The festival FILM POLSKI ON TOUR is an initiative organised by the Polish Institute in  Düsseldorf in collaboration with the Polish Film Institute, with which the Brussels Polish Institute works, in order to present some aspects of Polish culture in the German-speaking region of Belgium.
The goal of the festival is to present the best of contemporary Polish cinema output. Five films will be on the programme:

• Jack Strong by Władysław Pasikowski >>> Thursday 15 October, 20:00
• Ida by Paweł Pawlikowski >>> Friday 16 October, 20:30
• Body/Ciało by Małgorzata Szumowska >>> Saturday 17 October, 17:30
• Warsaw Uprising by Jan Komasa >>> Sunday 18 October, 17:30, in the presence of the director of the History Department of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, Piotr ŚLIWOWSKI
• Bogowie (Gods) by Łukasz Palkowski >>> Tuesday 20 October, 20:00

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> Corso Cinema (Bahnhofstraße 14, B-4780 St. Vith) – see map
>>> from Thursday 15 until Tuesday 20 October 2015

+++ see the website of the CORSO Cinema

JACK STRONG (Poland, 2014, 128 min)
Jack Strong tells the gripping true story of colonel Ryszard Kukliński, one of the most controversial figures in Polish Post-World War II history. Hailed as a global hero, Kuklinski single-handedly declared and waged a secret war against Communist oppression, risking his and his family’s life for the sake of national security. Pressured by his own conscience and by an increasing threat of a nuclear holocaust, he realized that the only way to save what’s left of his exhausted country is to go undercover. Thanks to his determination he starts a long, lonely and psychologically exhausting cooperation with CIA.

IDA (Poland, 2013, 80’)
Poland, 1962. Before taking her vows, a young orphan raised in a convent leaves on a voyage of discovery to find out what happened to her family under the Nazi occupation. She is helped by her aunt, a communist judge and the only surviving member of the family.
Ida has already been garlanded with several international prizes, including Best Film at the London Festival and the Warsaw Festival, as well as the Critics’ Prize at the Toronto Film Festival. On the 23 February 2015, Ida has won the Oscar for best foreign film.

Paweł Pawlikowski
Born in Warsaw in 1957, Paweł Pawlikowski left Poland at the age of 14. He studied literature and philosophy at Oxford before beginning his cinematographic career in television. In 1990, he made his first documentary (From Moscow to Pietushki with Benny Yerofeev). Ten years later, he began to tackle fiction. His film Last Resort (2000) was so successful that it was nominated for prizes, notably at the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Festival. In 2001, he received the BAFTA for “Most Promising Newcomer in British Film”. Ida is his fifth fictional film.

BODY/CIAŁO (Poland, 2015, 90 min)
Janusz isn’t easily shocked by the things he sees. As a forensic scientist, he has been confronted with mutilated bodies all the time. But, when his own anorexic daughter shows some suicidal behaviours, he doesn’t know what to do. He decided to take her to the hospital. Apparently a drama movie, Body is going to surprise you with his black humour. You’ll meet ghosts, spiritualism sessions that turn into farce, dead people that stand up… Malgorzata Szumowska delivers an original, stimulating and unpredictable film.

WARSAW UPRISING (2014, Poland, 87min) is the first documentary film in the world to use archive footage alone in order to create an original story which is faithful to historical events. The author of the film imagined the story of the Warsaw Uprising (1 August – 2 October 1944) seen through the eyes of an American pilot who has escaped a Nazi camp and two young Polish reporters who film various episodes illustrative of life during this period. The original images have been colourised and the sound remastered.

BOGOWIE (Poland, 2014, 112 min)
Poland, 1980’s: the country is about to experience great political change. Against this backdrop, talented heart surgeon Zbigniew Religa resigns from his safe job at a hospital in order to open his own clinic. And it’s not just financial adversity that he has to deal with, often managing to offend his colleagues with his reserved nature. In his quest to carry out Poland’s first successful heart transplant, he comes face to face with the question of what it is that is driving him: fame and professional success or humanity and selflessness. The award-winning film drew over two million people to screenings in Poland. It tells a gripping tale in medical history: veering from hope to despair, illusion to disillusionment, the doctors don’t just have to fight for the lives of their patients, they’re also battling for a little recognition and assurance.

In collaboration with Ars Vitha