Forever Changes: Polish Cinema Since 1989

April 16 to May 4, 2004

left: revenge


  

Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in collaboration with Film Polski. Generous support for this program has been provided by the Kosciuszko Foundation. Special thanks to Jolanta Galicka and Pawel Potoroczyn for their invaluable help.

A few years before the French New Wave rolled in, world cinema felt the breezes of the "Polish Spring." As the Stalinism era was waning, filmmakers in Poland took advantage of the small opening suddenly appearing to create a bold, fresh approach to filmmaking that would combine the raw immediacy of the best of Neo-realism with stories that emphasized the ambiguity of history and human experience. The work of Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Tadeusz Konwicki and a few others was seen in art cinemas all over the world; indeed, for a few years Polish cinema was the art cinema. After its decade of glory (1955-65), Polish cinema never totally faded from view; the emergence of the Solidarity Movement in the late 70s brought a new generation of filmmaker such as Kryzsztof Kieslowski and Agnieszka Holland to international attention, along with the later work of established masters like Wajda. With the collapse of the communist regimes beginning in 1989, many hoped that Poland's hard-earned freedom would again lead to a wave of important cinema. Yet the communist system had at very least offered filmmakers a structure; it was restrictive and at times arbitrary, but filmmakers learned to deal with it; in contrast, after 1989, the reduction in state support for filmmaking, presented filmmakers with a whole new range of obstacles. It took several years before government support could be re-configured, and for television to move squarely into film production. Fifteen years after the end of communism, it's safe to say that Polis cinema is alive and very well, as this series amply demonstrates. Forever Changes: Polish Cinema Since 1989 introduces some of the most exciting new voices to have emerged in the last few years: remarkable debut feature films by Urszula Urbaniak, Dariusz Gajewski, Malgorzata Szumowska, Andrzej Jakimowski, Anna Jadowska and Eva Stankiewicz among others, offer penetrating looks into a new society growing out of the old. Several of the films chronicle the difficult process of transition - the impact of unemployment, spread of crime, or changes in personal relationships that were among the unintended and unexpected consequences. There are comedies, melodramas, thrillers, literary adaptations and historical films; a wide variety of styles and approaches, unified by the mutual desire to use the cinema to chronicle the work-in-progress that is 21st century Poland. - Richard Peña

TOUCH ME / DOTKNIJ MNIE
Anna Jadowska, Ewa Stankiewicz, 2003; 82m
An extraordinarily impressive debut feature, and a prize winner at the 2003 National Polish Film festival in Gdynia, TOUCH ME weaves together several stories to create an affecting portrait of love and loneliness in contemporary Poland. An actor waiting for his break scrapes by selling pots and pans on a home shopping channel. A policeman called in to settle a domestic dispute winds up falling in love with a woman twenty years his senior. Meanwhile, two film school graduates, Sylwek and Piotrek, wonder if they should abandon their squat and earn some money picking strawberries in Sweden. Directed by two recent graduates of the Lodz Film School, TOUCH ME is an excellent example of the new energy in Polish cinema.
Fri April 16: 2 & 6:15; Mon April 19: 5:30

THE REVENGE / ZEMSTA
Andrzej Wajda, 2002; 100m
The Revenge begins as the "cold war" between two courtiers sharing a castle, is about to reach a boiling point, as each schemes to get rid of the other. One of them, Raptusiewicz, hopes to marry Podstolina, widow of the Lord High Steward; while his rival Milczek hopes to get his son Waclaw there first. Raptusiewicz calls on the services of the debonair Papkin, a legend with women, who agrees to help him in order to get close to Raptusiewicz's beautiful niece, Klara. And yes, there's a happy ending. The youngest 78-year old director working today, Wajda keeps the action fast and furious, expertly staging the clockwork entrances, exits, double takes and pratfalls. Of course, he had the pleasure of counting on the services of some of Poland's finest actors: Janusz Gajos, Andrzej Seweryn, Katarzyna Figura - but who steals the show is Roman Polanski as Papkin, simply a great comic performance.
Fri April 16: 4; Sun April 18: 9

SQUINT YOUR EYES / ZMRUZ OCCZY
Andrzej Jakimowski, 2003; 88m
Mala, a bright, independent-minded 10-year-old girl, runs away from home because her parents are so obsessed by their careers that they don't have any time for her. Her goal is to reach an abandoned farm far out in the countryside where a former teacher, Jasiek, has been working as a watchman. Jasiek cares for and respects Mala, but also knows that she somehow has to reach some kind of accommodation with her parents. Slowly he starts to devise a way to cause a reconciliation that will convince both sides that they've won. Since his international breakthrough in Kieslowski's White, Zbigniew Zamachowski, who plays Jasiek, gives one of his finest performances.
Fri April 16: 8:30; Mon April 19: 1

PORNOGRAPHY / PORNOGRAFIA
Jan Jakub Kolski, 2003; 115m
Polish author Witold Gombrowicz was one of the most remarkable writers of the 20th century; this provocative adaptation of his third novel should win him new admirers. Set in Nazi-occupied Poland, PORNOGRAPHY focuses on two middle-aged men: Frederic, a theater and film director, and Witold, a writer who serves as a wry commentator. The two journey out to the country estate of Hippolyte, a friend of Witold marginally involved in the resistance. There they encounter German soldiers and partisans, young lovers and even younger murderers, patriots and Catholics. Frederic will reveal an uncanny ability to hear clearly even distant and delicate sounds. Director Jan Jakub Kolski effectively finds the cinematic means to capture Gombrowicz's abrupt changes of mood and tone and almost surreal juxtapositions, while anchoring the story in a very concrete time and place.
Sat April 17: 6; Sun May 2: 3:30; Mon May 3: 3:30; Tue May 4: 3:10

SUCCESS / SUKCES
Marek Bukowski, 2002; 85m
Weaving animated sequences, fantasies, sight gags and a panoply of visual effects into the narrative, SUCCESS is the story of Marek Pozny, born somewhere in the provinces in 1968. His life is very similar to that of his contemporaries, except that he occasionally receives visits and friendly advice from the legendary Apache chief Winnetou. Marek keeps looking for a place to fit in, but everything around him keeps changing. At each point Marek asks himself what does it mean to be a success, and keeps finding the answer to be different. But someone who seems to always know the score is his friend Wiktor, who always appears to be one step ahead of the game. It's in his relationship to Wiktor that Marek will finally learn to take his own measure.
Sat April 17: 8:45; Mon April 19: 2:45

THE JUNCTION / TOROWISKO
Urszula Urbaniak, 1999; 82m
A work of extraordinary grace and precision, set in a seemingly forgotten corner of Poland, THE JUNCTION details the life of Maria, who works in the railroad signal box waiting for those trains that rarely pass through on their way to somewhere else. There's not much to do but to sit and dream a bit, and occasionally listen to her best friend Krystyna's accounts of her sexual adventures. The engineers and trainmen who pass through sometimes catch her eye - she often catches theirs - but that never promises much either, until she meets Zbyszek, a handsome, buff engine driver who just might be her ticket to a whole new world.
Sun April 18: 6:45; Wed April 21: 5 Sat April 24: 4

HAPPY MAN / SZCZESLKIWY CZLOWIEK
Malgorzata Szumowska, 2001; 84m
Jas, introverted, thirty-something, unemployed, lives with his mother in an anonymous apartment block. He earns a little money contributing occasionally to a gossip magazine, but pretty much stays home or cycles around town. One day, Jas learns that his mother has lung cancer and at best a few months more to live; deciding not to tell his mother the truth, he suddenly resolves to give her everything she never had. He meets a factory worker, Marta, and cautiously begins a relationship with her. By helping a crooked property developer to get rid of some unwanted tenants, he suddenly has more money on hand. All this encourages his mother to think that at last her son might be settling down - but Jas still can't face up to telling her what's really going on....
Mon April 19: 7:10; Tue April 20: 4 Thurs April 22: 9

AMOK
Natalia Koryncka-Gruz, 1998; 100m
A young radio reporter, Maciek, is assigned to do a feature on the booming Warsaw stock market. He soon meets Max, already something of a legend on the trading floor, and someone who seems to know everybody and everything. For Maciek, Max is the perfect guide into this still mysterious world of high stakes trading, in which fortunes are made or lost overnight. But soon Maciek moves from a chronicler of the scene to a participant in it, as he gets caught up in the excitement of Max's world. A fascinating look at how quickly a society can replace one set of values with another, as well as a crisply directed, very contemporary thriller.
Mon April 19: 9; Tue April 20: 2

THE BURIAL OF THE POTATO / POGRZEB KARTOFLA
Jan Jakub Kolski, 1990; 100m
In Kolski's first feature film, Mateusz, a leather smith, returns to his native village after years in a concentration camp. Although he had lived there all his life, his neighbors treat him as a stranger, making thinly-veiled threats and calling him "the Jew," even though he isn't Jewish. It seems in his absence the townspeople had divided up his possessions, and now want to keep them; moreover, a local estate is about to be divided by the new communist rulers, and they don't want yet another claimant to reduce their shares. Kolski offers a chilling look at postwar tensions, in which people seeking to forget the past are simultaneously learning to deal with a new and unknown social order - leading them in some case to reveal dark and terrifying aspects of themselves.
Wed April 21: 1 & 6:45

JOHNNIE AQUARIUS / JANCIO WODNIK
Jan Jakub Kolski, 1993; 100m
Kolski first attracted widespread international attention with this, his third feature. "Johnnie" (Jancio in Polish), a local dreamer with a pregnant wife, discovers that he has the power to control water and to heal the sick. Feeling that this gift is a call to better humanity, he abandons his wife and sets out on the road, gradually building a reputation as a veritable miracle worker. Yet these miracles come at a price, for Johnnie and those closest to him, and eventually he must deal with the fact he may not have the power to make up for all the hurt and damage his calling has caused. In Kolski's world, not only does the natural reside with the supernatural, but good and evil seem to be found everywhere in tandem; it's only the arrogance of humanity that pretends they can be separated.
Wed April 21: 3 & 8:45

MY TOWN / MOJE MIASTO
Marek Lechki, 2002; 60m
Our guide to My Town is Godzik, a 25-year old aspiring pro hockey player, whose voiceover introduces to his room, his apartment block, his family and neighbors. Once a thriving industrial center, it's now full of pensioners and young people waiting to leave. Then one day, two visitors arrive and soon upset the balance in everybody's humdrum lives. followed by
BELLISSIMA
Artur Urbanski, 2001; 62m
"With a nod to Luchino Visconti's 1951 film, writer-director Artur Urbanski's BELLISSIMA tells the story of a mother who misguidedly expresses her love for her daughter by pushing her into the world of fashion modeling.
Thurs April 22: 1; Fri April 23: 8:15

NOTHING / NICS
Dorota Kedzierzawska, 1998; 77m
preceded by
A MAN THING / MESKA SPRAWA
Slawomir Fabicki, 2001; 26m
Director/screenwriter Kedzierzawska, who made such a powerful impression with her second feature Crows, returns with NOTHING, an immensely powerful film about a woman desperate to keep her husband's love. Discovering that she's pregnant, and knowing full well her husband's hostility towards having more children, she resorts to increasingly desperate measures to hide from him what's really happening while forestalling the inevitable decision as to whether to keep carrying the child. Gradually, the world around her becomes more and more a projection of her inner turmoil. NOTHING will be preceded by the Academy Award nominated short film A MAN THING. Abused at home, constantly in trouble at school, 13-year old Bartek finds solace only with a stray dog kept in the local kennel. But even that friend may not be there for him for very long…
Thurs April 22: 3:30; Fri April 23: 6 Sun April 25: 4:30

THE SPINNING WHEEL OF TIME / WRZECIONNO CZASU
Andrzej Kondratiuk, 1995; 105m
The great eccentric of Polish cinema, Andrzej Kondratiuk for many years has been living together with his wife, actress and producer Iga Cembrzynska in a small cabin in the middle of a dense forest; every few years he puts together a film with a small group of collaborators, starring himself and Iga. Part documentary, part diary, part fiction and part fantasy, these films give us a sense of their lives and their thoughts about love, relationships, nature and art. In THE SPINNING WHEEL OF TIME, perhaps Kondratiuk's most beautiful film, the couple returns to the forest after spending some time away. Andrzej's father, has recently died, and his passing stirs up memories of other family members and his childhood in Central Asia. Andrzej and Iga spend their days getting their home in working order again and thinking about a new film, but the presence of Matilde, Andrzej's beautiful assistant, becomes a source of friction. Kondratiuk is one of a kind, and his offbeat, charming and strangely engrossing work lingers on in the mind long after the memories of most other movies fade away.
Sat April 24: 6:15; Tue April 27: 2 & 6:15

THE TEMPTATION / POKUSZENIE
Barbara Sass, 1995; 101m
Poland, 1953 - perhaps the darkest year of the Stalinist era. One night, a young nun, Anna, is brusquely removed from prison and brought to an abandoned fort where an influential bishop is being held. Years earlier, before taking her vows, Anna had been in love with him; she's now been brought to serve him his meals and look after him. Director Sass avoids the sensationalism that could have defined her story - with all the implications of "forbidden love" - and instead looks at the complexity of the relationship between this man and this woman. THE TEMPTATION was awarded the International Critics' Prize at the 1996 Karlovy Vary Film Festival
Sat April 24: 8:30; Mon April 26: 2

HI, TERESKA
Robert Glinski, 2001; 91m
"Hi, Tereska is a riveting look at a group of Polish youth known as "blockers," a generation named after the grey housing projects in which they grew up. The film begins with a bright montage of scenes from Tereska's childhood; jumping forward to the present, the images lose their photo-album charm…Despite the dispiriting environment and the absence of any encouragement from her parents, Tereska has grown up sensitive and shy. Her improbable dream of becoming a fashion designer sends her off to tailoring trade school, where she meets the rebellious and confident Renata. Soon Renata is steering Tereska to her first cigarette, her first kiss and, eventually, to her first crime…." - 2001 Toronto International Film Festival Catalog
Sun April 25: 6:45; Mon April 26: 4; Wed Apil 28: 5:10

LOUDER THAN BOMBS / GLOSNIEJ OD BOMB
Przemylaw Wojcieszek, 2000; 92m
Marcin lives in a small city in southern Poland. A few days earlier his father had died; a few years earlier, Marcin had quit school to work in his father's car repair shop. Now, the business is all his, and so are all the arrangements for his father's funerall. Relatives start arriving from all over Poland, some of whom he hardly knows; in the midst of all this, Marcin's girlfriend Kaska reveals that she's about to move to Chicago, where her parents have arranged for her to study. Clearly inspired by the work of Mike Leigh, debut director Wojciesak brings a gritty realism to his work that's nevertheless full of flashes of offbeat humor. Every day brings another set of problems, and the trick is staying afloat long enough to find out what they are.
Sun April 25: 8:45; Tue April 27: 4:15 & 8:30

A MIRACULOUS PLACE / CUDOWNE MIEJSCE
Jan Jakub Kolski, 1994; 94m
Included in the 1995 Berlin Film Festival, A MIRACULOUS PLACE begins as a handsome young priest comes to a small village to head his very first parish. The community is convinced that signs point to a miracle that's about to happen; unexpectedly, a local waitress starts to show stigmata, the marks of Christ's crucifixion. Not precisely what was expected, the "miracle" starts to take a decidedly devious turn when the waitress and the young priest begin to exhibit an attraction for each other. The film is a clear-eyed, compassionate if critical look at the use and misuse of religious fervor, graced by terrific performances by Grazyna Blecka-Kolska and Adam Kamien as the ill-starred couple.
Wed April 28: 1 & 7:15

THE MAN WHO READ MUSIC FROM PLATES / GRAJACY Z TALERZA
Jan Jakub Kolski, 1995; 107m
While plowing his field, an old farmer, Marczyk, meets two passers-by marching in a funeral procession. One is a wandering violinist; the other is Death, who's taken the form of a beautiful woman, and who informs Marczyk that his time is up. Marczyk pleads for more time; years ago, he took in out of pity a monster named Morka, and he doesn't want to expire before ensuring that Morka will be cared for. Thus begins an extraordinary journey in which these characters will encounter love, forgiveness, treachery, desire and of course, yet again, Death.
Wed April 28: 3 & 9:15

TORN / ZERWANY
Jacek Filipiak, 2003; 96m; on Beta
TORN is the story of Mateusz, only a boy but already with a lifetime's worth of experience. Having already passed through an unsuccessful adoption, a foster home, an orphanage and a reform school, he pretty much knows about life on the margins and the violence that seems to be at the base of most interactions. Yet Mateusz refuses to give up his dream of living like other kids; it is debut director Jacek Filipiak's great achievement here to present Mateusz's struggle without moralism or sentimentality, but instead to see his film as a kind of tribute to the hidden sources of strength that can emerge in the least promising situations.
Thurs April 29: 2; Sun May 2: 6

THE DEBT / DLUG
Krzysztof Krauze, 1999; 107m
In THE DEBT, Krzysztof Krauze has created a work that, while drawing on the structures and style of the popular thriller, nonetheless also creates a chilling look at one of the darker sides of the recent changes. Based on a true story, the films begins as two friends, Adam and Stefan, decide to quit college and plunge headfirst into the new business opportunites cropping up everywhere. They manage to strike a deal with an Italian scooter company, but are subsequently turned down for a bank loan for lack of collateral. Enter Gerard, an old friend, who offers to arrange for the money they need. Adam and Stefan think that at least they're in business, until Gerard reveals the true purpose behind his friendly loan.
Thurs April 29: 4; Sat May 1: 1; Sun May 2: 8

KILER
Juliusz Machulski, 1997; 91m
One day while minding his own business, a young taxi driver, Jurek Kiler, is arrested by the police. It seems that they have confused him with a famous criminal wanted all over Europe, but despite his protests, Police Commissioner Ryba claims to have irrefutable proof that Jurek is their man. Soon Jurek finds himself in prison, where, much to his surprise the other prisoners treat him with great respect, honored to have such a notorious outlaw in their midst. Even the media shows up, requesting interviews that Jurek is at first reluctant to give - until he catches a glimpse of Ewa, a TV journalist hoping to find out what kind of man this famous criminal really is. One of Poland's most popular directors, Juliusz Machulski here achieves one of his finest social satires, showing how easily the lines between good and evil can blur when someone achieves the status of "celebrity."
Sat May 1: 3:10; Mon May 3: 1:30

KEEP AWAY FROM THE WINDOW / DALEKO OD OKNA
Jan Jakub Kolski, 2000; 104m
Soon after the Germans occupy Poland, a young Jewish woman is hidden by a childless Polish couple. At first all passes well, if somewhat awkwardly; then, one day, this woman becomes pregnant with the husband's child. Beyond the expected anger and jealousy, the child does seem like the answer to the couple's prayers; moreover, the fact that they were harboring a Jew - an offense punishable by summary execution - might be revealed. So an uneasy partnership develops between the two women, as each stakes their claim to motherhood. Based on the short story "That Girl from Hamburg" by Hanna Krall, Keep Away from the Window again shows Kolski's fascination with how ordinary people learn to deal with extraordinary circumstances. The film received numerous awards at the 2000 Polish National Film Festival held in Gdynia.
Sun May 2: 1:30; Tue May 4: 1


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