Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Impressionistic poster warning of harmfulness of lead to the human body.

A day in the life of elderly people who have stopped loving each other, and whose indifference towards one another permeates the atmosphere of their home.

This is what winter sports used to look like in Poland's skiing capital. A story about skiers with casts, full of funny gags and jokes.

Stefan Jaracz, expecting his death, wrote a letter to his fellow artists. Quotations from this ideological testament and excerpts from a pre-war film titled “Jego wielka miłość” accompany the shots of the famous actor's funeral in 1945.

Macio, an eighty-something-year-old resident of a retirement home, decides to run away to see her son. The accidental participants of his trip are the driver and two residents. For each of them, this journey becomes a hidden dream come true.

Kalina links traditional animation with a re-projection. To the rhythm of the popular folk song Ukochany kraj, umiłowany kraj (Beloved country, dear country) he creates an anti-ballade about the farmer’s hard life and difficult work. Monotonous and mechanical activities degrade a man.

A slice of life type movie. A main plot goes around showing common behavior and psychological portraits of inhabitants of a typical little town in Poland.

A haunting theatrical memory play in which actors and their mannequin doubles reenact five episodes, from a wedding to a last supper, set in the claustrophobic room of the director’s own childhood village of Wielopole. Through repeated motifs, mirrored characters, and a living stage that Kantor continually “resets,” the piece collapses past and present, life and death, into a surreal reconstruction of personal and collective history.

An underpass in the center of Warsaw, the camera selects one woman and follows her to her workplace - a telecommunications headquarters. The message "your call is being monitored" was broadcast from there.

A miniature film set to classical music. Porcelain figurines of a shepherdess, a chimney sweep, a mandarin, and a satyr stand on a mahogany cabinet. When the figurines come to life, it turns out that both the young chimney sweep and the satyr are in love with the shepherdess. When night falls, the chimney sweep and the shepherdess decide to run away. Wandering around a huge room, they come across a Chinese shadow play performed for characters from a deck of cards. In the play, the young lovers are forcibly separated by their families. Terrified by the meaning of the play, they run out of the room. The noise wakes up the satyr, who tries to prevent them from escaping. Satyr throws magical lightning bolts and destroys the mandarin's magic ball. The shepherdess and chimney sweep decide to leave their safe world.

A film about the struggles of Poles in the partisan movement.

An experienced prison guard, who also gives talks at a primary school, shares his thoughts on such topics as upbringing, order, young people, freedom and Solidarity.

Danka, a music theater dancer, has no professional success and is stuck in an unsuccessful relationship with Marek. He decides to change his life. She leaves her lover and begins cooperation with the amateur mime group "Arlekin". Together with the group, he goes to performances in West Berlin.

Basia works as a guide in the salt mine and she treats her job very seriously. One day she takes around the trip of the deaf kids and their tutors. It forces her to adjust the tour script she always follows. Basia doesn’t have any control anymore and it doesn’t make her feel confident. Especially one little girl keeps causing chaos. Though chaos can be very illuminating…

A portrait of a Poland where two forces collide, representing completely different world views: the leftist perspective versus a homogenized Poland built by the extreme right. Between these ideologies stand people who fight in the name of their values and principles and a great divergence: Nationalism.

A short documentary made in 1963 by Jerzy Bossak and Wacław Kaźmierczak featuring unique archival footage of the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw. The Warsaw Ghetto (pol. “Getto Warszawskie” ) was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. From there, about 254,000 Ghetto residents were sent to Treblinka extermination camp during the three months of summer 1942.

A Polish silent drama directed by Konstanty Meglicki.

An animated short film in which many men work many years on a machine which is revealed to be something very common.

An eclectic mix of students wake up on a cold bus, knowing only they are about to start an internship at a remote hotel. They understood it would be difficult, but little did they know just how hard it would be.

Document following the production of Andrzej Wajda's 1973 film "The Wedding". It focuses on Wajda's struggle to decide on a concept of depicting one of the original play's characters, Wernyhora.

The beloved heroine of children’s books will take the audience on a journey to the African savanna, an airport, and a playground construction site! But she won’t be alone! She’ll be accompanied by her loyal friends—Pacek, Adelka, and Julianek! Together, they’ll go on an exciting trip to the forest, where they’ll meet its inhabitants. They’ll also learn about recycling and, in high spirits, head to their first theater performance.

Neuroatypical Margorzata tries to find her place in the neurotypical world. Matgorzata cannot sleep; to fall asleep, she must first awaken. She is late for the journey in search of Lodz's hidden rivers, deceived in her dream about the hour.

Magda and Michał, actors of the famous Teatr 21, created by people with Down syndrome, fall in love with each other. After the enthusiastically received proposal, the couple begins planning a wedding, which is met with mixed reactions from their loved ones.

The protagonist of the film is Wanda Bart-Gebethner (1917-1980), an actress who quit her profession and took a job at Śródmiejska Spółdzielnia Mieszkaniowa (Central Housing Cooperative). She currently runs the "Za Żelazną Bramą" café and feels more needed in the Cooperative than in the cinema and theater.

A visit to a laboratory conducting medical experiments on rats. Laboratory workers' reflections on the relationship between rats and humans and the impact of stress on the quality of research.

Sam Fisher's daughter is abducted. From that moment on, a man tries to get her out of her kidnappers' hands, risking his life in the process....

It’s wartime. Maria finds out that her husband Jan is in the hospital but it turns out that the man does not recognize her. Maria has doubts about whether Jan has actually lost his memory, or is lying to avoid punishment for potential desertion. The many understatements and secrets cause confusion. Night mixes with day, for both the audience, and our heroes. Is any of this real? Maybe it’s all a dream, maybe a figment of a traumatized mind.

The dog meets a crocodile in the sewer and invites him home so he can wash and eat before dog’s owner returns. The crocodile tells him his story and learns that he is not so scary, and that he will live in a zoo better than in the sewer.

Memories of "The Great Journey of Bolek and Lolek" come back to life. The boys decide to award the "Order of the Smile" to Jeremiasz Pittsbury. The members of the chapter unanimously accept this decision.

A grotesque tale about crazy firefighters embarking on a rescue mission.

The first documentary realized by Danuta Halladin after her studies announces one of the main themes of her future films: children and childhood. Alone in the World is a story about orphanages.

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

Alternative History of Poland, 2014. A pair of Swedes come to Warsaw to make a documentary about the life of young people in socialist realities.

Living in East Los Angeles and working at a Japanese jazz bar, a young short-order cook faces deportation to Japan when his visa is denied. After what seems to be a connection with a Mexican Bakery worker turns into a misunderstanding, Shin experiences a side of Los Angeles invisible to his social circle of Japanese expats. Subdued and restrained, the film offers an unsentimental and personal portrait of living in between time zones and cultures in a city indicative of a world growing smaller.

Sad love story inspired by polish folk song. The betrayed girl decides to commit suicide during the wedding of his love.

A new man enters an old courtyard surrounded by walls on all four sides. He sees the people there turning into objects: a sink, a trash can, a garbage bin. He cannot leave, and together with another new man, he turns into an object like the rest: laundry.

A man lives a life of routine, repeating the same activities each day. One day, on his way to work, he experiences something that might irreversibly change his life.

A historical film about the 1930 Revolution, directed by João Baptista Groff.

The film tells a story about a young man who enters the Zone. A place where fear and pain fill human hearts. Upon entering, he quickly learns that the zone is ruled by apathy and greed. He came to that place for a reason. Will he find what he's searching for?

A striped elephant is rejected by the adult white skinned and black skinned elephant groups. Will he ever find an appropriate match?

A short portrait of a railway junction.

The harvest season recalls past time, gives rise to reflections, memories. The logic of the aftermath of events is replaced here by the logic of memory.

Paulinka is seriously ill. She takes 20 pills every day and often loses consciousness. The mother is a deaf person and for fear that she will not be able to call for help in time, she decides to give her daughter to an orphanage. Paulinka wants to be the nicest little girl in the world, thus increasing her chances of getting a foster family....

25 years ago, three persons made up their minds to record the movement of the Sun. Today, Kuba continues the tradition of their solarographic experiments.

Tardigrades—tiny creatures just one millimeter in size—exhibit extraordinary adaptability.

The protagonist of the film is Stanisław Niedbalski, a legend of Polish cinematography, cinematographer of several dozen documentary films. Usually, he is hidden behind the camera. However, in this film, we could look at him from a different perspective – a witty and emotional film set star.