Stills from Paweł Chochlew's "1939 The Secret of Westerplatte" / Andrzej Wajda's "Wałęsa" / Paweł Pawlikowski's "Sister of Mercy", photo: Ula Marchwiak / Akson Studio / Paweł Dyllus / Paweł Terlikowski.
Andrzej Wajda – Wałęsa
Robert Więckiewicz (Lech Wałęsa), Photo: Marcin Makowski / MAKUFLY / Akson Studio
Probably Poland’s most anticiapted film in 2013, Wajda’s Wałęsa captures the personal evolution of the legendary labor champion and political force. From electrician to charismatic leader, co-founder of Solidarity and Nobel Prize laureate, the film portrays the strengths and weaknesses of the Solidarity leader. The script for Wałęsa was written by part-time New Yorker Janusz Głowacki, providing rich context for Polish idiosyncrasies and intricacies that will attract particular appreciation among international audiences. Polish reviewers await with very high expectations, and Wałęsa is set for distribution in October 2013.
Paweł Pawlikowski - Sister of Mercy
Pawel Pawlikowski, photo: Paweł Terlikowski / Forum
Filming for the first time in his native language, Pawlikowski’s upcoming release is the story of a young nun who discovers she was born a Jew then converted to Catholicism to save her from the Holocaust. "I care about universal affairs, about the timeless conflict", the director told Janusz Wróblewski from Polityka magazine. "I am interested in different types of faiths, discovering erotic life, links with family, identity issues. That’s what Sister of Mercy is about. And in that sense it could take place anywhere else in Europe." The film is scheduled for release in autumn 2013.
Krzysztof Krauze, Joanna Kos-Krauze - Papusza
Still from Papusza. photo: Krzysztof Ptak and Wojciech Staroń / NEXT FILM
"If I had never learned to read, like an idiot, I would maybe be happy", said the Polish-Romany poet and singer Bronisława Wajs-Papusza, considered among the most interesting, least-known figures of 20th-century Polish culture. "Papusza’s entire heritage is a collection of no more than 40 poems and a couple of texts describing her gypsy lifestyle", the director Krauze said in an interview for Polityka magazine. "In our film the feminist perspective will also be important. We tell the story of the woman, the poet, the gypsy. And about the great artist." The black and white film's cinematography is by Krzysztof Ptak and Wojciech Staroń.
Read more about Papusza
Wojciech Smarzowski - Angel
Robert Więckiewicz on the set of Wojciech Smarzowski's "Angel", photo. Jacek Drygała / Kraków Festival Office
A tale of destructive habit, of attempts to escape from it, and of love, which saves the day. Angel is a cinematic adaptation of Jerzy Pilch’s novel The Mighty Angel, which received the prestigious NIKE award. Juruś, the protagonist, is a writer and chronic alcoholic living a never-ending cycle of detox, rehab, happy departures from institutions - and returns to his empty apartment, abandoned by both his wives. Eventually he ends up in his local bar, The Mighty Angel. Smarzowski’s film, still in the making, is expected for 2013.
Juliusz Machulski - EmbaSSy
Still from Embassy, dir. Juliusz Machulski, photo: NEXT FILM
A war comedy set in present-day Warsaw, plotted around a home which happens to be the former German Embassy. A couple enters their building elevator one day and find themselves transported to 1939 Warsaw, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. "I’ve always wanted to make a contemporary film about Warsaw which at the same time has a dialogue with history," director Machulski told the Polish Press Agency. The cast includes Robert Wieckiewicz, known for his lead role in Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-nominated In Darkness, as Hitler, and the controversial death-metal star Nergal playing the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Paweł Chochlewa – 1939 The Secret of Westerplatte
Still from the movie, dir. Paweł Chochlew., photo: Dariusz Krysiak
Set during the opening days of the Second World War, Chochlewa's film depicts the German assault on Poland that began on the 1st of September 1939, when the visiting battleship Schleswig-Holstein fired the war's first shots, shelling the Polish garrison at Westerplatte in the harbor of Danzig (now Gdansk). After seven days of unyielding defense, short of supplies and lacking outside help, the Polish force surrendered. Chochlewa's film revolves around the conflict between two great individuals: Major Sucharski, the Polish commander, who opposed prolonging a battle that was doomed from the outset, and his deputy, Captain Dąbrowski, who wanted to fight until the end. Based in part on actual events, 1939 The Secret of Westerplatte illustrates human choices in the face of deadly threats, and the eternal conflict between rationalism and hope. The script is partly based on actual events, and the film comes to Polish cinemas on the 15th of February.
Bodo Kox - Girl from the Closet
Still from Girl from the Closer, photo: Anna Rzepka / Kino Świat
The plot follows the stories of three alienated people. Jacek, a web master, is forced to work from home because he looks after his brother Tomek, afflicted with Savant syndrome. One day, Jacek asks their next-door neighbor Magda to take care of Tomek. Their everyday day life changes completely. Bodo Kox is among the interesting, original representatives of Polish independent cinema. Girl from the Closet, his professional debut, is scheduled for release in winter 2013.
Maciej Pieprzyca – Life feels Good
Dorota Kolak and Dawid Ogrodnik in Life Feels Good by Maciej Pieprzyca, photo: Paweł Dyllus / Studio Filmowe Tramway
The young director's latest film is inspired by several true stories. Life feels Good traces the evolution of a boy, considered retarded through his childhood by others, who is in fact in full possession of his intellectual capablities. Showing life as both tragic and comic, Maciej Pieprzyca's second feature - far from sad or depressing - is "above all a pretext to ask existential questions about life, death, faith, love, normality and understanding".
Sources: news.pl, Film New Europe, Tofifest, PISF, press materials
Editor: Marta Jazowska