Still from Piotr Trzaskalski's "My Father's Bike", photo: ITI Cinema
With a collection of nearly 20 current features, Polish classics and Short films, the Polish Film Festival comes to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and presents stories of burdens passed on from one generation to another, unresolved issues that come back to haunt us, love affairs that overcome all adversities and apparently insignificant incidents that end up changing lives.
Emerging from the 13 features screened during the Festival, father-son relationships and unresolved affairs seem to be in the limelight. Piotr Trzaskalski’s 2012 My Father’s Bike, called "a wryly comic crowdpleaser from Poland" by Hollywood Reporter's Neil Young, sees three generations of men in an attempt to fix the strains on the family relationship. With the unexpected separation and subsequent heart attack of the grandfather, they figure out how their lives are interconnected. Neil Young goes on to write about the films "prickly humor and high-profile stars" in which he means the lead role of Polish jazz legend Michał Urbaniak. My Father's Bike, which comes to cinemas in Poland on November 13th, received a standing ovation in Melbourne and Sydney. The film's producers reports from Australia "The reception of the film was incredible. The cinema was full, there was a standing ovation, people had tears in their eyes".
The inalienable father-son link also appears to grab the attention of directors Bartek Konopka and Marek Lechki, whose movies Fear of Falling and Erratum respectively, hint to the need to settle old family accounts. Loosely basing his film on his own life experience, Bartek Konopka's protagonist, Tomek is a successful news anchor who has just started a family. It is only when he receives a message from a psychiatric hospital informing him of his father's illness that he is reminded of his need to face, forgive and accept his father. In Erratum on the other hand, the thirty something year old protagonist reevaluates his current life through the prism of the town from which he escaped many years earlier. He has the chance to do the simple things he hadn't done in years and must see his father again, with a twist of fate coming into the narrative, the film is a tale of redemption. Additionally, Rafael Lewandowski's The Mole is yet another motion picture showing the often destructive and toxic effect of the strong bond between father and son.
Among the six digitally remastered classics is Krzystof Zanussi's Constant Factor about a young and honest man who looks for a life of constant values but whose ideals get shattered by reality. The film and theatre director, together with actor and director Jerzy Stuhr are this year's special guests. A historical fresco of universal meaning revealing the mechanisms of power and the influence of religion on social life, one of Jerzy Kawalerowicz' most famous films, the 1965 Pharaoh pictures the power struggle between Ramses XIII and Herhor the priest.While Andrzej Wajda's 1974 The Promised Land depicts "the raw, real, uncivilised reality of capitalism" as commentators wrote, Eugen Illes' silent film Mania. The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker from 1918, starring internationally renowned Polish silent movie star Pola Negri, is a unique film relic which stood the test of time.
The Polish Film Festival Melbourne - Sydney takes place for the first time in 2012.
Screenings:
Sydney - screenings take place in the Ritz Cinema in Randwick between October 19th and 28th
Melbourne - screenings take place in the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick between October 11th and 21st
Canberra - screenings of 5 films take place in the Arc Cinema in Acton between October 18th and 20th
Film programme:
Current feature films:
Wojciech Smarzowski - Rose
Piotr Trzaskalski - My Father's Bike
Marek Lechki - Erratum
Piotr Mularuk - Yuma
Barbara Sass - In the Name of the Devil
Jerzy Domaradzki - The Fifth Season of the Year
Bartek Konopka - Fear of Falling
Leszek Dawid - My Name is Ki
Katarzyna Roslaniec - Mall Girls
Mitja Okorn - Letters to St.Nicholas
Rafael Lewandowski - The Mole
Tomasz Wasilewski - In A Bedroom
Greg Zglinski - Courage
Polish classics:
Eugen Illés - Mania. The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker
Krzystof Zanussi - The Constant Factor
Juliusz Machulski - Sexmission
Jerzy Kawalerowicz - Pharaoh
Andrzej Wajda - The Promised Land
Wojciech Jerzy Has - The Hourglass Sanatorium
Short films:
Aleksander Dembski - Basia from Podlachie
Marcin Bortkiewicz - Drawn from Memory
Katarzyna Jungowska - Look at Me
Julia Kolberger - I Won't be Here Tomorrow
Rafał Skalski - Play With Me
Sources: Polish Film Festival Australia, Hollywood Reporter
Thumbnail credit: Still from Eugen Illes' Mania
Editor: Marta Jazowska