14th Edition of Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles was opened on October 8 and continues until October 17. Here is the program for Friday October 11 and Saturday October 12.
Laemmle’s NoHo7 Theatre, 5240 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601 (310-478-3836)
Friday, October 11, 2013 (in person: Sonia Bohosiewicz, Bartosz Gelner)
7:00 p.m. MANHUNT (Oblawa) by Marcin Krzysztalowicz (96 min.) Menhunt is a story of revenge of Corporal Wydra – specialist in execution of sentences – for treacherous assassination of his guerilla formation. It is also a story of psychological consequences of one betrayal which casts a shadow on lives of several people.
9:00 p.m. FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS (Plynace wiezowce) by Tomasz Wasilewski (93 min.) Kuba attends an art opening with his girlfriend of two years and bumps into Michal. The connection between these two young men is instantaneous and intoxicating, and despite opposition from all sides, he allows Michal into his life. The results go beyond anything he could have imagined. This intimate and bold second feature from Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski captures the often-complicated consequences of finding love where others do not want it.
Saturday, October 12, 2013 (in person: Sonia Bohosiewicz, Janusz Zaorski, Miroslaw Slowinski, Kajetan Plis, Kacper Skowron, Migdia Chinea, Ivo Krankowski, Kuba Gryzewski, Bodo Kox)
12:30 p.m. SIBERIAN EXILE (Syberiada polska) by Janusz Zaorski (125 min.) SIBERIAN EXILE is an epic tale of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews who are deported to Siberia, Russia. The fate of displaced is shown from the perspective of a young boy Staszek (Pawel Krucz), who goes to Siberia with his family and neighbors from a small village in the eastern Polish borderlands. Together with his companions, he starts the hard struggle for survival, where his most fearsome opponents turn out to be terrible, merciless nature, ringing frost and deadly famine. Circumstances force the boy to reevaluate his life and grow up faster. He will soon have to learn the essential struggle for survival and make decisions that will where rate will be life of his relatives.
3:00 p.m. Shorts & Doc. 1: HAPPY DAYS by Tomasz Jeziorski (19 min.) Ewa retires and dreams of a peaceful family life. However, a 30-year-old son does not intend to move out while her husband escapes into the world of childish passion. How far can Ewa go to break the routine of their life? A bittersweet portrait of a family who doesn’t know how to talk to each other.
PILL GIRL by Kacper Skowron (10 min. 30 sec.) Film about an attractive, educated young woman who’s living a life without meaning. On the outside she has everything a young woman could desire: prestige, recognition, elegance, and financial independence. Underneath it all, she is troubled, unhappy, and lost. Pills are what she turns to, blinding her from the dullness and pain in her life.
VOLCANO (Wulkan) by Michal Wawrzecki (17 min.) This is an intimate story of marriage. After an unsuccessful attempt to go on holiday, he and she shut themselves away at their beautiful home. They decide that the holiday is going to be just the two of them. To really relax, the are not going to be using phones, laptops or watching television or listening to the radio. When they deprive themselves of contact with the world and other people, it turns out that they are strangers to each other and that their marriage is just pretence.
THE LORD OF THE CARPATHIANS (Niedzwiedz. Wladca gor) by K. Matysek (51 min.) A movie about a bear not ever made before. Many of the scenes were filmed for the first time. Inside the winter den, feeding of cubs, we participate in their entering the world, first walks and tree climbing. This is a real nature thriller—a documentary tale in an exciting artistic form but based on scientific research. The cubs almost lose their lives in an encounter with a powerful male who is wooing their mother. We will also see a blood curdling encounter with a pack of wolves, a dramatic fight for prey or hunting goats. This is an epos of the lord of Carpathians who is slowly losing the remains of his kingdom.
5:00 p.m. OLD HAVANA by Migdia Chinea (9 min.) Set in Havana at the turn of the 20th Century, Old Havana and the Great Pimp of San Isidro is inspired by the true story of Alberto Yarini and Ponce de León, a famous Cuban souterner (pimp) whose untimely death elevated him to mythic status. His story takes us into a unique world filled with extraordinary beauty, mystique and tragedy. It is an opportunity to experience Afrocuban culture, particularly music, which is crucial to the definition of Cuba and the result of the majority African culture and that of the dominant European minority.
FLYING BLIND (Zaslepiona) by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz (88 min.) Frankie is in her forties, ambitious and successful. She works in the aerospace industry at Filton, designing surveillance drones for the military. She never married, and is completely in control of every part of her life. Her closest relationship is with her father, who worked as an engineer on Concorde. But her life changes forever when she embarks on a passionate affair with Kahil, a French/Algerian aerospace student, twenty years younger than her. One day, she arrives at work and is detained by the security services: Kahil is a person of interest to MI5. Her well-ordered life starts to unravel in a welter of suspicion and prejudice, as Frankie no longer knows whether to follow her passion or listen to the doubts that increasingly overwhelm her.
7:00 p.m. YUMA by Piotr Mularuk (105 min) It’s the beginning of the 1990s but the situation along the Polish-German border hasn’t much changed since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Twenty-year-old Zyga (the talented Jakub GierszaÅ‚) is tired of looking at the latest fashions and Western conveniences in glossy magazines. He and his friends decide to brighten up life in their sleepy, gray town by bettering themselves and their fellow citizens.
9:00 p.m. MEMORY OF LAST SUMMER by Ivo Krankowski & Kuba Gryzewski (11min.) Legendary winters of the 1980s might have been severe but from time to time the temperature was surprisingly high. A seemingly prosaic episode will be a heart-warming recollection for the characters of the film. It’s a story told through the so-called steamy glass but at the same time it also sheds some light on the mystery. Love with a human blushing face.
THE GIRL FROM THE WARDROBE (Dziewczyna z szafy) by Bodo Kox (90 min.) A tale of the remarkable friendship of three loners: the incorrigible internet flirt Jack, his brother Tom, who suffers from Savant Syndrome and distrustful of the environment young Magda. When Jack, called to a business meeting asks his secretive neighbor Magda to babysit his brilliant brother, he does not even suspect that this chance meeting will be beginning of a deep bond between two alienated people.
Laemmle’s Royal Theatre, 11523 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, CA 90025 (310-478-3836)
Friday, October 11, 2013 (in person: Julia Kolberger, Jakub Paczek, Kuba Gryzewski, Ivo Krankowski, Bodo Kox)
7:00 p.m. Shorts 1: TWIST AND BLOOD by Jakub Czekaj (30 min.)
THE 128th RAT (128. Szczur) by Jakub Paczek (30 min.)
THE EASTER CRUMBLE (Mazurek) by Julia Kolberger (31 min.)
9:00 p.m. A MEMORY OF LAST SUMMER by Ivo Krankowski & Kuba Gryzewski (11min.)
THE GIRL FROM THE WARDROBE (Dziewczyna z szafy) by Bodo Kox (90 min.)
Saturday, October 12, 2013 (in person: Bartosz Gelner, Andrzej Jakimowski, Ewa Jakimowska)
3:00 p.m. Animations Program
5:00 p.m. THE PHOTOGRAPH (Zdjecie) by Maciej Adamek (82 min.)
7:00 p.m. FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS (Plynace wiezowce) by Tomasz Wasilewski (93 min.)
9:00 p.m. IMAGINE by Andrzej Jakimowski (105 min.)
The Armer Theater, Manzanita Hall, California State University, Northridge – 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8317 – CSUN Cinematheque
Friday, October 11, 2013
7:00 p.m. WHY COMPETITIONS (Dlaczego konkurs) by Christine Jezior (78 min.)
Q&A and post-screening discussion—CSUN panel: Maria Elena de las Carreras, Edward Francis, Pei-Shan Lee. Moderator – Tim Halloran
Free admission.
Information: www.polishfilmLA.org , 818/982-8827. Program subject to change without prior notice.