Films and events

Can anyone be a movie hero? Can the world be locked in one film frame? Director Paweł Łoziński is watching people from his balcony as they are passing by: sad, thoughtful, glued to their phones, young and old.

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival this film breaks new ground and confronts perhaps the most controversial social subject of our time. Staring Malgorzata Krzysztofik-Hajewska and Joanna Kulig (Cold War), Woman Of… is a sensitive and intelligent story of gender identity in a cruel world that cannot accept it and the personal love that ultimately does. Another remarkable first for Polish cinema.

Winner of the Best Film (Small Budget) at the Gdyna Film Festival the film stars Jakub Gierszal (Doppelgänger), as a young man who journeys to an  island that is forbiddingly cruel. However, the exquisite cinematography reveals a different world, a hidden layer of beauty swirling all about him, in which he may finally fit and find peace.

The opening film at the Gdynia Film Festival, directed by Kinga Dębska with and Paulina Pytlak (Best New Actress) and Kinga Preiss (Best Supporting Actress), this is the story of two young women, one a ballerina and the other a child with a debilitating disease, struggling with their bodies’ limits but ultimately triumphing. The audience gave it a standing ovation.

A typical, young married couple spend all their time together arguing until one morning when they wake up each one in the other’s body. Now the wife must enter the man’s world
and the husband must find out what it means to be a woman. In this day when so much is being said about gender, here is a new and very funny take on it. The only way to understand someone else’s point of view is to become them in body, if not in soul.

Whether or not you saw the first In-laws, in which a couple’s in-laws join forces to prevent them from marrying, you will laugh and enjoy this second installment as Weronika and Lukasz give it another try. With Maya Ostaszewska, Izabela Kuna, Adam Woronowicz, Eryk Kulm Jr, and a full cast of popular Polish stars.

Winner of the Best Film award at the Gdynia Film Festival, Kos, set in 1794, tells the story of General Tadeusz “Kos” Kosciuszko’s return to Poland from his support of George Washington and the American Revolution, with a plan to ignite an uprising against the Russians. He is being pursued by the vicious Russian cavalry captain, Dunin, who intends to stop him at any cost.

Winner of multiple awards at the Gdynia Film Festival, including best director, best supporting actor, and best cinematography, this is a riveting psychological thriller, set in the late 1970s when spies from the Polish People’s Republic were stealing identities in the West. More John le Carré than James Bond, the characters’ actions ultimately reveal much more than we expect.