Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

A prosecutor takes up a post in a small town where he has to deal with corruption and murder.

One June evening, a Krakow prostitute nicknamed Rączka is accosted by a bloody man who wants to spend the night with her. The girl agrees, but when the next day she learns that a gruesome crime has been committed near the place where the mysterious customer accosted her, she reports the night's meeting to the police.

Vetri decided to find her fellow former child soldiers. They, like her, fought for the independence of the Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka. Talking together, they open up the traumas of war and reveal stories that were meant to be forgotten.

Delegates gather in a conference room. On the A side, people listen carefully and support the idea. On the B side, people grind their teeth, pout, frown.

In one elementary school children are told to learn Julian Tuwim’s poem “Science” by heart as homework. The poetic phrase is sometimes incomprehensible, some words require explanation, but parents come to their aid. Unfortunately, not all metaphors can be explained in an unambiguous way and poetry clashes with the prose of life, in particular when a football match of Legia Warszawa is broadcast on television. Some will get Bs, some will fail, but everyone will learn something from this lesson.

Piwowski's documentary debut is a satirical reportage, referring to the poetics of the Czech school at the time. The starting point was an order from a film studio to join a project proposed by the Germans: what do teenagers in your country do on Saturday at 5 pm? Images from the lives of teenagers from Kętrzyn make up a contrasting slice of free time in a small town. Firemen maneuvering to start a fire outside working hours, bodybuilders training, choir rehearsal, dancing in Hitler's former headquarters...

Two unemployed film school graduates, a prostitute, a handsome policeman, a mature woman and her teenage daughter. They all lead their miserable lives on the mean streets of Lódz, and try desperately to love and be loved in return.

A psychological drama taking place in the picturesque scenery of the sea coast, in a closed circle of four people: the lighthouse keeper, his wife and a young student couple in love with each other. Young people bring to the peaceful home not only the symptoms of exuberant joy in life, but also a different way of thinking and looking at the world.

Prepare yourself for a sensory overload of epic proportions. Nothing less than the history of the universe, the formation of the stars and planets, the origins of matter, and the daunting post-human future that lies ahead are explored in this mind-bending experience. Photon is an ultra-ambitious summation of human knowledge that combines stunning phantasmagoric visuals and a dense but engaging, even dryly humorous, voiceover in what you might call an experimental science lesson—a crash course in, well, everything. How did we come to be? How are we as we are? The biggest questions are asked, and answered, with inventiveness and aplomb. Photon even delves into the biological foundations of human behaviours such as violence and alcoholism. Dazzling animation visualizes that which we could otherwise not see, ingeniously illustrating details of quantum physics. It’s a strong dose of eye and brain candy in equal measure.

A portrait of a family living in a village in Masuria.

A group of astronomers is going on an expedition. Their destination is the moon.

Beata's life is not a bed of roses. She's lonely, lives in a tiny, cluttered place in a block of flats, and on top of that, she's addicted to gambling. All of this, however, doesn't stop her from advising hundreds of other people on what to do. That's because she's a telephone fortune teller. Her life changes drastically, when one of her readings almost leads to a tragedy.

On the cusp of adulthood and in search of work qualifications and a better life, Franciszek Wróbel - a baker from a small village on the Czech border of south-western Poland - emigrates to industrial Silesia to join the Voluntary Labour Corps. There he is chosen from all of the applicants to write a diary of his experiences and daily life. Between his vocational courses and training, he struggles to make friends, pass his exams, and maintain relationships with girls.

City of Lodz in Poland, after the Second World War. Two brothers, Tadek and Andrzej, grow up without a father, and their mother, so busy at work, does not notice when the boys join a rowdy and anti-Semitic organization.Only when during a fight one of the boys gets hurt, she realizes what is going on. Then she decides to leave Poland together with her family and go to... Australia. At the end of the trip it comes out that the goal was not to reach Australia but Israel. Boys become aware of their and their family roots.

To say of Kantor that he is among Poland's most outstanding artists of the second half of the twentieth century is to say very little. Kantor is to Polish art what Joseph Beuys was to German art, what Andy Warhol was to American art. He created a unique strain of theatre, was an active participant in the revolutions of the neo-avant-garde, a highly original theoretician, an innovator strongly grounded in tradition, an anti-painterly painter, a happener-heretic, and an ironic conceptualist. These are only a few of his many incarnations. Apart from that, Kantor was an untiring animator of artistic life in post-war Poland, one could even say, one of its chief motivating forces. His greatness derives not so much from his oeuvre, as from Kantor himself in his entirety, as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk that consists of his art, his theory, and his life.

Fear is an internal monster circulating around the body and debilitating its every cell, which takes over human organs and disseminates without control. Is it possible to stop it? Is it easier to control it as you age? What is adulthood about?

A somewhat ironic depiction of life in a small Polish town at the beginning of the 1970s. The local brass band plays in the streets. Girls stroll, younger boys play soccer. Someone is looking at someone with interest, someone is courting someone, someone is parting ways. A poet associated with a local art group writes poems about everyday life.

Malwina, the single mother of a young ping-pong champion, tries to rebuild her life after a divorce and a move by opening a pantyhose business at a bazaar. There, she meets Jacek, a salesman for erotic toys, and for the first time in a long time, she begins to feel something more.

Jerzy Czachowski’s atmospheric and darkly comic short deftly explores themes of guilt and paranoia. An unnamed couple furtively bury a casket, only to have their secret exposed by a local farmer. From this sparse premise, Czachowski digs into Poland’s troubled attitude towards abortion, property rights, and heteronormativity.

Disappointed with her life so far, Irena leaves her husband Zenon and leaves for Paris . He lives a free life there with his lover Duval. The millionaire Geist, her secret admirer, who insidiously led to the separation of her husband, being his false friend, learns about it. Desperate Zeno, who tries to commit suicide, enters the care of nurse Nelly, who also looks after little Tola; an emotional bond is born between them. Meanwhile, Irena, summoned by a millionaire planning a wedding with her, returns to Warsaw , where further complications arise between her, Geist, lover and husband.

A man is waiting for a woman at a café table. Only his hands are shown, which - to kill time - reach for napkins, conjuring from them tissue paper figures of a woman and a man.

During the brutal 1944 Warsaw Uprising, young poet Marek is forced to grow up in an instant as he joins the resistance amid the city’s desperate fight. When he meets a captivating woman, he must confront harsh choices.

Documentary about the previously untold story of a 1945 massacre of Polish partisans by Russian troupes and pro-Russian Polish security forces.

A film from the series "Impressions" made using classical and trick animation techniques, inspired by the paintings of Joan Miro. Deformed figures - ideograms from Miro's paintings, float in an undefined space. The plastic forms of the sun and moon symbolize the elements associated with the cosmos - the activity of day and the magic of night, the eternal relationship of light and darkness. The natural link between the cosmos and the earth are the birds, which, returning from their skyward wanderings, smash the remnants of the night with their wings, only to disappear a moment later into the light of day.

"Luxus" was one of the most eccentric art groups of the decline of communist Poland. Its contestation character grew out of rebellion against the all-encompassing gray. The group's uniqueness lay in the fact that, as they themselves said, "We are independent because we don't care." Even today its members give expression to their distinctiveness, growing out of the spirit of punk rock. In Agnieszka Mazanek's film, the former students of the Wroclaw PWSSP recall the artistic and social excesses of years ago, but also show the activities of "Luxus" against the backdrop of social and economic changes. Even today their critical and still equally witty view of the world touches on the paradoxes of modern times.

The young Count Józio Lulewicz leads a rather dissolute life. At the urging of his friends, he tries to extract a large sum of money from his mother to start an operetta. When she refuses, he defiantly applies to a shoemaker for a job as a terminator. The distraught countess agrees to give her son the money he needs, but Józio is already head over heels in love with his boss's daughter and has no intention of giving up his new job.

In a mountain village one woman's beauty and popularity with the men incurs the wrath of the others. AKA The Stray.

Two men working as lawn mowers fight over a woman.

Zosia is a 13-year-old CODA - a hearing child of deaf parents. Together with her father, she sets off to compete in her dream swimming competition, to which she was not allowed to participate due to her father's oversight.

The story of the 50-year-old surly, award-winning, alcohol-abusing writer Zbigniew, who distances himself from the world and other people. Zbigniew, hit by writer’s block, carries a trauma from the past. One warm summer night, he notices an unusual girl through the window. Her appearance changes the writer's life...

Andrzej is a quiet and secretive chair tester with incredible power that helps him in his work work in a small factory. He secretly has a crush on the secretary, and his life is being made difficult by the chief chair designer. The situation changes when the plant is to produce a new model of the chair.

The Nałęczs have been heading toward divorce for a long time, and the only thing that connects them is their sixteen-year-old daughter, Stasia.

A love story rooted in dignity. A meaningless affair creates a rift in Martha and Jack's fragile marriage when she falls pregnant. Martha's sister, the lover, and his mother all weigh in with their opinions, revealing personal obsessions and secrets - and never considering the unborn child.

Andrzej, who lives in the lowlands, comes to Zakopane. He rents a carriage and orders himself to be taken to the Strążyska Valley.

With the emergence of techno music, a new lifestyle and way of spending free time was born, and discos gave way to clubs. Fans of this music, who seek an everyday escape from reality in techno and related trends (trance, trans energy, house, progressive house, badboybreaks, drum-bass, and many others), a way to manifest their separateness from the adult world, to break out of the prevailing patterns, call themselves new hippies.

An animated protest created by 49 animators in 48 hours as a response to the decision of The Constitutional Court about abortion ban in Poland. Moved and broken by the situation in our country, we, a group of students from the Animation Department of Lodz Film School have decided to act. We strongly oppose the recent events in our country and it’s shameful that such a ruling has been pushed through during this extremely difficult time of pandemic. The Constitutional court has issued a ruling that will end legal termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly. Many of us are afraid right now, this is why we want to express unity in a just cause.

Two militia officers are assigned to a museum in an undercover assignment to protect a valuable painting from an international group of art thieves.

A revolution that ends before it begins, a senseless and degrading job of serving the wealthy, power over the world concentrated in the hands of irresponsible people. This cannot work - the orchestra is ready for the last performance...

Julia, who is 7, thinks she came to Łódź on holiday only, but in fact she lives with her family imprisoned in the ghetto. Her grandfather tries to explain the world to her comparing it to the story of Minotaur. A subtle combination of dramatic World War II events with Greek mythology.

A businessman staying at the hotel orders a girl from an escort agency.

A young man, Kuba, is returning from the army. At home, an image of misery and despair remains: the father is seriously ill, and the mother has become emotionally attached to the man who exploits her and intends to take over the farm. After the death of his father, the young man guards the farm, but his girlfriend leaves him. Unable to bear the atmosphere of envy and resentment, Kuba leaves for the city.

An alcoholic mother of a born out of wedlock child has a difficult decision to make when a journalist proposes to adopt her son and pay her for it.

Zoja and Lea spend their days running wild in the forest, squabbling charmingly, making potions from wildflowers, and whispering spells into the wind. Published in 1922, the well-known Polish book King Matt the First—a story about a boy who takes over as king after the death of his parents and soon after goes to war—inspires the girls to wonder about current world affairs. With the war looming across the Polish-Ukrainian border, the story once again resonates today.

Sophie Horry destroys the intimacy of her family, whose life revolves around the illness of Pierre, Sophie's older brother. Documenting the everyday life of her family and her brother's illness, a young girl tries to deal with her own emotions.

A short animation inspired by the Stanisław Lem short story about Trurl from "The Cyberiad".

The year is 1981, a month before the imposition of martial law. At the "Metalpol" plant, where almost the entire Szostak family works, fierce and dramatic discussions and games are taking place. Karol Szostak, who is uncompromising but moderate in his actions, is elected chairman of the industry trade union. Solidarity members demand his dismissal. Despite the strike, declared at the behest of the region, Szostak, along with others, joins the work force. He is taken away in a wheelbarrow from the plant where he has worked for 46 years.

The film follows the first days of a newborn horse. The camera records its encounter with the world into which it was born – from its first steps, through joyful galloping, to its initiation as a member of the herd. We see the world from the foal's perspective, with humans serving only as a backdrop for the story of the unique bond between mother and child.

An adaptation of Oscar Wilde's prose. The story of a child found in the forest, who was taken in by a poor woodcutter's family. The boy grew up to be a handsome but arrogant and selfish young man. One day, a beggar woman arrived in the village claiming to be his real mother. The boy banished her from the village, unable to accept the fact that he was the son of a woman of such low status. With time, however, he realized the cruelty of his actions and decided to find her and ask for forgiveness.

The film abstractly depicts the fate of a group of Jews of various ages fleeing across the desert. The ruins of buildings visible in the sand suggest that the fugitives are Holocaust survivors. The exhausted travelers try to survive in the desert, but faced with the indifference of others, they are left to fend for themselves.