Still from Jacek Borcuch's "All That I Love"
Teenage rebellion in the time of martial law, the story of a Taliban fighter taken prisoner by Americans for killing three US soldiers and a woman entangled in a plot to spy on a famous writer through her lover the undercover agent, award winning Polish films from 2008-2011 travel around Brasil as part of a review of Polish cinema
When Janek, who lives in the seaside city of Gdańsk and plays in a punk rock band reaches the age of 18 martial law is imposed in communist Poland. With the Solidarity movement growing stronger, a series of strikes washes over Poland and the political situation gets increasingly heated. Trying to get gigs for his band, visiting his dying grandmother and experiencing his first sexual encounter with his sexy older neighbour, the boy’s life remains tainted by the political unheavals. Lending, according to Variety reviewer Dennis Harvey "a few unfamiliar wrinkles to some familiar coming-of-age tropes", Jacek Borcuch’s All That I Love "combines music, romance, politics and family drama" with warmth and vigor.
Jerzy Skolimowski’s award winning Essential Killing starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner shows Taliban fighter Mohammed fighting for survival in the sub-zero forests of Poland. After having been taken prisoner for killing three US soldiers and tortured, he is taken on a rendition flight through Central Europe. Mohammed escapes and his captors start to chase him, thus making Essential Killing according to The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw "a manhunt thriller that exceeds the margins of realism, and shimmers with the eerie force of a nightmare or hallucination". "Intriguing and disturbing, made with tremendous confidence and conviction" he continues Skolimowski’s film, although providing a minimum of political context alludes to Central’s Europe role in providing political and allegedly logistical support to America in war on Iraq.
A touching depiction of growing up and angst caused by a looming reality, Jan Jakub Kolski’s Venice is a journey into the depths of imagination undertaken by eleven year old Marek. Forced to move to the countryside with his mother while his father is sent to the frontline in 1939 and unable to visit the city of his dreams, he turns the basement of the family home into Venice. Venice is a passionate story of the power and wonders of human imagination that Jan Jakub Kolski comments on, "Only a viewer can tell you a truth about your film, so there is no sense in advising him what your story is about, what is important in it and what is not... So what is my 'Venice' about? It is about love awakened by... a lack of love. About growing up. About myself."
Screenings also include Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross, Waldemar Krzystek’s The Little Moscow, Paweł Borowski’s Zero and Jan Kidawa-Błoński’s Little Rose. The traveling Festival of Polish Films will stop in 7 Brasilian cities and lasts until March 2013.
Screenings:
• Curitiba (11-16 September 2012, Cinemateca)
• Rio de Janeiro (16-21 October 2012, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil)
• São Paulo (24-28 October 2012, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil)
• Brasília (6-11 November 2012, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil)
• Manaus (4-8 November 2012)
• Salvador (November 2012, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil)
• Belo Horizonte (3-10 December 2012, Cine Humberto Mauro)
The Festival of Polish Cinema is organised by the Polish Film Institute, the Polish Embassy in Brasil, the PR Agency MAÑANA and local partners.
Sources: culture.pl, Manana, Variety review, The Guardian review, TimeOut London review
Editor: Marta Jazowska