The Polish Connection UK: Polish Films in the UK

THE DECALOGUE is a series of ten beautifully composed short fiction films presenting the harsh realities of Poland on the brink of the fall of communism. The films are organised around the Ten Commandments, exploring the possibility of their application to contemporary conditions.
In DECALOGUE FOUR, a teenage girl finds a letter from her dead mother which prompts her to realise [...]

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance, which was made in 1981 but censored by the Polish authorities for several years, is a modernist meditation on fate, coincidence and choice.The film branches out into three separate scenarios, depending on whether a young man, Witek, catches a train or misses it. The first scenario sees him become a Communist aparatchik; [...]

Retrospective: BARRIER + HANDS UP!
Barrier is Skolimowski’s third and the most acclaimed of his early films.  A university graduate leaves a cold campus for a new life armed with a suitcase, a coin he won from a friend, and the old sword given by his father. It is a film about two generations who have different [...]

Cybulski is the idealist underground fighter in the closing days of the Second World War, who is appointed to assassinate a local official. But his love for a bar‑maid (beautifully played by Ewa Krzyzewska), leads him to question his role.
Utterly memorable, for its photography (by veteran cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik), its complex struggling of conscience, and for Cybulski’s astounding, [...]

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s re-working of the sixth commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” explores the themes of love and voyeurism through an examination of the relationship between nineteen-year old Tomek, raised in an orphanage, and an older woman Magda, that begins when he spies on her sex life through a telescope from his bedroom window across a courtyard to her apartment. [...]

Poland in a near future. Lives of a terrorist, undertaker, priest. director of an orphanage and a Hindu meet through a 100 euro bank note with the face of John Paul II.
Director
Grzegorz Lipiec
Screenplay
Year of production
2008
Country
Poland
Language
Polish

Welcome to the Polish connection – Polish films in the UK.

A suicidal alcoholic’s last day teems with images of anxiety and Kafkaesque paranoia. Adapted from Marek Hlasko’s novel ‘The First Step in the Clouds’, Has’ feature debut is cinematic delirium tremens, as young man Kuba Kowalski escapes his cramped flat to wander from bar to bar, unable to escape the trap of isolation. The metaphorical noose [...]

Middle-aged schoolteacher Adam is a recovering alcoholic and embarks on re-establishing a relationship with his son, Sylwester, by listening to the latter’s discussions about their lives. Adam is shocked to discover that they both have a different view of their lives, with Adam remembering only the good moments but Sylwester recollecting the depressive impact of [...]

29 OCTOBER 2008
(PART OF ‘SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN’ PROGRAMME)
BFI SOUTHBANK
30 OCTOBER 2008
(PART OF ‘SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN’ PROGRAMME)
BFI SOUTHBANK
Ałła dreams of becoming a ballerina. Hence she is aiming at Ballet Academy in Sankt Petersburg. This will not be her frst try. The entrance exams are really hard. She needs to lengthen her legs as her proportion is not right: it [...]