Annual Polish Film Festival in London
Kinoteka, the 7th Polish Film Festival, will be held in London 12 March-8 April during which films will be presented in six splendid London Institutions: the Barbican, BFI Southbank, Cargo, Prince Charles Cinema, Riverside Studios, and Tate Modern.
The festival encompasses the best in Polish cinema, music and art. Screenings of the latest features, documentaries and short films will be accompanied by exhibitions, meetings with filmmakers and musical events.
The festival will open with the screening of the drama 33 Scenes form Life (33 sceny z życia) by Małgorzata Szumowska in Riverside Studios. On 18 March in BFI Southbank, Jerzy Skolimowski will be a special guest at a screening of his latest film Four Nights with Anna (Cztery noce z Anną). From March 21-22 a retrospective of films by Skolimowski will be held.
From 3-5 April viewers will have an opportunity to see a cycle of important feature films and documentaries credited to the “Polish New Wave”. Andrzej Żuławski is planning to present his legendary epic science-fiction novel On the Silver Globe (Na Srebrnym Globie), which by a near-miracle avoided destruction by the Polish communist authorities. The author will also explain why in his opinion the phenomenon of the “Polish New Wave” never became more widely known (4 April, Tate Modern).
Documentary films by multiple prize-winner Marcin Koszałka will be shown at Riverside Studios on 14 March. Three previous documentaries, and his latest film Till it Hurts (Do bólu), which is a part of a series A Decalogue after the Decalogue (Dekalog … po Dekalogu), and a film Drowsiness (Senność) by Magdalena Piekorz with cinematography by Marcin Koszałka (14 March, Riverside Studios).
The latest Polish productions are going to be presented at the festival, including The Offsiders (Boisko bezdomnych) by Kasia Adamik (14 March, Riverside Studios), Tricks (Sztuczki) by Andrzej Jakimowski (15 March, Riverside Studios), and The Perfect Guy for My Girlfriend (Idealny chłopak dla mojej dziewczyny) by Tomasz Konecki and Andrzej Saramonowicz.
Several events devoted to Krzysztof Kieślowski will take place at Riverside Studios. One of them is an exhibition concerning a recent retrospective entitled “Kieślowski: Tracks and Memories” (“Kieślowski: ślady i wspomnienia”) presenting the director’s private souvenirs, photographs, and posters from the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź. This event is part of celebrations connected with the 20th anniversary of production of the famous film cycle The Decalogue (Dekalog). Two parts of this cycle and documentaries from the project A Decalogue after the Decalogue, in which contemporary artists were invited by TVP (Polish Television) to interpret Kieślowski’s work, will be shown at Riverside Studios (14 and 15 March).
In the evening, Polish short films will be shown in the Cargo club, after which viewers will have a chance to talk with the filmmakers (23 and 30 March).
During the closing gala on 8 April, leading British composer Michael Nyman will give a concert. Together with Polish accordion group Motion Trio, this outstanding artist will present a world premiere of a new version of MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) and his latest composition inspired by Polish cinematography, composed especially for the festival.
The Polish Culture Institute in London is the organiser of Kinoteka.
Further information may be found at: www.kinoteka.org.uk
Translated by Monika Miziniak | Edited by Patricia Koza