The Wisła Film Festival - its name derived from the Vistula River, in Polish - is the largest review of Polish films in Russia. The 6th edition kicks off on the 18th of April with a screening of Patryk Vega's Second World War spy thriller Hans Kloss, More Than Death at Stake from 2012, at the Chudożestwiennyj Cinema. Adapted from a famous Polish TV series from the 1960s, the action takes place in Poland during the war and in Spain in 1975. After discovering he looks exactly like a captured Nazi intelligence officer, double agent Hans Kloss embarks on an undercover mission to recover a treasure stolen by the Germans. His actions cause panic and destruction, and he puts his life at stake trying to save the life of Elza and avoid the suspicious SS officer Hermann Brunner.
Władysław Pasikowski’s Aftermath , another film about dark days in Polish history, tells the story of two brothers and takes up the topic of Jews murdered by Poles during the Second World War. In a village in the Masurian Lake district, a farmer whose wife and kids have left for the U.S. is shunned by neighbors for reconstructing a Jewish cemetery in his fields. When his brother arrives from the States, they attempt to understand the conflict's causes, then discover aspects of their own family history. According to Bartosz Staszczyszyn, writing for Culture.pl, the director of Aftermath found the right balance in dealing with the topic: "between an attractive form and exactness in relating historical facts". The film, however, is not a reconstruction of specific events, it's a story about "contemporary Poland and the current national consciousness".
Marcin Krzyształowicz’s Manhunt, considered by Polish critics the best Polish movie of recent years, is a thrilling war drama with murky, double-faced characters whose actions do not fit the roles they play in the ongoing war. In a mysterious forest, several stories unfold: Corporal Wydra has a mission to assassinate an informer, Kondolwiecz, who turns out to be an old friend - and Corporal Wydra has dormant feeling for Kondolewicz's wife. A morality play set in wartimes realities, it’s a story about the partisan executioner faced with a difficult moral choice.
The forest becomes a deadly trap, inhabited by animal-like phantoms suspended between life and death. As the wind blows and the branches crack, the sound of the approaching German manhunt can be heard.
Agnieszka Holland’s German-Polish-Canadian co-production based on a true story - and Poland’s 2012 Oscar candidate - In Darkness deals with subject matter that has been tackled by directors including Spielberg, Polański, Claude Lanzmann and Holland herself. In Darkness, however, takes a new approach to the Holocaust. One difference is the film's defiance of black-and-white boundaries between good and evil. This begins with the lead character, Leopold Socha, whose actions in saving a group of Jews are surprising given his self-professed anti-Semitic views and, of course, his pilfering ways. An existential tale of the volatility of the human spirit, the film is a must-see and an award-winning, international festival regular.
The Wisła Polish Film Festival’s other sections include a retrospective of the films of Marek Koterski, a proponent of the "cinema of moral anxiety" and director of the famous series about Miauczyńskia, and a selection of short films from Studio Munk, a Panorama of Polish Cinema, and in partnership with the Łodzią po Wiśle / Along the Vistula Festival it presents a showcase of works by talented students and graduates of the National Film School in Łódź.
The mutual cultural histories of Poland and Russia span back many decades, and the Wisła Festival is a continuation of this link. Taking place in Moscow from the 18th till the 28th of April, the festival then travels to other Russian cities.
Main Competition lineup:
Agnieszka Holland - In Darkness
Waldemar Krzystek - 80 Million
Marcin Krzyształowicz - Manhunt
Władysław Pasikowski - Aftermath
Leszek Dawid - You Are God
Piotr Trzaskalski - My Father's Bike
Filip Marczewski - Shameless
Maciej Żak – Supermarket
Jan Jakub Kolski – To Kill a Beaver
Małgorzata Szumowska – In the Name of…
Małgorzata Szumowska – Elles
Marek Koterski – Man, Chicks Are Just Different
For more information see: Wisła Polish Film Festival in Russia
Sources: article by DB for culture.pl, Wisła Polish Film festival, http://onlinemovietheatre.biz/2013/03/18/hans-kloss-more-than-death-at-the-stake-2012/, http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Hans-Kloss-More-Than-Death-at-Stake/211068/
Editor: MJ, 12.04.2013