Every year since 1997, the Rochester Polish Film Festival has
offered local audiences a collection of movie screenings, spotlighting some of
the best that contemporary Polish cinema has to offer. Sponsored by the
University of Rochester’s Skalny Center for Polish
and Central European Studies, this year’s festival will begin on Tuesday,
November 5, and continue through Sunday, November 10. With eight features being
screened, the lineup incorporates an eclectic mix of genres and subjects.
The event
starts off with a special screening of the 1917 silent film “The Polish Dancer (Bestia)” on
Tuesday, November 5, at 7 p.m. at the George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre
(900 East Avenue). A tragic love triangle starring Pola Negri, the film will be presented with both pre-recorded
music and accompaniment by renowned composer Wลodek Pawlik. The Grammy Award-winning musician will
participate in a Q&A and discuss the process of composing for silent films.
Tickets to the opening night film can be purchased at the Dryden Theatre before
the screening. General admission is $8, $6 for members, and $4 for students.
All
subsequent films will screen at the Little Theatre (240 East Avenue). Tickets
can be purchased at the Little box office during regular theater hours and
prior to each screening. Regular admission is $10 and $7 for students.
What follows
is a peek at a few of this year’s selections, all of which will be screened in
Polish with English subtitles.
Director
Kinga Dฤbska’s empathetic “Playing Hard (Zabawa Zabawa)” weaves together the stories of three women struggling with alcoholism. Aided by
an ensemble of strong performances, Dฤbska
refrains from judging her characters too harshly, telling a story of addiction
that’s as hopeful as it is painful. (Wednesday,
November 6, 7 p.m.)
Based in
part on a true story, “Corpus Christi (Boลผe Ciaลo)” follows Daniel (a magnetic
Bartosz Bielenia),> a
violent offender incarcerated in a youth detention center. While behind bars
the young man has found a devout, deeply sincere faith and dreams of becoming a
priest. Though his criminal record bars him from entering the seminary, when
Daniel finds himself in a remote small town upon his release, he impulsively
convinces the locals that he’s an ordained preacher in from Warsaw. Given a
post at the nearby parish, Daniel’s secret past puts him in a unique position
to truly speak from experience as he offers guidance to others who’ve lost
their way. In so doing, he gives comfort to a town still reeling from tragedy,
as the film raises some compelling questions around religion, godliness, and
who is truly worthy of redemption. (Thursday,
November 7, 7 p.m.)
“A Coach’s Daughter (Cรณrka Trenera)” follows Maciej (Jacek Braciak), a tennis coach travelling with his headstrong
17-year-old daughter Wiktoria (Karolina Bruchnicka) around Poland’s provincial tennis courts. When
they’re joined by a handsome young player named Igor (Bartlomiej
Kowalski), Wiktoria struggles to decide what she
really wants in life. She and Maciej butt heads for
the first time in their lives, resulting in a touching exploration of the bonds
between father and daughter. (Saturday,
November 9, 3 p.m.)
Legendary
Polish actor KrystynaJanda
(in a performance that won the World Cinema Special Jury Award for Acting at
this year’s Sundance Film Festival) stars in the politically-charged drama “Dolce Fine Giornata (Sลodki Koniec Dnia).” Following a deadly terrorist attack in Rome, a Nobel Prize winning poet (Janda) uses an award acceptance as a platform to speak out
against Europe’s eroding democracy — but when her comments inspire a backlash
from the public, she’s unprepared for the public and personal havoc that
ensues. Jacek Borcuch’s complex and timely drama
wades into the immigration and terrorism debates as it examines the roles of
art and empathy in our modern age. (Saturday,
November 9, 7 p.m.)
A love triangle
leads to a tragedy that shakes a Silesian mining town in “The Iron Bridge (ลปelazny Most).” Kacper (Bartลomiej Topa) is having an affair with Magda (Julia Kijowska), the wife of his best friend Oskar (ลukasz Simlat).
Kacper just so happens to be Oskar’s foreman, which
gives him a chance to send his friend off to work so he can enjoy some extra
time with the man’s wife. But when a powerful explosion traps Oskar underground
in the mine, the community rallies together for a desperate search and rescue
mission. A potentially melodramatic plot is explored with sensitivity and
nuance by writer-director Monika Jordan-Mลodzianowska,
as the distraught couple find themselves torn between their love for one
another and a guilt they can’t escape. (Sunday,
November 10, 3 p.m.)
Wลadysลaw Pasikowski
directs the exciting and entertaining WWII spy thriller, “The Messenger (Kurier),” chronicling
the real-life story of Jan Nowak-Jezioraลski, an
operative who became known as “The Messenger from Warsaw.” the film follows as
Nowak-Jezioraลski, Serving as an emissary of the
Polish government in exile in London, is tasked with delivering a crucial
message to the resistance. Pasikowski gives the story
a rough and gritty texture, which helps overcome a bit of thinness in its
character development. (Sunday, November 10, 7
p.m.)
This article appears in Oct 30 โ Nov 5, 2019.
