Popolare A partire dal Poland

An outstanding artist talks about his painting. This moving confession leads from the emotions which moved a child years ago, to an artistic imperative realized several decades later. The extermination of Jewish Działoszyce has been preserved in memory and in art. The film is a reflection on the tragedy of a terrible time.

Joanna, brought up by her grandmother in the spirit of Orthodoxy, finished her studies in London and returned to a small town in Podlasie, the place of her birth. She knew she was doomed to an "intellectual desert" here, but she also felt she had a role to play. What role? She calls it a "search for truth". She researches the history of the borderland, her town and the people who once lived here, and these are often dramatic and controversial issues. That is why it is not easy for her. Attempts to get a job at the local school or community center ended in failure. She teaches young people, but she does it as a volunteer. She lives on the borderline between two worlds - the real one where she is still searching for her identity and clashes with the stuffy atmosphere of a small town and the unreal one which no longer exists - the Jews of Krynki whose memory she restores thanks to her voluntary work with the youth of Krynki.

She would like to return as a little bird in the next life, small enough to hide. Right now she still lives in a bird cage, at the mercy of the whims of a fate that transported her and her family from Myanmar to a refugee village in the Thai jungle. The rain drums ceaselessly on the roof. The torrential river in front of the house is as powerful as the suppressed feelings of a woman who gave birth to 12 children and lost some of them. She hasn’t chosen her husband; moreover, he sometimes flies away. Now she only hopes that her daughter will follow.

Working the boggy meadows at the river Biebrza are the titular last mowers, passing on the tradition of mowing the grass by hand to a sparse handful of successors. Here, long contemplative shots of unique wildlife make the human order merge with the order of nature.

The film closely follows the lives of patients in a hospice. We witness their everyday existence – their tears, pain and suffering, but also some joyful moments. For, against all expectations, a hospice is not only a place where one comes to die.

What happens behind the closed doors of surgical wards, treatment rooms and other spaces where specialist medical consultations take place? Things you don't see but they can save people's lives.

Ludwik Flaszen, co-founder of the Laboratory Theatre, comes to Wrocław. He follows in the footsteps of Jerzy Grotowski and talks about his friendship and cooperation with this outstanding reformer of 20th century theatre. Ludwik Flaszen's stories are accompanied in the film by excerpts from recordings of performances, TV programmes and documentaries or hitherto unpublished archival photos, as well as by an extensively illustrated historical context.

The film combines the personal, political, and historical, tracing the horror of a pogrom committed against the Jewish residents of the Polish city of Kielce on the 4th of July 1946. This atrocity was committed by their neighbors, fellow Poles of Kielce. This film seeks to gain some perspective on the Kielce Pogrom, an event that has been all but scrubbed from the history of Poland. The filmmaker searches for answers, even reflecting on his own family's complicity (and perhaps more) in the event. Given the current political climate in 21st century Poland, this film is fiercely relevant today, as we must confront and combat the legacies of anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world.

The film tells the story of deaf soldiers fighting in the Warsaw Uprising. Few people know that a platoon of deaf soldiers fought in the Uprising and suffered no casualties. It is a unique documentary, just as unique as the everyday situation of its protagonists and the special event in which they participated. The film lifts the veil of mystery that surrounds, for most of us, functioning in a world of absolute silence, where not even the slightest murmur can be heard.

The film is in a way the continuation of the previous one entitled „A Lesson of Belarusian”, which showed a protest of young people against the recent fake presidential elections in Belarus. The protest got brutally pacified by militia forces. Despite that, young Belarusians did not give in; they keep fighting the regime. This time they use slightly different methods. Their weapons are music, humour and an ironic distance to the absurd reality. Each form of regime has two sides: the dangerous one and the ridiculous one. “Music Partisans” describes the latter.

The documentary explores the Labor Day at the Exhibition Industry in Lodz in 1912.

he political transformation in the areas which used to be state-owned farms in the north of the country brought unemployment and a lack of prospects. The plight of these areas has caused their residents to lose control of their lives and become marooned. They look indifferently at the crowds of tourists who come to visit the mementos of the pre-war Prussian magnates of these lands. The most popular is the pyramid-shaped tomb built by the Farenheit family. An opportunity missed by parents was noticed by children. Wanting to improve the lot of their families, they decided to take advantage of the historical legacy and began hiring themselves out as tourist guides. Thanks to this work, they not only support family budgets and gain funds for their own pleasures, but also learn history and foreign languages.

A memorizing documentary, is inspired by the documentary films - the specific genera that is commonly used to mythologize the heroes of mass culture in order to emphesize their celebrity status.

A tribute to a Polish jazz drummer, Jacek Olter (1971-2001). Olter played in many bands connected to so called 'yass' scene and was considered one of the best young talents in the genre. Though presently not as blossoming as in previous decade, Yass (a term coined in the 1980s) was a musical amalgam of various styles, with strong jazz/improv roots and influenced by punk rock, folk, electronica.

A documentary about the re-enactment of the Stanford Prison Experiment - a famous psychological experiment studying human behaviour in prison conditions, conducted in 1971 by Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in California. In early 2005 the artistic radical Artur Zmijewski took the risk of reconstructing Professor Zimbardo's experiment in Warsaw. He tried to recreate precisely the architecture of the simulated prison and its rules. Seven "prisoners" and nine "guards" were selected in a procedure aimed at eliminating mentally unstable candidates. They were offered $40 a day for their role in the experiment. The rooms were equipped with one-way mirrors, and the course of the experiment was filmed by five man-operated cameras and several night vision-enabled industrial TV cameras. In the process, Zmijewski pierces through societal masks and travels to the heart of mankind, where it is still dark.

The extended television version of the film 83 Zlota Street, offering an expanded look at the various colourful characters introduced there.

Artur Zmijewski, a Polish artist born in 1966, explores social norms through films and photographs by creating unusual situations and documenting participants’ reactions. His work often addresses long-term trauma from historical and sociopolitical events, focusing on marginalized groups and popular beliefs. In “Sculpture Plein-air. Swiecie 2009,” Zmijewski organized workshops where Polish artists collaborated with steel workers in Swiecie to create public sculptures, inspired by 1960s collaborations in Elblag. This project questions the possibility of overcoming current social and political divides.

Wilderness in the Bieszczady mountains, with the nearest shop eight kilometers away. These are the conditions in which Zbyszek who burns charcoal decided to live. He treats hard work as a kind of atonement for his past deeds. Three tar makers who worked with him, including his son, are already dead. The man sees a link between their deaths and his deeds. His next companion is black Gustaw whose dream is to study medicine. Will he turn out to be the title fourth man?

An analysis of the space of the Stadium of the Decade. Formerly the site of the most important sporting events and state celebrations, since 1989 it has become one of the largest markets. The director, presenting one day in the life of the Fair Europe, shows his multi-level construction and the hierarchy of sellers, often coinciding with the topographic layout of the stadium and national affiliation - mainly Polish or Vietnamese, though there are also other visitors from outside the eastern border. The film creates a mosaic of stories told by traffickers, policemen and local criminals. Their accounts show the realities of stadium life - the day of work begins at night, and besides trade, it is filled with numerous thefts, frauds and ethnic tensions. The film also uses archival material from the Documentary and Feature Film Studios, showing the life of the stadium in PRL.