Dragon Flies is a short story about two teenagers, inhabitants of a little town at the seaside. It is summertime, a time for love, crime and coming of age.

Director
Justyna Nowak
Screenplay

Year of production
2007

Country
Poland

Language
Polish (English subtitles)

Running time
15 mins

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 her incestuous feelings for her father.

Screenplay
Krzysztof Kieślowski

Year of production
1988

Country
Poland

Language
Polish

In communism many things were turned upside down – it was a “revolutionary” system. The consequences of this were unpleasant and sometimes even tragic for the citizens of communist Poland. It’s quite difficult to live in a topsy-turvy world where basic human values become politically suspect and economic laws are replaced by ideological dogma. However, the absurdity of this system also had its comic dimension, which is strongly visible in the art of Polish filmmakers.

Mateusz Werner, film programme curator.

List of shorts
CAGES 7’
THE OFFICE 5’
THERE AND BACK 10’
THE LEAP 5’
EVERYONE KNOWS WHO’S BEHIND WHO 6’
I AM A MAN 16’
THE ORANGE ALTERNATIVE 24’

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; the next reveals him dabbling in underground protest and religion; while the third shows him pursuing an apolitical medical careerBehind the Wall film season looks at the significance of the Wall for Berlin itself and explores the impact of the Wall in Eastern Europe, with pre-1989 films focusing people living under Communism in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, USSR, Bulgaria, Poland and Germany itself.

Director
Krzysztof Kieślowski

Screenplay
Krzysztof Kieślowski

Year of production
1981

Country
Poland

Language
Polish (English subtitles)

Running time
112mins

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 feelings about the war; the older generation keeps imposing their emotions on the young, like passing on the sword once used in battles.

at 4.15pm
Hands Up! / Ręce do góry

Censored by the Polish authorities Hands Up! can be seen as a direct provocation for change. The film begins with a sci-fi motif: abstract images and electronic music. Then the viewer is taken from the ruins of Lebanon back into the past, featuring a score of Polish actors in a setting resembling Kantor’s experimental theatre. The story is a probing investigation of a group of young physicians who recall their university days during the Stalinist period while meeting at a class reunion. Originally completed in 1967, the film was not released in the West until 1981 after Skolimowski reedited it and added new colour footage.

Director
Jerzy Skolimowski

Screenplay
Jerzy Skolimowski

Year of production
1966

Country
Poland

Language
Polish (English subtitles)

Running time
84 mins

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, complex and perfectly measured performance.

Director
Andrzej Wajda

Screenplay
Andrzej Wajda

Year of production
1958

Country
Poland

Language
Polish with English subtitles

Running time
104 mins

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. Obsessed with her, and growing bolder, the young man invents reasons to make contact until finally he meets her and confesses his conduct and feelings.

Director
Krzysztof Kieślowski

Screenplay
K.Kieślowski, K. Piesiewicz

Year of production
1988

Country
Poland

Language
Polish (English subtitles)

Director
Grzegorz Lipiec
Screenplay

Year of production
2008

Country
Poland

Language
Polish

New film by J.J. Kolski already in Polish cinemas.

Since her childhood Afonia has been occupied with discovering the world. She collects honey unlike any other honey, and when doing it she calms the swarms. She never parts with her army video camera, which she uses to record everything that according to her deserves being filmed. Rafał, once a famous wrestler who hid behind a black mask is now paralised after an accident and completely dependent on his wife Afonia. He invented a few terribly dangerous wrestling holds and many people are interested in learning their secret…Siera is a Russian of rugged looks, physically fit, an officer in Red Army, a wrestler with Olympic past, and a war hero, demands to know their secret. He is ready for anything to get the secret.

So far, all we know abou this new project is that the film itself is a comedy. Magic Hour will be the producer of the film.  On a blog dedicated to Paweł Małaszyński (one of the stars in the film) one can find out that the film is a story about three brothers: an IT specialist, a gynecologist and a counter-terrorist (played by Małaszyński). They are trying to free their sister from prison as she was falsely found guilty. This version of the plot has not yet been officially confirmed, though.Patryk Vega, nominated for, among other awards, the ‘Phenomenon of Przekrój” (Przekrój is a famous Polish magazine), won recognition with his amazing debut “Pitbull”. He continued the plot in a tv series, for which he was awarded ‘Gold Horseshoe’ At Cieszyn Film Festival for the best thriller series. His next work was another tv series ‘Twarzą w twarz’ (Face to Face), where he began to work with Paweł Małaszyński and Marta Żmuda-Trzebiatowska.

Vega is also a scritpwriter to all his productions so far. In 1999 he wrote a script to a series ‘Pierwszy milion’ (First milion) directed by Waldemar Dziki and Tomasz Wiszniewski. He also worked on the script to the new version of “W pustyni i w puszczy” (In Desert and Wilderness). He did not graduate from any film school. He learned everything on set. Nowadays he is one of the most recognized names in the industry. ‘Ciacho’ is his second feature film.