Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

A forthright make-up artist is pressured by her sister to celebrate her birthday with her mother and the rest of her family as her uninvited girlfriend awaits her back home.

Wolves reveal they are really humans in wolf costumes and proceed to eat each other.

Zuzia – 12, has been training vaulting for two years and has extraordinary role topping the acrobatic pyramid. She is «flyer» lifted by the stronger and more experienced vaulters-«base». Another intensive season begins. During training sessions it becomes apparent that the girl has lost some of her grace and lightnes. At first the coach blames the «base» but they admit that Zuzia is to big to lift her. It became clear that she is «just growing» and her role is given over to a younger girl.

Directed by Zbigniew Gniazdowski and Aleksander Hertz.

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.

Three men emigrated to Poland in search of better life from Ingushetia, which is the smallest region of Russia, located in the northern Caucasus. What unites them is their nationality, but their ambitions differ. Movlat teaches Caucasian dancing, Ismail is a successful boxer, and Ali is a dancer. Over the course of 10 years, we follow their ups and downs in their new homeland.

Brief portrait of a conformist.

An emotional interpretation of one of Kortez's most personal albums. It is not a classic film or music video, but something much more than a visualization—a story of returns, partings, and memory, saturated with symbolism and understatement. The images not only accompany the music—they complement it, creating a coherent, moving whole.

An observational look at the interaction between two elderly women: 100-year-old Ema and her six years younger sister Zosie. The camera sensitively documents how these two once famous hostesses try to bake a cake at their advanced age. In so doing, it offers a perceptive portrait of their personalities and their relationships.

Igor is a Warsaw taxi driver who makes money by transporting drug deliveries for Butcher - a local gangster. Apart from his friend Darek, Igor has no friends. He is lonely, quiet and reserved. He makes friends with 10-year-old Julia, the daughter of Ewa, a dealer he knows, whom he sometimes takes to school. Children go missing in the area, and Igor begins to be observed by the investigating commissioner Zadra. Everything becomes more complicated when Igor is tasked with transporting two mysterious suitcases, and Ewa is found dead.

The documentary presents children from the village of Paszyn, who paint on glass. The boys also became interested in carving figures in wood. They were encouraged by the local parish priest, Father Edward Nitka, to develop local, folk culture. The children talk passionately about the themes of their works.

“I'm waiting for mom and dad. The calendar ends today. Many of us will die, but not like Grandpa did two years ago, only worse.” This is the morning report of ten-year-old Daga. The girl is prepared for any threat. Unlike her parents…

Somewhere, no one knows where, all the apples have fallen and everything is immersed in sleep. In a small apartment, a mother sleeps with her child in an armchair. And when reason sleeps.

A black-humored short story of a suicide attempt that ends abruptly (ain’t that always the way!). Short black and white animation on 8mm.

Krystyna is 72 years old, but she has never known true love. In order to change something, she signs up with a matrimonial agency. Newcomming dates bring nothing than disappointments. Meeting elderly men let her realize, relationship may not be a lack in her life.

In deep and dark Polish suburbia, a young sex worker meets a withdrawn client in this exploration of social and sexual alienation, inspired by real events.

A series of sensational films with an excellent cast. Sophisticated stories of fraudsters from around the world, suspenseful action and unexpected endings.

Tadeusz returns from abroad after a few years; he left his fiancée Wanda in the country, now he cannot get to the common apartment. The paralyzed mother is in a nursing home; he has no contact with her. The swimmer, Judyta, pushes her friend, afraid of heights, into the water, but she cannot understand her deed. Wanda makes a program about the Palace of Culture for television, Tadeusz wants to meet her there.

Animated elements blend with traditional wooden carvings, paying tribute to folk religious sculpture and Nativity-making. The title refers to the slow musical tempo larghetto, inspired by the second movement of Frédéric Chopin’s Concerto in F minor, Op. 21.

The main character, a murderer, records images in his mind that he then uses to reconstruct his crimes. An abstract animated film that combines the genres of horror and psychological suspense.

A famous Polish conductor meets a young Polish student in Czechoslovakia and pretends to be Czech to impress her.

A young man joins the revolutionary movement in 1905, aimed at Tsarist occupiers of Poland. The members of the secret organization conspire to take the life of a noted Russian general.

Jaśliska, a village in Podkarpacie. Wróbel, a middle-aged man, destroyed his relationship with his wife and 12-year-old son, falling into deepening alcoholism. The arrival of the film crew, shooting in a small town, and the proposal to play an episode in the film, becomes a chance for a man to overcome the crisis and regain his family.

Dr Struzynski spent decades fighting for the survival of noble crayfish. A documentary journey into nature, between fairy tale and reality, reflecting on resilience, dedication, and belief that even one person can change the world.

Two plasticine figures, a woman and a man, look at their own reflections on the opposite sides of the mirror. They try to deal with their fatty bodies – they squeeze and push the plasticine. When they are ready, they emerge from behind the mirror and flirt in pursuit of each other. Finally, they become united – they form an egg.

Mariusz and Monika are neighbors whose acquaintance began with a turbulent conflict. Mariusz, a musician, was notorious for hosting loud parties and jam sessions until dawn. For Monika, who lived on the fourth floor, the sleepless nights became torture, and her aversion to her noisy neighbor grew with each party. Everything changes abruptly when they are united by the loss of a mutual friend and a shared dream: the construction of a rehabilitation clinic for children with disabilities.

Report from the 1968 International Rally of Poland.

Ups and downs in the love and professional life of Marta, a young woman from Krakow. Despite adversity and permanent bad luck Marta does not give up on her dreams of a bright future.

Our life is estimated at four dogs. The film is a record of memories associated with each of the dogs. Fragments of biographies reflect a given time through the plot and thanks to the texture of the image.

This must be a dream. For Manu this must be a reality. Symbolic story on fear of the greatest dream in one's life. Meeting your other half, together alone and loving that passes away faster than it appeared in the first place. Death and life. And daily bread or... cabbage.

A thirteen-year-old boy, gifted with a unique fantasy, creates his own, rich world of imagination and experiences.

On the last day of the war, a Polish soldier whose family was murdered meets his German enemy.

According to members of the Darwin Film Group, Jesus arrives in heaven after his crucifixion. There he meets his father, God, who is clearly not pleased with his son's arrival. As it turns out, the words of Scripture do not particularly convey what plans the Lord had for Jesus.

Scenes from a bar - people eat, drink and talk about important and less important things.

A documentary featuring the clash between the two cultures: Polish and Japanese. The filmmakers’ efforts to shoot the film are challenged by numerous obstacles they come across, that is cultural, linguistic, age and personality barriers and differences. Here is what Marcin Koszałka said about the film himself: “There are two jerks coming from Poland. They sit at some Japanese woman’s house, who is either busy or absent generally speaking, and they strive to shoot the film about her.

Little town. Józef Struziak, a local veterinarian, is bored with his wife Anna and her passion - ballet. He secretly meets his lover in his office. One day, a student, Wiktor Malec, comes to the vet for his internship ...

Once one of the world’s biggest lakes, the Aral Sea has all but vanished. Marcin Sauter’s film focuses on what remains in an area that once flourished, on the fates of people who had to adapt to life in the desert and now ponder over their solitude among the wrecks of ships and port cranes.

The film is a summary of the series of the same title. It talks about the war between Pruszkow and Wołomin during the last dozen years. It recalls the most interesting figures of the two gangs: "Masa" - Poland's witness number one, "Pershing", "nightingale", "Kiełbasa", "Słowik", "Kiełbasa", "Dziad" and "Wariat".

Against the backdrop of Saint Petersburg during the Corona lockdown, Recordings of the almost empty city merge with calls to a municipal hotline tasked with offering help and advice. Elderly people in particular are affected by poverty, hunger and loneliness.

The "Polish Poster School" is as widely known around the world as the Polish Film School. Beginning with the post-World War II era, the poster became a key tool for popular communication. In Communist times, the poster also offered colorful accents to an otherwise overwhelmingly gray public space. Ironically, during the 1950s, '60s and '70s (when several Polish graphic designers rose to worldwide prominence), the advertising of films was not a necessity. A frustrated and hopeless populace regularly relied on cinema for escape. It was in that time of massive unrest that artists like Julian Pałka, Jan Lenica, Roman Cieślewicz and Henryk Tomaszewski created the most expressive and unique images of the form. Marcin Latałło's lauded documentary film is a double-layered construction, telling both the story of the movement and, in parallel, following the footsteps of Ania, a young designer who faces an extremely tricky challenge: she must create a poster for the film itself.

The main character is a 12-year-old boy named Michał brought up by a despotic father. But one day he receives an unexpected gift from his father...

Based on the novel by Helena Mniszek entitled "The Leper". The film has not survived to this day.

An ironic pastiche of the typical instructional-education film.

Two international stars – soprano Aleksandra Kurzak and tenor Roberto Alagna – performed in two performances of Puccini's "Tosca" at the Wrocław Opera on May 31 and June 2, 2024. Tickets for this event sold out in one day . Both performances, enthusiastically received by the audience gathered in the theater, were recorded for retransmission to cinemas.

A popular science film depicting a microcosmos in a droplet of water.

Animated adaptation of Adam Mickiewicz's ballad entitled Mrs. Twardowska, made on the hundredth anniversary of the poet's death (1855). Jan Marcin Szancer, an outstanding graphic designer and book illustrator, was the author of the script and the art concept. He was a person present in the Polish film industry since the interwar years. The main animator of Mrs. Twardowska was Witold Giersz, the future master of animation. The fluidity of movement and the grace of the characters, similar to the ones in The Goat Kid, evoke associations with Disney films. This beautiful film proves the creative possibilities and ambitious attitude of the Polish animation community a few years after the war.