The Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, organised by the Polish Cultural Institute and supported by the Polish Film Institute, will return to cinema screens for its 21st edition from 9 March to 27 April 2023, presenting an exciting line-up that spans over 60 years of Polish cinema. Showcasing a finely curated selection of extraordinary new features, many of them premieres for the UK, the festival simultaneously explores the depth of Polish cinema’s past with exceptionally presented screenings of classic films from some of the country’s most renowned filmmakers, including Jerzy Skolimowski who will be in attendance for a season dedicated to his filmography at BFI Southbank. Skolimowski’s latest sensation EO (2022) has been nominated for Best International Feature at the 2023 Academy Awards, and this season encompasses the career of a Polish master who is still at the top of his game after over 60 years behind the camera. With its diverse programme of compelling and challenging cinema, Kinoteka continues to explore the innovative filmic output Poland has to offer through screening events, special presentations, guest-led intros, Q&As, workshops and more.
OPENING GALA
Kinoteka 2023 begins on 9 March at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts: ICA with an Opening Gala screening of the brilliant debut from Damian Kocur, Bread and Salt (Chleb i sól, 2022, UK Premiere). Packing a deep emotional punch, the film takes us on the journey of two brothers (played by real-life siblings Tymoteusz Bies and Jacek Bies), in a small Polish town during one hot summer. The brothers are both pianists, except one studies at the Warsaw Academy and the other chooses to spend time with friends, drinking in the local, Arab-run kebab shop. However, prejudices are soon ignited in this brutal and searing exploration of youth in a small town which asks the question, ‘when does violence begin?’ Inspired by real events and cast with non-professional actors, Bread and Salt has won multiple festival awards including the Horizons Special Jury Prize at Venice Film Festival as well as the journalists and youth juries award at the Gdynia Film Festival. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Damian Kocur.
CLOSING GALA
The Closing Gala will take place on 27 April, and is a screening of Feliks Falk’s classic Top Dog (Wodzirej, 1977) at Cine Lumiere alongside an immersive dinner themed to the film. Causing much debate in Poland on its original release, Top Dog follows the story of small-town entertainer Danielak, who will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of hosting the town’s 500th anniversary celebrations. Danielak is a man with an overt lack of morals, driven to come out on top and the role is played to perfection by Polish acting legend Jerzy Stuhr. Director Feliks Falk worked alongside Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski in Andrzej Wajda’s X Film Unit, at the forefront of the emerging ‘Cinema of Moral Anxiety’, and Top Dog exposed the consequences of weak moral codes, offering a reading of corruption that extended beyond show business. After the screening, there will be an afterparty inspired by the film at Ognisko Polskie – The Polish Hearth, led by Margot Przymierska with a buffet, drinks, dancing and live entertainment.
NEW POLISH CINEMA
Comprising some of the finest and most thought-provoking cinema of the past year, the New Polish Cinema strand highlights the voices of both established filmmakers and debut directors across large and small budget productions, presenting a powerful snapshot of the country’s contemporary film scene. Making their way to the UK for the first time, many of the titles have already received recognition and awards at international film festivals. This year’s titles reflect on the value of relationships, both personal and those found in in the wider community, starting with director and co-writer Anna Maliszewska’s Dad (Tata, 2022, UK Premiere), a free-spirited road movie which follows a father, Michal (Eryk Lubos) who heads out on the road with his daughter after the sudden death of the Ukrainian neighbour who looked after the girl during his frequent long works trips. Now on a cross-border mission to return the body home, Michał is forced to confront his parenting responsibilities while figuring out what’s important in life. Directed and co-written by award-winning filmmaker Anna Kazejak, Fucking Bornholm (2022, UK Premiere) is a biting drama which exposes the frayed edges of family dynamics through a neglected wife and mother as she experiences the psychological torment of a family vacation on an idyllic island. Starring Maciej Stuhr (Aftermath, 2012) and Agnieszka Grochowska (Strange Heaven, 2015), Fucking Bornholm was nominated for Best Film at Trieste, Krakow and Karlovy Vary International Film Festivals, and won the Europa Cinema Label Award for Best European Film at Karlovy Vary 2022. Centered on a powerhouse performance from Agata Buzek (High Life, 2018, The Innocents, 2016) and set amid the eerie beaches and city-scapes of Poland’s Baltic coast, director Marta Minorowicz (Zud, 2016) charts the agonising tension placed on a couple as they attempt to track down their missing daughter, with the pressure mounting as the ineffectual police prepare to close the file on the case in searing psychological drama Illusion (Iluzja, 2022). The screening of Illusion will be followed by a Q&A with Marta Minorowicz. Having already impressed at home, winning a Special Jury Award at Warsaw 2022 as well as Discovery of the Festival and Best Debut Director at Gdynia, Shreds (Strzępy, 2022) sees established documentary filmmaker Beata Dzianowska turn her keen observational eye to the story of a family patriarch struggling with the onset of Alzheimer’s and the family faced with the impossible decisions which result. Woman on the Roof (Kobieta na dachu, 2022, UK Premiere) from writer-director Anna Jadowska, also focuses its attention on an elderly protagonist, as Dorota Pomykała’s portrayal of a desperate and detached woman who attempts to rob a bank. A critique on a society which sidelines older women, Woman on the Roof offers an absorbing character study and is based on a true story. Pomykała won a Best Performance award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival for her role.
