Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Since early childhood Anna has loved animals – she taught biology at school and worked in the zoo. As a woman, she realised quite soon that she had to be physically strong too. That is why, at the age of 40, she embarked on a career of a power triathlete and soon became a multiple world champion and the strongest woman in the world. Using the power of social media, she ran a campaign for animal rights, opened animal shelters and looked for new families for dozens of stray dogs and cats. When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Anna went on to help wounded and abandoned animals.

A young married couple with two pre-teen kids takes a weekend trip to a large amusement park. In the hotel room, the woman discovers that her husband had a suicide attempt. He convinces her to hide the truth from the kids and to carry on with their holidays. Though she agrees, she spends the whole day trying to secretly investigate why her husband opted for such a dramatic step.

Part of HBO Europe's Polish at Home series. Jerzy Skolimowski was in Sicily when the pandemic hit, where he was supposed to shoot his next film, Baltazar. He and his wife, Ewa Piaskowska, decided to stay on the Italian island. This film follows their experience during the pandemic.

This is a story about the complex relationship between a mother and her terminally ill teenage daughter. The girl is immersed in the fictional world of her drawings and plays Juliet on stage, but is absolutely helpless in real life. They live together in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of the megapolis. And one day a man appears in their life.

Witek dreams about going to Great Britain. To afford a ticket he starts to sell old newspapers.

"A Meeting in Bajka" tells a seemingly banal story of a marital triangle which bristles with intrigues and psychological nuances as a man, his wife and her lover rendezvous at the Bajce cafe.

Two women trying to smuggle western goods back to Poland have only a few hours to convince a dedicated customs officer to take a bribe and let them pass.

Describe the harsh reality attempts of establishing a Jewish settlement in Israel and the efforts of the Arab to prevent it. The film is considered as the first talking film in Palestine Israel.

A single mother of two daughters has to meet her ex-husband due to an illness of one of them. The family’s tragedy touches all the members of the family, who feel the need of a reunion.

Filmmaker and cinematographer Piotr Pawlus volunteered to the war effort in Ukraine, delivering aid from Poland and transporting civilian refugees.

Ludwik Sempoliński as a professor at the State Higher School of Theater Arts in Warsaw.

In 19th-century Poland, a young couple sets out for a weekend in the countryside. On the train they meet a mysterious Englishman traveling to the same destination, whose presence arouses their suspicions. Choosing to lodge in the room beside his—the fateful Blue Room—they soon find themselves drawn into a web of intrigue and menace.

On the same day, two women, Anna from Poland and Maria from Germany, give birth to sons in a hospital in Gdańsk. Eight years pass, and there is no indication that their paths will ever cross. However, one day, Anna's son Tomek has an accident. When his father wants to donate blood for him, tests show that Tomek is not his son. This news comes as a shock. Anna, accused of infidelity, tries to prove her innocence. She begins to suspect that eight years ago, in a hospital in Gdańsk, someone may have mixed up the babies. She decides to find Maria and her son to dispel or confirm her suspicions...

Jason, a Canadian Palestinian, returns to Palestine after years away to surprise his sister, bringing an unconventional gift — a goat, a traditional offering for his newborn nephew. As he embarks on his journey to reach her, he rediscovers the true meaning of Palestinian identity.

Darkness hides secrets - twelve-year-old Marta finds out about it in the last days of summer vacation. During one of his lonely night escapades in the countryside, he witnesses a brutal rape. The resolute girl does not dare to tell her mother about the event, who is also hiding an important secret.

Stylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor.

The film is a story of a young man coerced into undercover work for the police, in return for their dropping of charges against him. He is to befriend a leader of a gang of juvenile delinquents who plans big robbery of a jewelry store. The scheme works and the gang is caught in the act except the gang leader.

WWII. Zyga, one of the Resistance soldiers in Kraków is arrested by Gestapo. Soon later the Germans make a number of other arrests and Zyga is accused of being an informer.

The Swedish invasion of 1965 is underway. Swedish troops attack Poland and occupy a significant part of the country. A Swedish governor settles in Warsaw, arousing widespread hatred. Three teenage residents of Warsaw, Maciej, Kacper, and Kazik, with the help of Mr. Rafałowicz, decide to drive the Swedes out of the city.

The 8th Plenum of the PZPR is underway. Passengers waiting for a train learn that their traffic has stopped.

Fifteen-year-old Basia learns that Mr. and Mrs. Olszowski are not her real parents. The girl wants to find out how she ended up with her adoptive family. The search for identity will cause many brawls. In the finale, love and friendship prevail.

It is hard to imagine Polish science fiction without Maciej Parowski. He was the editor-in-chief of the Polish iconic monthly Fantastyka who stood behind the success of several generations of authors. People from across Poland were sending their texts to him. If it had not been for him, no one knows what would have happened to "The Witcher" or "The Cathedral", an Oscar-nominated film by Tomasz Bagiński.

On Friday evening, Janek has a meeting with his friend Bartek and his fiancée Justyna. Realizes that their relationship is in bad shape. He once had an affair with Justyna and sees a chance for himself when he is invited to a house party by them. Little did he know that he would be subjected to the final test that night.

A seemingly perfect suburban housewife's life collapses as she starts malfunctioning, revealing her true android nature. As the glitches worsen, she becomes a threat to her family.

Actor Henryk bets his friend that he will make his ex, Tatiana, come back to him in half an hour.

In essence, this film is an audiovisual work. However, sound plays the leading role here to some extent, anticipating generating of images. At the same time, the film is also a play of imagination provoked by the sound. The noises seeping into the protagonist's flat are subject to his individual interpretation, offering random images which interact with each other.

The Warsaw Uprising. Five people hiding in a basement under an apartment complex get buried by the rubble when it's bombed by the Germans. With no way of escape, the people gradually descend into madness.

Polish TV movie.

Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko fights for the right to stage his opera "Halka".

A communist party control committee interrogates a worker and party activist who is to be excluded from the party.

Documentary about infertility treatment.

Continuation of the adventures of two exceptionally talented filmmakers ? Mariusz and Michal. After a break of several years, they again decide to make a film starring beautiful girls. It is to be a very scary horror film, the action of which will take place in a gloomy castle. They begin to complete the cast. Only this time the girls are not as naive as before, and are not going to pay either for casting or for possible roles in the film... But will such trifles be enough to prevent our heroes from conquering Hollywood?

The film follows warm-hearted journalist Judyta, whose simple and touching outlook - head sometimes in the clouds but heart always with her beloved - resonates with women of all walks of life. As she chases stories and love, Judyta learns that faith in luck and honest emotion can turn even the most ordinary days into moments worthy of a heartfelt song.

Years later, Lena returns to Poland, accompanied by a French journalist, to learn the truth about her father.

The plot is based on the story of a treasure hidden at the bottom of the Siemianowka Reservoir. It is sought by both "local" residents and foreign tourists. The action takes place in the middle of summer at a camping site, where local beauties work, assisted by shady businessmen. The idyllic summer atmosphere is shattered by the mysterious death of a local fisherman.... Two detectives appear on the scene, local clown Michal Ordon and the star of the capital's police station Konrad Lambert, who like Flip and Flap begin their investigation. In addition to the criminal mystery, this film will not miss a lot of good humor and love, and the very finale of the film will be unexpected and very surprising....

A comedy of errors, whose main characters are a revue star Lidia Relska and the secretary of an oil tycoon Stefan. While in Cracow, the girl passes herself off as another person, which leads to many amusing misunderstandings, and this is only the beginning of the confusion.

In Poland, out of ten debtors obliged to pay alimony, only two pay it in full. While preparing to stage a court scene with his mother, the director meets people who, like him, never received child support despite being awarded alimony. He uses this situation to tell the stories of these people in his film.

The "Dudek" cabaret group, Edward Dziewoński’s lifetime achievement, one of the greatest post-war cabaret groups recorded by a documentary filmmaker during rehearsals. The stars of Polish acting could be seen on stage, accompanied by excellent songs by Wojciech Młynarski.

An elderly traveler arrives on an alien planet. The natives greet him friendly. Cosmic virgins want to clone the guest so that each of them would have him for herself. The man from planet Earth manages to escape, but his clones remain where they are.

After her husband's death Stefania learns that her respected spouse, who was a university professor, had a flat of his own where he lead a second life.

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.

A young factory worker takes up on boxing as a way to find himself and advance his chances for the future. But the difficulties of sorting himself out in the crooked boxing environment hold him back in the beginning, until he arrives for tournament in Chicago, where he can prove himself. In the end, he wins over his Yank opponent, an amateur below his ranking, and is back in the factory.

Andrzej Wajda on the 50th anniversary of his film debut.

Experimental Polish short in which "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory" from 1895 is reenacted and shown from different points of view.

Three idealists - a communist secretary, a former RAF pilot and a female political activist - need to face the hardships and accusations of postwar Stalinist years before being finally rehabilitated.

A comprehensive portrait of Jacek Kuroń, created "to lift our spirits." The filmmakers look at our contemporary reality through the prism of the protagonist and his charisma, which so many people remember so vividly.

A group of inner-city youths travel to the Mazurian Lake District, where a maniacal murderer is prowling.

Gypsies show up at Mr. Adam's estate. Among them is the young Tumry, who fell in love with Motruna, the daughter of a Gypsy who settled in the village. Tumry and Motruna's love is watched by the beautiful and wild Gypsy Aza. The Gypsies leave, while Tumry decides to stay in the village and marry Motruna. However, a cruel fate awaits them. Everyone turns against them, and the father curses his daughter and sets their hut on fire.

A story of a young woman arrested by police on the day of her wedding for embezzlement, and promptly sentenced to life. She is already pregnant and has her baby in prison. Immediately after birth they are separated and only later Klara finds out that the child had a spine injury in an orphanage. After the years her sentence is shortened and she is released from prison on parole after 12 years.

A silent excavation of everyday objects gradually reveals the site as Auschwitz-Birkenau, turning archaeological work into a stark meditation on memory and loss.

The life and reign of Polish king Casimir III The Great.

The documentary depicts the birth of eugenics - a pseudo-science created in the 19th century that propounded the theory of perfecting the human race. According to the views of eugenicists, only healthy and creative individuals should reproduce. The film shows how these controversial ideas influenced the intellectual and political elite of the West in the 20th century, including the dictator of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. Eugenics is a pseudoscience created in the 19th century and treating the improvement of the human race. According to eugenicists, only healthy and creative individuals could procreate, and the procreation of the sick or disabled and racially unworthy (prostitutes, the poor, beggars) should be forbidden. The author of the film posits that modern genetics, the killing of unborn children and euthanasia have their roots in this infamous pseudoscience.

The forest man, Kondrat, tells the boys about a she-wolf with a young litter. They sneak into the lair. The she-wolf sets off in pursuit of her pups. Bierniuka falls into the swamp. He is rescued by Kondrat. He punishes him for taking all the wolf pups. Bierniuka names his wolfdog Dzikun. The poacher Mohila takes him away, and the wolf girl wishing to claim her pup is killed. Dzikun, however, manages to escape. After some time he eats the poisoned meat scattered by Mohila. Bierniuce and Kondrat manage to rescue Dzikun. Mohila and his companion make an ambush for the wolves, but they attack. Thin ice on the pond breaks under the companion, a young wolfdog is thrown at Mohila. Bierniuka recognizes Dzikun in him.

A young doctor has been assigned to a hospital in the provinces, in the lakes district of northern Poland. The area is a playground with hunting lodges for the priviledged, the local politicians cover up any leaks to the public. The doctor discovers a case of drunken driving but is silenced by blackmail in the court. He tries to fight back but has a love affair with the unfaithful wife of the town's Mayor.

The last weeks in the Nazi concentration camp revealed through the touching stories of survivors such as Eva Kor and Samuel Modiano. Between suffering and resistance, the documentary explores human courage in inhumane conditions, revealing the hope that flourished even in the darkest moments. A powerful tribute to memory and freedom, essential for not forgetting.

A year in the lives of Mateusz and Agata - a theatre director and an actress fascinated with New Age, respectively. Ideas of new spirituality and an experiment with open relationship confront the protagonists with a difficult emotional challenge.