1h50
With Zbigniew Cybulski, Wacław Zastrzeżyński, Ewa Krzyżewska, Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumił Kobiela, Stanisław Milski, Artur Młodnicki, Barbara Krafftówna, Ignacy Machowski, Halina Kwiatkowska, Zbigniew Skowroński
As WWII and the German occupation ends, the Polish resistance and the Russian forces turn on each other in an attempt to take over leadership in Communist Poland.
With Zbigniew Cybulski, Wacław Zastrzeżyński, Ewa Krzyżewska, Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumił Kobiela, Stanisław Milski, Artur Młodnicki, Barbara Krafftówna, Ignacy Machowski, Halina Kwiatkowska, Zbigniew Skowroński
Recommended by Martin Scorsese, Ken Loach, John Woo, Christian Petzold, Aki Kaurismäki
1h39
With Daniel Olbrychski, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Emilia Krakowska, Danuta Wodynska
Takes place in a prewar Poland. A tubercular young man comes to stay with his brother on a farm. He is in love with life and constantly plays 1930's music on a piano. He gets involved with his brother's problems and also becomes the lover of a simpleminded farm girl. The brother's dead wife may have had an affair with the hired man who is to marry the farm girl. His daughter will not confirm his suspicions. But the brother's death leads to his acceptance of the past, forgiving his wife's memory and making up with his little daughter.
With Daniel Olbrychski, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Emilia Krakowska, Danuta Wodynska
Recommended by Guillaume Nicloux
1h41
With John Gielgud, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, Jan Ciecierski, Maria Seweryn
A violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the U.S., ties up with the world-renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out, he was once in love with the violinist's mother. The conductor, a slightly unstable hypochondriac, returns to Poland to lead the provincial orchestra. He also tries to revive an old love affair using the violinist as a surrogate of her mother. Her husband is resentful of the conductor for personal and professional reasons.
With John Gielgud, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, Jan Ciecierski, Maria Seweryn
Recommended by Corneliu Porumboiu
2h16
With Jacques Villeret, Anne Alvaro, Roland Blanche, Krzysztof Globisz, Wojciech Pszoniak, Patrice Chéreau, Emmanuelle Debever, Gérard Depardieu
In 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.
With Jacques Villeret, Anne Alvaro, Roland Blanche, Krzysztof Globisz, Wojciech Pszoniak, Patrice Chéreau, Emmanuelle Debever, Gérard Depardieu
Recommended by Stanley Kubrick, Agnieszka Holland
2h45
With Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Jacek Lomnicki, Michal Tarkowski, Piotr Cieslak
In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer, Birkut, who was briefly a proletariat hero, at how that heroism was created, and what became of him. She gets hold of outtakes and censored footage and interviews the man's friends, ex-wife, and the filmmaker who made him a hero. A portrait of Birkut emerges: he believed in the workers' revolution, in building housing for all, and his very virtues were his undoing. Her hard-driving style and the content of the film unnerve her supervisor, who kills the project with the excuse she's over budget. Is there any way she can push the film to completion?
With Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Jacek Lomnicki, Michal Tarkowski, Piotr Cieslak
Recommended by Robert Guédiguian, Agnieszka Holland
1h58
With Daniel Olbrychski, Christine Pascal, Anna Seniuk, Maja Komorowska, Stanislawa Celinska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz
Set in the late '20s. A thirtyish young man, who heads a small factory, faints at the funeral of a close friend. He decides to go home to his aunt and uncle for a while, but gets involved with a family of five women who had been in love with him at one time though he had apparently loved only one, who, unknown to him, has died since his departure. The women are mainly disillusioned with life or estranged from husbands while the youngest has a crush on him.
With Daniel Olbrychski, Christine Pascal, Anna Seniuk, Maja Komorowska, Stanislawa Celinska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz
Recommended by Jutta Brückner, Agnieszka Holland
2h59
With Daniel Olbrychski, Andrzej Seweryn, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anna Nehrebecka, Tadeusz Bialoszczynski
At the turn of the century, Lodz, Poland was a quick-paced manufacturing center for textiles, replete with cutthroat industrialists and unsafe working conditions. Three young friends, a Pole, a Jew and a German, pool their money together to build a factory. The movie follows their ruthless pursuit of fortune.
With Daniel Olbrychski, Andrzej Seweryn, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anna Nehrebecka, Tadeusz Bialoszczynski
Recommended by Agnieszka Holland
2h11
With Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Ewa Dalkowska, Emilia Krakowska
A famous Polish journalist presents a problem for the powers-that-be when he displays his full political skill and knowledge on a television show featuring questions and answers on a world conference by a panel of journalists. His enemies take away his privileges when he is away. The shock of being "unwanted" parallels a deeper disappointment in his private life: his wife has an affair with a jealous young rival, and after 15 years of marriage and two daughters wants a divorce. She offers no explanations as he tries to untie these problems himself. All the moves he makes are the wrong ones. He takes on drinking heavily with students eager to attend his seminar after discovering the class has been canceled. The journalist, once suave and commanding is reduced to silence.
With Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Ewa Dalkowska, Emilia Krakowska
Recommended by Agnieszka Holland