Kinoteka Film Festival goes online for 2021
David Farnor | On 23, Apr 2021
The Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is returning this spring and will once again play out online.
The festival has teamed up with some of the country’s leading cultural institutions (BFI, ICA, POSK Cinema, Riverside Studios, Theatre Times, Second Run and Channel 4’s Walter Presents to deliver a programme that celebrates Polish directing and acting in all its diversity – in film, theatre and television.
That means the latest in contemporary Polish film, with two of the past year’s most idiosyncratic releases bookending the festival. And, as Polish television grows from strength-to-strength, two recent breakout productions from Poland, never before broadcast in the UK. A 20th-century Undiscovered Masters strand spotlights five lesser-seen films from some of Poland’s most iconic directors, while a 21st-century Modern Polish Cinema strand pulls together the best in the past 20 years of Polish documentary and fiction. And who could forget that 2021 marks 80 years since the birth of the great Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieślowski? To commemorate the life and legacy of the influential director, the festival has curated a thought-provoking selection of his documentary and television work.
Running from 6th May to 4th June, the festival will stream titles on BFI Player, ICA’s streaming platform and Second Run On Demand.
Here’s the line-up:
Kill It and Leave This Town
06 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Initially conceived as a short, this debut feature by acclaimed self taught animator Mariusz Wilczyński was 15 years in development. Emerging onto the festival circuit last year it won major prizes at the Viennale, Ottawa and Annecy.
Saviour SquareThe Children of Leningradsky
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Made on a shoestring budget over a period of two years, this Oscar nominated documentary short was born out of Hanna Polak’s wish to help the children she found fighting for survival on the streets and railway stations of Moscow.
Rose
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Now memorable to UK audiences as Aunt Wanda in Pawlikowski’s Ida (also on BFI Player) Agata Kulesza was already well known in Poland when she played this title role, for which she won the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress.
Reverse
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Remarkable as a feature film debut Borys Lankosz ’black comedy took the festival circuit by storm with its subversive style and provocative politics which resonated across contemporary as well as historical perspectives.
On the Silver Globe
07 MAY, SECOND RUN ON DEMAND
With Earth’s civilisation in decay, a team of astronauts are sent to populate a new planet. The last original survivor Jerzy (Jerzy Trela) is treated by the emergent feudal society as a demi-god, and sends a video diary back to Earth.
Man on the Tracks
07 MAY, SECOND RUN ON DEMAND
In 1950, a night-time passenger train hits and kills Orzechowski (Kazimierz Opaliński), a train engineer who happened to be on the tracks. An inquiry follows, but nothing is quite as clear as the committee would hope…
Hi Tereska!
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Apparently the script for this multi-award winning film was initially rejected. In the end the script, the film, its director and actor Zbigniew Zamachowski won Polish Oscars. Shot in black and white it focuses on 15 year-old Tereska (Aleksandra Gietner), growing up in a bleak apartment block where arguments are commonplace, her father drinks and her mother seeks solace in the Church.
Fugue
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s feature debut The Lure (2015) broke lots of conventions and produced one of the most distinctive contributions to Polish cinema in years. Lead actress Gabriela Muskała also write the script for this second feature, an unsettling psychological drama tha begins as a woman emerges onto a busy railway platform, unaware of who she is.
Day of the Wacko
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Often quoted as a favourite Polish comedy Day of the Wacko is a non-stop tirade about the inequalities and indignities of life as seen through the eyes of Adaś Miauczyński.
All These Sleepless Nights
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Pulsing with a raw energy (CARIBOU, Can’t Do Without You, throbbing in the background) All These Sleepless Nights garnered Michal Marczak the Best Director award for documentary at Sundance 2016 and success on the international festival circuit.
A Lonely Woman
07 MAY, SECOND RUN ON DEMAND
Postal worker Irena (Maria Chwalibóg) lives with her 8-year-old son Boguś (Paweł Witczak) in a run-down apartment on the outskirts of Wrocław. Overworked and neglected by an uncaring society, she is ground down by the adversity.
33 Scenes from Life
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Set in Cologne and featuring a pan European cast (including Poland’s Maciej Stuhr) 33 Scenes… confirmed Małgorzata Szumowska as talent to watch on the international festival scene.
The Temptation
07 MAY, SECOND RUN ON DEMAND
In post-war Poland, nun Anna (Magdalena Cielecka) is brought to a location where she is to look after a political prisoner (Olgierd Lukaszewicz). She quickly discovers that the prisoner is the very priest who was her first great love.
You Have NO Idea How Much I Love You
07 MAY, BFI PLAYER
Perhaps developing from his experience making Father and Son (2013) with his own father Paweł Łoziński turns to conversations between a mother and daughter.
Walkover
07 MAY, SECOND RUN ON DEMAND
After leaving the army, Andrzej Leszczy (Jerzy Skolimowski) drifts from town to town, taking part in boxing matches. When he arrives for his next match, he discovers that an old university friend, Teresa (Aleksandra Zawieruszanka), is working in the local factory. Under each others’ spell, the two of them must face up to the moral dilemmas confronting their personal and professional lives.
Kieslowski’s Documentaries
11 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
From the late 1960s until the beginning of the 1980s, Krzysztof Kieślowski made more than 20 documentary shorts, touching on the vocations and lives of everyday people across the communist Polish People’s Republic.
The Wall of Shadows
13 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
For the Sherpas, Kumbhakarna is a holy mountain, one that must not be climbed. Yet when a group of Polish and Russian alpinists ask Jomdoe and Ngada for their assistance in scaling the mountain, the couple break with taboo.
Dekalog, One
14 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
11-year-old Paweł (Wojciech Klata) is brought up by his technology-minded father Krzysztof (Henryk Baranowski) and religious aunt Irena (Maja Komorowska). After gifting Paweł a pair of ice skates, Krzysztof places all his faith in a computer programme that calculates whether his son can safely skate across a frozen lake.
Dekalog, Two
15 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
Andrzej (Olgierd Łukaszewicz) is in serious condition in hospital, while his wife Dorota (Krystyna Janda) is pregnant with her secret lover’s child. Hospital consultant (Aleksander Bardini) is thus forced to make a difficult choice that will define whether Dorota chooses to keep her illegitimate child or not.
Dekalog, Three
16 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
Janusz (Daniel Olbrychski) is dragged away from Christmas Eve festivities by his former lover Ewa (Maria Pakulnis), who asks for his help in finding her missing husband.
Dekalog, Four & Five
18 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
IV Student Anka (Adrianna Biedrzyńska) enjoys a good relationship with her father Michał (Janusz Gajos), with whom she lives. When Michał goes abroad on a business trip, Anka finds an envelope with the words “Open after my death.”…
Dekalog, Six & Seven
19 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
VI Young man Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) spends his evenings spying through a telescope on Magda (Grażyna Szapołowska), a woman in her thirties who lives in an apartment opposite his. He begins to fall in love with her. As Magda becomes aware of Tomek’s obsession, she tries to prove to him the true nature of love.
Raven
20 MAY, POSK CINEMA
Having spent most of his career in the Łódź police department, inspector Adam Kruk (Michał Żurawski) is sent across the country to Białystok, the town where he grew up. There, he is to investigate the kidnapping of a young boy.
Dekalog, Eight & Nine
20 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
VIII Elderly ethics professor Zofia (Maria Kościałkowska) unexpectedly meets Elżbieta (Teresa Marczewska), a Jew of Polish descent who lives in the US and has translated Zofia’s works.
Dekalog, Ten
21 MAY, ICA CINEMA 3
After attending the funeral of their estranged father, brothers Jerzy (Jerzy Stuhr) and Artur (Zbigniew Zamachowski) discover that they have inherited a valuable stamp collection from him.
Sweat
02 JUN, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS
Sylwia (Magdalena Koleśnik) is a fitness influencer, dedicated to relentlessly sharing the energetic workout routines that have made her a social media star. With the loyal support of fellow trainer Klaudiusz (Julian Świeżewski) and the tough love of her mother Basia (Aleksandra Konieczna), the young celebrity appears to be thriving. Yet her public persona belies an all-too-human fragility.
The King of Warsaw
03 JUN, POSK CINEMA
In 1937, the streets of Warsaw are ruled by gangsters. One gang, led by socialist Buddy Kaplica (Arkadiusz Jakubik), counts Jewish boxer Jakub Szapiro (Michał Żurawski) as its top enforcer. Yet with the spectre of fascism hanging over his city, Szapiro has his own plans to climb to the top of the criminal underworld. Based on Szczepan Twardoch’s novel of the same name, The King of Warsaw is at once a brutal story of the corrupting influence of power and a loving homage to the multicultural Poland of the past.