Polish

Synopsis:
Westerplatte is a small peninsula at the entry to the Gdansk Harbour. Before World War II, it functioned as a Polish ammunition depot in the Free City of Danzig/Gdansk. Its crew consisted of one infantry company and a group of civilians, 182 people in total. It was the only Polish guard-post at the mouth of the Vistula River, with as little as five sentries, one field cannon, two anti-armour guns and four mortars. It was the first obstacle to Hitler’s predatory march across Europe. The first shots of World War II were fired here. This film tells the story of Westerplatte’s courageous defenders.Read More »

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“Through and Through” is a legendary feature focusing on radicalization of cinematic language. The film transgresses traditional methods of narrative construction, which is characteristic of its genre. This non-conentional treatment of the cinematic form places this film somewhere between experimental art and cinema, in a domain that does not properly belong to either field. Krolikiewicz’s radical debut is representative of his parallel pursuits – as a filmmaker as well as film theorist – and employs his crucial theory of “out – of – frame cinematographic space.” The first film in his trilogy (together with Dancing Hawk and Endless Claims), which portray typical Polish anti-heroes imprisoned by reality, “Through and Through” criticizes the nihilism and depravity created by the socio-political system.Read More »

Dramatic reconstruction of the case of a Polish woman named Emilia Margerita Gorgonowa who was tried for the murder of Elzbieta Zarembianka, the sixteen year old daughter of a successful architect in Lvov at the beginning of the 1930’s. Based on material in the Cracow archives, pertaining to the two trials as well as the diaries and notes of people closely connected to the case. The film attempts to discover why Gorgonowa was vilified and condemned by the public which had an effect on the outcome of the trial. It aims to present a faithful and documented picture of the events accompanying both trials.Read More »

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The friendship of the eccentric poet Miron Białoszewski and the blind Jadwiga Stańczakowa changes the lives of both heroes. In the leading roles, Krystyna Janda and Andrzej Hudziak.Read More »

A 50-year old philosopher-turned-businessman wants to give up his business in the wine industry and just live off the wealth he has accumulated. He has a car accident though, and ends up in a liquidated state farm. He’s taken hostage by fans of the cheap wine his company makes. The social helper present in the farm comes up with the mediating idea of giving him a month to create a company and take the ex-farmers out of unemployment. After all, he publicly boasted one only needs a good idea to create a company….Read More »

Children liberated from a Nazi concentration camp have to overcome hunger, thirst and vicious dogs in an abandoned mansion surrounded by the forest.Read More »

The Yellow Scarf is a film by Janusz Morgenstern from 2000. Janusz Gajos plays its protaganist, a man fighting with alcoholism, and is proof that television productions do not have to be worse than feature films.

The protagonist – a middle-aged man at the top of his career – does not have a name, nor a surname; he is a universal character, an everyman that everyone can identify with. On the Christmas Eve he consecutively meets with his employees, his ex-wife, his son and his present partner. His persistently prolonged rambling is meant to postpone the inevitable Christmas visit to his mother.Read More »

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During the last days of WWII, an old railroad worker and his assistant guide a train liaded with explosives to the Western front. The journey is a perilous trek through rough terrain, occupied by ruthless German soldiers, desparate deserters, and dangerous gangs seeking easy money.Read More »

In 1950, at night, a passenger train kills a man on the tracks. He is Orzechowski, an engineer since 1914. An inquiry immediately follows. Testimony takes the form of flashbacks. Tuszka, the station master, believes Orzechowski was a saboteur; at least one on the inquiry panel agrees. Zapora, the young engineer on the train that hit Orzechowski, gives more complicated testimony about the dead man – stiff-necked, proud, imperious, critical of Zapora and other younger workers. The signalman at the crossing where Orzechowski died also testifies. Can the panel arrive at the truth in a world where workers unite, inferior coal is a badge of honor, and the old order is suspect?Read More »