. The plot is set in the climatic period leading up to Christmas. Against the backdrop of a magical Christmas atmosphere, the characters face complicated family relationships, youthful dilemmas and difficulties in communicating with loved ones.

An ambitious civil servant's career dreams are shattered when his nose falls off. All the worse, the nose starts living its own life and achieves the success its former owner wanted.

The residents of an apartment complex in World War 2 Poland face a moral dilemma when they discover one of their neighbours is hiding a Jew.

The film tells the story of Jerzy, a writer whose creativity has burnt out. His wife and their seven-year-old son Jasiek live far from the city. Jerzy’s enduring creative crisis and their related financial troubles affect the married couple. They are drifting apart and falling out of love. One day, they find out their son is ill and will have to travel to the city for an operation. The long-anticipated journey is exciting for the boy. For the parents, the journey is one of anxiety and separation, which forces them to reflect anew on the essence of their relationship.

A story about the search for an ideal in a world devoid of values. It is a surreal parable about human nature, played out in the convention of a Western, in which the myth of the Wild West is put to the ultimate test of endurance. In the Wild West's most demoralized town, Rio Bravo, love is hotter, crime more cruel and poetry more poetic than Byron himself. The minds of the residents of Rio Bravo are consumed by venereal disease, leaving behind an uncontrollable longing for Eucalyptus. The film's protagonist, Sony Holiday, a mythical figure of the Wild West, is known not only for his fast revolver, but also for his possession of an unusual bird. This bird, an object of worship and envy, fuels a spiral of crime and gruesomeness in the town.

Seven minutes - sweet moment that can change lives forever. History of several autumn, although extremely hot days in the life of Piotr Winkler, who in an unexpected way loses control over his stable and secure life. 37-year-old designer, happy husband of Marta and Agnieszka's father, goes to conference as a substitute for a colleague. There he meets an attractive brunette, which will soon topple the peaceful, happy world upside down.

Sheep Out is a story about a pedantic animator who lives a routine life, only moving between home and work. Slowly sinking into apathy, she began separating herself from the outside world. Her life turns upside down when she discovers a picture of a sheep, that in a series of absurd events, eventually draws her out of stagnation. It’s a symbolic story about facing your fears and getting out of your comfort zone, loosely inspired by Haruki Murakami’s book 'A Wild Sheep Chase'.

Because of having a one-day plane delay, Konrad has to spend 24 hours wandering around Warsaw, visiting old friends and meeting some new ones.

As the Polish Army continues its march into Berlin corporal Naróg is tasked with delivering important documents to the staff headquarters.

The films was inspired by true events. Przemyslaw Saleta, World's Kickboxing Champion and European Champion in professional boxing gave a kidney to his seriously ill daughter. There were unexpected complications during the surgery and Saleta almost died. The movie starts when Saleta learns about the birth of his daughter Nicole and ends several years later when Saleta decided to give Nicole his own kidney. The story does not follow one linear, chronological path. The audience watches the boxer in the surgery room and join the protagonist in the recollection of past events;

The story of an Angel named Giordano, who, for his rascally conduct in Heaven (too frequent visits to Purgatory and his fascination with rock-and-roll), is sent to earth to do at least one good deed there every day. Giordano is supposed to land in "Holland", but by mistake he ends up in "Poland" (or more precisely: Krakow). His fresh outlook, sympathy for people and original thinking about the world help him, at the very beginning of his stay on Earth, to save a crumbling marriage.

Young man struggles with being rejected by society.

Katowice, the night of December 12-13, 1981. Military units occupy strategic points in the city. A group of Zomovniks, smashing union security, drags the chairman of the Company Commission of the NSZZ Solidarity in the Wujek mine out of his apartment. The news quickly spreads to the miners. Initially surprised, they soon react with spontaneous protest. On December 14, a strike breaks out at the plant. The miners demand the lifting of martial law and the release of the chairman. When negotiations fail, the army, ZOMO and militia storm the mine.

Adam has had a series of failures in his life: his aunt had just died, and his inherited apartment was flooded by a troublesome neighbor from above. The man visits her and tries to intervene. A chance meeting turns into an emotional rollercoaster, the life and happiness of the heroes at stake.

Fourteen-year-old Alicja accidentally gets pregnant. The film tells her story from the perspective of a child who escapes into the world of her imagination, fleeing a reality where doctors are unwilling to perform a legal abortion and everyone except her mother is against it.

Tichy is caught by a storm on the side road, and therefore forced to seek shelter in strange looking house. He is welcomed by Profesor Zazul, who devoted his life to cloning experiments. Based on a short story by Stanisław Lem featured in Memories of Ijon Tichy.

Another day at the bookmaker’s, another string of losing horse bets. His latest attempt to win leads the protagonist to look deep within himself. Film produced as part of the Lighthouse Film Community.

Warsaw elites meet at a ball in Baron Neman's palace, where they discuss the political situation in Poland.

Jan comes to a mountain town to test a new model of a hang-glider. There he meets a young teacher.

Piotr returns to his family home after years to confront his alcoholic father and rebuild his relationship with his brother Krzysiek.

The story is set in a hotel environment where the main Character meets various people in different hotel rooms and gets involved with their private drama instigates it. The drama turns out to be somehow conducted by the female director, also one of the persons that the main Character meets in a hotel. The plot revolves around subjects of love, youth, death and ones persona and shows the main Character hopelessly trying to figure out the definition of self by means of desperately looking for real emotions in people and himself and channeling them through theatrical form. Will the main Character finally discover who he really is?

A shy Warsaw university student is in love with a girl who pays no attention to him. Change comes after her intimate love letters are read publicly at a party.

Teenager Tereska comes from poor family and has to face difficult world and mean people around her.

A comedy about the fate of three friends robbing the state treasury of gold during the plague.

"Malowany chlopiec" - The first major mystification of the Holocaust was the novel "The Painted Bird" by Polish Emigrant Jerzy Kosinski, who in his book describes himself as an abandoned child who became mute, ended up in an orphanage and only later discovers his Jewish origin. "The Painted Bird" has since its publication in 1965 been the subject of discussion on its authenticity.

Seven young men gather at a manor in August 1914 to form the nascent First Uhlan Regiment, riding off to war amid budding loves and sudden loss. Fifteen years later, the survivors reunite and confront how the conflict irrevocably altered their lives and relationships.

Polish comedians Rafał Pacześ and Katarzyna Piasecka hit the stage at Warsaw's Klub Hybrydy for a night of funny anecdotes and sly jokes.

A Polish criminalist specialises in various historical mysteries. He is aided by a miraculous car, with the help of which he also reaches Prague, where he unravels ancient cabalistic mysteries.

King Błystek of the Dwarf Kingdom, wary of Winter sends his chronicler, Koszałek to search for signs of Spring.

Tomek is 14 and a good student. He's interested in astronomy and plays football to please his father. The only thing is, he lives in a poor little border town plagued by unemployment, whereas across the river lies Germany with all its relative affluence. Tomek meets Marta at a disco and falls in love with her. He starts to think up ways of earning money in order to keep her interested. He approaches a pimp who seeks out local boys for his German clients. Tomek has no idea of the brutal fate which awaits him.

A fictionalised portrait of Polish artists W. Bąkowski and Z. Bartoszek.

When he tumbles out of a window, Hamster sets an avalanche of minor catastrophes in motion. It turns out that the small, local community is incapable of finding either a common language or a single set of values. The innocent are the ones who pay the price for this failure.

The financial crisis has brought three people to the edge or, to be more precise, to the roof of a sky scraper. Sarah, John and Ben reached a dead end. Everything divides them, even their faith, but they have only one thing in common – all of them have decided to commit suicide. Different questions arise in their conversation, which only strengthens their belief that the answers will be found only in the Big Leap. The Big Leap is a metaphoric story on ultimate questions made with gusto and a touch of humour.