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The film shows the revival of Warsaw after the war. The city slowly rises from the fall, mainly thanks to the people who work hard to rebuild their capital. The documentary, despite its obvious propaganda message, has been made for heart-rending, and today its paintings represent an undeniable historical and archival value.Read More »
This is a very rare and obscure official remake of Kieslowski’s Decalogue.
Episodes:
I: The Scent of Flowers Does Not Blow Against the Wind (You shall have no other gods before me)
II: Newbie (You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain)
III: Overboard (Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy)
IV: My Poor Head (Honour your father and your mother)
V: Janusz W. Case (You shall not kill)
VI: The Lodger (You shall not commit adultery)
VII: Street Feeling (You shall not steal)
VIII: The Fence (You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour)
IX: Yoko Ono’s Cups (You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife)
X: Real (You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods)Read More »
Two handed chamber piece about a middle aged woman who returns from the camps after WWII and meets the mother of her deceased husband. Unable to explain the truth about her husband’s death, Joanna weaves a web of lies to comfort the old woman. In time she is forced to involve more and more people who know of his fate. Read More »
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During the Napoleonic Wars a young French officer seeks shelter in an abandoned building in the town of Saragossa. In this building he discovers a rather odd book, and when an enemy officer attempts to arrest him, the the second officer is also drawn to narrate the book which seems to have been written by his own grandfather (Zbigniew Cybulski). Soon the officer’s grandfather finds himself immersed within a story of fleeing gypsy cannibals, married to Muslim sisters … in his dreams, and on the run from the Spanish Inquisition. But when he meets up with a Cabalist and his storytelling friends, that is when things start to get truly interesting.Read More »
Jan is a young assistant professor in chemistry and a workaholic, whose entire life is dedicated to study and advancement to full professorship. Anna is an unsuccesful science writer who turns to Jan for advice and human compassion in a critical moment of mental confusion and nervous exhaustion. Jan, absorbed with his career, remains immune to Anna’s clumsy efforts to pierce his defences. Affrayed by her ultimate plea for an embrace, he escapes to his own quarters. In the end Anna makes an unsuccesful suicide attempt and he visits her in the hospital.Read More »
After twenty years, Nina’s marriage to Wojtek is going nowhere, partly because of their failed attempts to have children. When they meet a young woman, Magda, they decide to propose that she become a surrogate mother for their child. But things get more complicated when Nina suddenly feels attracted to Magda.
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From The Lumiere Reader:
THIS frankly marvelous film by Polish/American director Lech Majewski concerns a real-life cult of Polish working-class painters who were given three Fátima-like prophecies upon the death of their spiritual leader in the thirties – upcoming were a great war, a red plague and a death ray from Saturn that would destroy the earth. Their behaviour in response results in all sorts of shenanigans. Angelus hasn’t achieved much international coverage since its release in 2000, but it’s unclear why this hilarious, loving tribute to human folly and ambition was so ignored. A revelation that only a Film Society can dredge up, Angelus reveals Majewski’s painterly visual touch, and his wry sense of humour.Read More »
Two-part documentary about post-communist Poland, looking at the emotional and psychological turmoil caused by Poland’s search for a democratic alternative to communism in the run up to the first presidential election. Witold Starecki explores the legacy of disillusionment and fear created by the collapse of the Communist Party in Poland.Read More »
Lokis is a dark Gothic romance, a faithful (though expanded) adaptation of Prosper Merimee’s famous story, and the creme de la creme of the small horror niche dealing with the Eastern variant of the werewolf – the “werebear”.
Reverend Wittenbach, clergyman and bibliophile, travels into the eastern regions of Polish-Lithuanian forests – the “kresy” – in order to explore the vast library owned by a rich family of noblemen. Hosted in their luxurious mansion, the reverend learns the strange secrets of the surroundings and discovers the dark and disturbing secret of the family – there are whispers that his host, the enigmatic young count Michal Szemiot, may be something other than a man… that he was born of an unholy union of a woman and a bear…Read More »