Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

Report from the 1968 International Rally of Poland.

It is a hot summer day in August 2022. Harvesting is in progress in the Polish countryside. It follows the same routine as every year until is it interrupted by an unexpected aberration. A surprising take on the multi-layer crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

The hero pushes a wheelchair along a forest path; when he hits a rock, the person in the wheelchair falls to the ground. The nightmare is unleashed.

The race does not begin at the start line, it does not end at the finish line either. The camera observes the participants of the Polish 4x100 metres relay team not racing, but getting ready for the race and slowing down after the finish line. The competition would not exist without the following stages: mobilization, full of anxiety, and composure of the red-hot organism.

Łopuszna is located on the Dunajec River, 100 km south of Cracow. It is the kingdom of trout and salmon, one of the greatest tourist attractions of Podhale. In addition to that, it has been the home of Polish highlanders for centuries.

Women, aging, dance, and alcohol: this documentary has it all. The movie chronicles several retired women coming together to perform "Swan Lake". To achieve their artistic vision, the women team up with a group of dancing experts and get their ballet shoes tapping!

'Revolution is a Sickness' follows a Vietnamese orphan who washes up on the shores of Poland and joins a K-Pop dance group invested in radical politics.

In a dreamlike series of reflections, time itself seemingly pauses as a teenager documents vistas left vacant by a quarantine in Gydnia, Poland

Musicians and jazz lovers come to Zakopane to relax and make music together. Kalatówki is the location where the jazz campsite takes place. Andrzej Trzaskowski's band “Jazz Believers” is the star of the film.

It is 1410. One of the greatest battles of the medieval Europe. Tension between the Polish Kingdom and the Teutonic Order is at its peak. A knight and his squire respond to the call of King Wladyslaw Jagiello and travel around the Polish land to turn up at the fields of Grunwald. Humor is mixed with history, social commentary and a story about… Don Quichote and Sancho Pansa.

A short experimental film dedicated to Polish artist Wacław Szpakowski (1883–1973).

The film is a praise of human willingness to take on the endless challenges of fate. The loaf of bread a prisoner receives each day is used to patch thousands of holes in the cell walls. They are inhabited by nerve-wracking busy insects that flit constantly from hole to hole. When the work is finished, the prisoner is unexpectedly transferred to another cell. The new loaf of bread held in his hands freezes dramatically halfway to his mouth: the walls of this cell are also strewn with thousands of holes.

Over a decade after the almost total wartime destruction, Warsaw still looks bruised and battered. Ruined houses are nevertheless inhabited which can be dangerous for the local population.

Karol lives alone in the forester's lodge. Unexpectedly, he is visited by his mother whom he has not seen for years.

The film takes place in a small town somewhere in the Polish countryside. A man arrives and notices a wealthy woman employed in the finance department of a local government office. He decides to seduce the clerk. However, he achieves this not so much through beauty or character, but through deception. As the fiancé of a Croesus nobleman, he begins frequenting local "salons" and meeting the town's elite. However, the idyll is short-lived.

The film tells the story of Tomek Bukowski, a tariff who works on a night shift. The man has a loving wife - Ewelina. He lives a quiet life outside ... Exactly. Bukowski also has an "extraordinary passion" for which people are willing to pay him money. At one point, he receives a surprising job that changes his life.

What will be left behind when humanity vanishes from the surface of the earth? Abandoned stations, schools and plants create a post-apocalyptic landscape of the world without people.

Wanting to improve her distant relationship with her depressive father, the adult daughter tries to persuade him to have a deeper conversation and seeks a way to understand him.

Polish TV film.

The life of an elderly person is cheerless. Whatever monotony and weariness fail to kill will be annihilated by illness. But is that really the case? Bronka and Zygfryd, with their last ounce of strength, decide to salvage their shared memories and even the tiniest fragment of the love that once connected them.

A modern and gloomy city of skyscrapers works to the rhythm of two pistons. Anonymous stenographers work in the dark offices, butchers deliver fresh meat and clerks, crammed into elevators, wander between the floors of the buildings.

A man is fascinated by a woman in a club. Obsessed with dreams about her, he begins to follow the path of his imagination.

From the series of animated films to classical music.

"A film of 50 seconds showing a pianist playing Chopin's Valse Minute in the middle of a sports stadium." - MIFF. Screened in the 1967 New York Film Festival.

Stanislav takes his beloved Zosia on a mysterious and romantic journey. He wants to propose to her in the city of love. Stanislav doesn?t expect that it will be the most horrible night of his life, and his well planned trip will go much further than he anticipated.

"Animating human-size puppets, in D.I.M. Skrobecki explores the relationship of a couple secluded in an apartment. Their meaningless life has a single justification and tenderness: they feed a little bird that comes from time to time to the windowsill." -Giannalberto Bendazzi: "Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times"

A modernized version of the fairy tale about Red Riding Hood, in which a little pig goes on her way to her grandmother. During a hike through the forest, a bad wolf attacks her.

Fan film, created entirely inside of a game "Lethal Company"

This documentary tells a story about people that to this day live in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Shows their daily struggles and lets them share their stories.

Mami Fatale, formerly known as The Best Chef In The World, prefers to be on the sidelines these days. It seems that there is nothing that would drag her away from her cozy little cottage, not even the shady activities of Doctor Von Klops, the local fast food producer. However, when Von Klops steals Mami’s cookbook containing all her culinary secrets and after the Doctor’s suspicious concoctions bring a gluttonous giant, Beatle, into existence, the heroic chef is the only one who can rescue the city and her friends. Mami, along with her inseparable pets, set out on an exciting adventure in order to save the world, get the precious cookbook back, and regain self-confidence.

Two twinlike women who live in the Stone Age want to wear the clothes that are all the rage. Birds on their heads, tigers on their shoulders and a fast crocodile as a means of transport –these are the challenges that men have to face.

A young employee of a production plant opposes the unethical practices of the director.

A woman learns that her husband has cheated on her and decides to do the same.

A claustrophobic journey into spaces never seen before. ‘The Tough’ carries a lot of meanings: defiant, vicious, resistant, relentless, strong, resilient, cold, hard. The explorer has reason to choose this name for his discovery - a place deep below snowy ground. And why? The unknown stirs his imagination, pushes him forward. The camera follows him, step by step, taking part in the exploration of the spaces which more and more fiercely resist the delicate human shape.

Record of a dam construction in a remote area of Poland.

Four stories of young men's encounters with army recruitment commissions. Ardent pacifist Roman is sent through a series of humiliating court trials. Losha and Viktor endure long and condescending deliberations that undermine their personalities. Finally, LGBT movement veteran, Johnny is bluntly rebuked and handcuffed. All are put to test by a bureaucratic machine that doesn't sympathize with those who dispute the purposiveness of military service. The conscript enters a room packed with officials. The officials have to listen to his convictions that go in conflict with the idea of military service. It's for the officials to decide whether the conscript leaves the room as a soldier or as a civilian.

This experimental documentary contrasts the daily life of a nanny in buzzing Berlin with the tranquil existence of a group of pensioners in provincial Poland. A reflection on female biographies that draws a line between the beginning of life and its end.

A recording of a concert the band played in 2011, when Pidżama Porno was the main star of the Event Horizon Festival in Lodz.

A paranoid individual is being watched in his own apartment.

Members of the neighboring state arrive in the capital to declare war. Not only infantry, but also artillery, tanks and air forces are involved in the war.