{"id":439,"date":"2020-04-14T20:49:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T18:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=439"},"modified":"2020-05-27T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T15:44:00","slug":"sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/","title":{"rendered":"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Friday, September 6, 2019 &#8211; Sunday, September 8, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Friday, September 6 &#8211; Sunday, September 8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Walter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center<\/strong><br>165 West 65th Street, New York City<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.filmlinc.org\/series\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#schedule\" target=\"_blank\">Tickets<\/a><\/strong> go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8222;<em>The undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d<\/em>&#8211; Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>The Polish 'cinema of anxiety&#8217; soars out of this world in the work of Piotr Szulkin&#8230; the films thrive on imaginative vision and sociological absurdity.<\/em>&#8222;<br>\u2013 Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>An Eastern European Ridley Scott&#8230; the cultural commentary of Szulkin&#8217;s oeuvre is universalist&#8230; his future is our now.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>\u2013 Ela Bittencourt<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Film at Lincoln Center<\/strong>&nbsp;in partnership with the&nbsp;<strong>Polish Cultural Institute New York&nbsp;<\/strong>is proud to present&nbsp;<strong><em>Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin<\/em><\/strong>, a retrospective celebrating one of Poland\u2019s most revolutionary filmmakers, September 6-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A director, screenwriter, novelist, theatrical director, and painter, Piotr Szulkin regularly faced censorship from the Polish Communist regime of the late \u201970s and early \u201980s for his unabashedly political works. Szulkin\u2019s profoundly imaginative films can be viewed as existential tales, absurdist parables, or premonitions about modern society\u2019s hostility and the evils of totalitarianism. Drawing from 20th-century philosophy and Polish medieval literature through speculative fiction, noir, and grotesque allegories, Szulkin masterfully wielded the shoestring budget afforded to him to consistently create shockingly iconoclastic science fiction films. Described as \u201cthe undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d (Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com), Szulkin\u2019s oeuvre was rarely seen outside of his native Poland but continues to resonate with chilling truths about humankind, drawing eerily prescient parallels to the current worldwide political climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the largest retrospectives of his work to date, Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin offers a selection of new digital restorations and imported film prints. The series showcases all of Szulkin\u2019s features, including his audacious cult classic&nbsp;<strong><em>Golem<\/em><\/strong>, often thought of as a precursor to&nbsp;<strong><em>Blade Runner<\/em><\/strong>; T<strong><em>he War of the Worlds: Next Century<\/em><\/strong>, a reimagining of the H.G Wells novel and an indictment of mass media\u2019s influence on civilians;&nbsp;<strong><em>O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization<\/em><\/strong>, which follows the remaining survivors of a nuclear apocalypse as they wait for a mythical Ark to save them from their dire situation; Szulkin\u2019s exploration of female sexuality in the increasingly delirious and erotic Femina; the dadaist&nbsp;<strong><em>Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes,<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;which follows a prisoner aboard a penitentiary spaceship as he is sent on a mission to a police state hell planet; and Szulkin\u2019s final film,&nbsp;<strong><em>King Ubu<\/em><\/strong>, based on the 19th century Albert Jarry play, a brutal commentary on contemporary Poland in the aftermath of the communism Szulkin criticized throughout his career. Additionally, the retrospective will highlight Szulkin\u2019s short film work, including the folklore-inspired morality play&nbsp;<strong><em>Dziewce Z Ciortem<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;and the documentary short&nbsp;<strong><em>Working Women<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PROGRAM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Femina<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1991, 35mm, 84m<br>Polish with English subtitles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After her husband leaves for an extended business trip and her mother dies, a coolly detached, bourgeois housewife (Hanna Dunowska) embarks on an outr\u00e9 carnal odyssey in search of sexual fulfillment, leading her into increasingly deranged, sinister realms as memories from her childhood mingle with fever-dream seductions. Equal parts coming-of-age nightmare, softcore satire, and surrealist cantata, Szulkin\u2019s delirious erotic fantasia unfurls in a nonstop rush of indelibly uncanny images\u2014from a free-floating apparition of a lusty Joseph Stalin to a pair of shockingly randy puppets\u2014as it savages religion, the state, and the idea of the nuclear family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preceded by:<br><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>Working Women \/ Kobiety pracujace<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1978, 6m<br>U.S. Premiere<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor. Restoration<br><strong>Saturday, September 7, 4:30pm<\/strong><br><strong>Sunday, September 8, 8:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes \/ Ga, Ga &#8211; Chwala bohaterom<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1986, 35mm, 84m<br>Polish with English subtitles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resistance is futile in Szulkin\u2019s stunningly nihilistic dystopian satire. In a future where life on Earth has become so wonderful that only prisoners are used for the risky business of space exploration, poker-faced intergalactic inmate Scope (Daniel Olbrychski) is sent on a seemingly doomed mission to an uncharted planet. Upon his arrival, he discovers a world curiously like a dilapidated, postapocalyptic Earth, where he is welcomed by the populace as a \u201chero,\u201d an ignominious honor, he soon learns, that comes with a most barbaric fate. Taking the film\u2019s appropriately nonsensical title from the babble of his baby daughter, Szulkin delivers a bleakly acerbic commentary on the absurdity of life in a police state.<br><strong>Friday, September 6, 4:30pm<\/strong><br><strong>Saturday, September 7, 8:30pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>Golem<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1980, 92m<br>Polish with English subtitles<br>In some dystopian future, scientists attempt to create a new, pliable race of humans. A seemingly ordinary product of the effort, the genetically engineered Pernat (Marek Walczewski) is subject to round-the-clock monitoring as he goes about his life amidst drab Soviet bloc architecture. Szulkin\u2019s bold feature debut, styled in sepia tones and dramatic lighting, has been called a precursor to Blade Runner, but its title also looks back to a more ancient myth of creation and morality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preceded by:<br><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>The Gal and the Fiend \/ Dziewce z ciortem<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1976, 14m<br>Polish with English subtitles<br>U.S. Premiere<br>Szulkin stages a morality play about a sinful woman\u2019s encounter with the devil, set to the Polish ballad of the same name and imbued with folkloric imagery.<br><strong>Friday, September 6, 6:30pm<\/strong><br><strong>Saturday, September 7, 2:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>King Ubu \/ Ubu kr\u00f3l<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 2003, 90m<br>Polish with English subtitles<br>U.S. Premiere<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on Alfred Jarry\u2019s late 19th-century, proto-Dada political satire Ubu Roi, Szulkin\u2019s final film is an outrageous, carnivalesque commentary on post-Communist Poland in which drunken degenerate Ubu (Jan Peszek) seizes control of the monarchy in a supposedly \u201cdemocratic\u201d takeover (his signature policy: universal free beer) only to institute his own absurdist, tragicomic reign of terror. Updating Jarry\u2019s iconoclastic vision with a fresh dose of dark, post-Soviet cynicism, King Ubu is an incendiary summative statement from an artist who devoted his career to lobbing grenades at the machinery of totalitarian political corruption.<br><strong>Sunday, September 8, 6:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization \/ O-bi, O-ba &#8211; Koniec cywilizacji<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1985, 88m<br>Polish with English subtitles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What remains of mankind post\u2013nuclear apocalypse is confined to a squalid underground bunker where survivors toil desperately to uphold the last vestiges of civilization. They are spurred on by their fervent belief in a fabled Ark that will deliver them from their living hell\u2014a myth propagated by the powers that be, and spread, in part, by the increasingly disillusioned Soft (Jerzy Stuhr) as he attempts to stave off total collapse. Working in an expressionistically grimy, grey- and blue-toned palette, Szulkin crafts a shattering existential parable about the false promises of politics and religion that plays out like a Sisyphean journey into madness.<br><strong>Saturday, September 7, 6:30pm<\/strong><br><strong>Sunday, September 8, 4:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New digital restoration<\/strong><br><strong><em>The War of the Worlds: Next Century \/ Wojna swiat\u00f3w &#8211; nastepne stulecie<\/em><\/strong><br>Poland, 1981, 96m<br>Polish with English subtitles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dedicated to both H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, Szulkin\u2019s follow-up to Golem begins with the Christmastime takeover of Poland by a band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty martians (played by silver-painted dwarfs in puffer jackets) who enlist hapless television newscaster Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi) as the voice of their 1984-esque propaganda machine. But when Iron dares to go off message, he makes an enemy even greater than the aliens: the state itself. Released just as Poland was being plunged into martial law and immediately banned, The War of the Worlds: Next Century is a disturbingly prescient allegory of power, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth world.<br><strong>Friday, September 6, 9:00pm<\/strong><br><strong>Sunday, September 8, 2:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.polishculture-nyc.org\/indexNew.cfm?itemId=933&amp;eventId=2973\">SCHEDULE<\/a><br><a href=\"http:\/\/www.polishculture-nyc.org\/indexNew.cfm?itemId=935&amp;eventId=2973\">MORE ABOUT PIOTR SZULKIN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, September 6, 2019 &#8211; Sunday, September 8, 2019 Friday, September 6 &#8211; Sunday, September 8 Walter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center165 West 65th Street, New York City Tickets go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-film"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Friday, September 6, 2019 &#8211; Sunday, September 8, 2019 Friday, September 6 &#8211; Sunday, September 8 Walter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center165 West 65th Street, New York City Tickets go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-14T18:49:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-27T15:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"304\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/\",\"name\":\"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1-296x300.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-14T18:49:26+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-27T15:44:00+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2019-09-06\",\"endDate\":\"2019-09-08\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Friday, September 6, 2019 - Sunday, September 8, 2019\\nFriday, September 6 - Sunday, September 8\\nWalter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center165 West 65th Street, New York City\\nTickets go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members\\n\\\"The undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d- Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com\\n\u201cThe Polish 'cinema of anxiety' soars out of this world in the work of Piotr Szulkin... the films thrive on imaginative vision and sociological absurdity.\\\"\u2013 Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal\\n\u201cAn Eastern European Ridley Scott... the cultural commentary of Szulkin's oeuvre is universalist... his future is our now.\u201d \u2013 Ela Bittencourt\\nFilm at Lincoln Center in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York is proud to present Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin, a retrospective celebrating one of Poland\u2019s most revolutionary filmmakers, September 6-8.\\nA director, screenwriter, novelist, theatrical director, and painter, Piotr Szulkin regularly faced censorship from the Polish Communist regime of the late \u201970s and early \u201980s for his unabashedly political works. Szulkin\u2019s profoundly imaginative films can be viewed as existential tales, absurdist parables, or premonitions about modern society\u2019s hostility and the evils of totalitarianism. Drawing from 20th-century philosophy and Polish medieval literature through speculative fiction, noir, and grotesque allegories, Szulkin masterfully wielded the shoestring budget afforded to him to consistently create shockingly iconoclastic science fiction films. Described as \u201cthe undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d (Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com), Szulkin\u2019s oeuvre was rarely seen outside of his native Poland but continues to resonate with chilling truths about humankind, drawing eerily prescient parallels to the current worldwide political climate.\\nOne of the largest retrospectives of his work to date, Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin offers a selection of new digital restorations and imported film prints. The series showcases all of Szulkin\u2019s features, including his audacious cult classic Golem, often thought of as a precursor to Blade Runner; The War of the Worlds: Next Century, a reimagining of the H.G Wells novel and an indictment of mass media\u2019s influence on civilians; O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization, which follows the remaining survivors of a nuclear apocalypse as they wait for a mythical Ark to save them from their dire situation; Szulkin\u2019s exploration of female sexuality in the increasingly delirious and erotic Femina; the dadaist Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes, which follows a prisoner aboard a penitentiary spaceship as he is sent on a mission to a police state hell planet; and Szulkin\u2019s final film, King Ubu, based on the 19th century Albert Jarry play, a brutal commentary on contemporary Poland in the aftermath of the communism Szulkin criticized throughout his career. Additionally, the retrospective will highlight Szulkin\u2019s short film work, including the folklore-inspired morality play Dziewce Z Ciortem and the documentary short Working Women.\\nPROGRAM\\nFeminaPoland, 1991, 35mm, 84mPolish with English subtitles\\nAfter her husband leaves for an extended business trip and her mother dies, a coolly detached, bourgeois housewife (Hanna Dunowska) embarks on an outr\u00e9 carnal odyssey in search of sexual fulfillment, leading her into increasingly deranged, sinister realms as memories from her childhood mingle with fever-dream seductions. Equal parts coming-of-age nightmare, softcore satire, and surrealist cantata, Szulkin\u2019s delirious erotic fantasia unfurls in a nonstop rush of indelibly uncanny images\u2014from a free-floating apparition of a lusty Joseph Stalin to a pair of shockingly randy puppets\u2014as it savages religion, the state, and the idea of the nuclear family.\\nPreceded by:New digital restorationWorking Women \/ Kobiety pracujacePoland, 1978, 6mU.S. Premiere\\nStylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor. RestorationSaturday, September 7, 4:30pmSunday, September 8, 8:00pm\\nGa, Ga: Glory to Heroes \/ Ga, Ga - Chwala bohateromPoland, 1986, 35mm, 84mPolish with English subtitles\\nResistance is futile in Szulkin\u2019s stunningly nihilistic dystopian satire. In a future where life on Earth has become so wonderful that only prisoners are used for the risky business of space exploration, poker-faced intergalactic inmate Scope (Daniel Olbrychski) is sent on a seemingly doomed mission to an uncharted planet. Upon his arrival, he discovers a world curiously like a dilapidated, postapocalyptic Earth, where he is welcomed by the populace as a \u201chero,\u201d an ignominious honor, he soon learns, that comes with a most barbaric fate. Taking the film\u2019s appropriately nonsensical title from the babble of his baby daughter, Szulkin delivers a bleakly acerbic commentary on the absurdity of life in a police state.Friday, September 6, 4:30pmSaturday, September 7, 8:30pm\\nNew digital restorationGolemPoland, 1980, 92mPolish with English subtitlesIn some dystopian future, scientists attempt to create a new, pliable race of humans. A seemingly ordinary product of the effort, the genetically engineered Pernat (Marek Walczewski) is subject to round-the-clock monitoring as he goes about his life amidst drab Soviet bloc architecture. Szulkin\u2019s bold feature debut, styled in sepia tones and dramatic lighting, has been called a precursor to Blade Runner, but its title also looks back to a more ancient myth of creation and morality.\\nPreceded by:New digital restorationThe Gal and the Fiend \/ Dziewce z ciortemPoland, 1976, 14mPolish with English subtitlesU.S. PremiereSzulkin stages a morality play about a sinful woman\u2019s encounter with the devil, set to the Polish ballad of the same name and imbued with folkloric imagery.Friday, September 6, 6:30pmSaturday, September 7, 2:00pm\\nNew digital restorationKing Ubu \/ Ubu kr\u00f3lPoland, 2003, 90mPolish with English subtitlesU.S. Premiere\\nBased on Alfred Jarry\u2019s late 19th-century, proto-Dada political satire Ubu Roi, Szulkin\u2019s final film is an outrageous, carnivalesque commentary on post-Communist Poland in which drunken degenerate Ubu (Jan Peszek) seizes control of the monarchy in a supposedly \u201cdemocratic\u201d takeover (his signature policy: universal free beer) only to institute his own absurdist, tragicomic reign of terror. Updating Jarry\u2019s iconoclastic vision with a fresh dose of dark, post-Soviet cynicism, King Ubu is an incendiary summative statement from an artist who devoted his career to lobbing grenades at the machinery of totalitarian political corruption.Sunday, September 8, 6:00pm\\nNew digital restorationO-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization \/ O-bi, O-ba - Koniec cywilizacjiPoland, 1985, 88mPolish with English subtitles\\nWhat remains of mankind post\u2013nuclear apocalypse is confined to a squalid underground bunker where survivors toil desperately to uphold the last vestiges of civilization. They are spurred on by their fervent belief in a fabled Ark that will deliver them from their living hell\u2014a myth propagated by the powers that be, and spread, in part, by the increasingly disillusioned Soft (Jerzy Stuhr) as he attempts to stave off total collapse. Working in an expressionistically grimy, grey- and blue-toned palette, Szulkin crafts a shattering existential parable about the false promises of politics and religion that plays out like a Sisyphean journey into madness.Saturday, September 7, 6:30pmSunday, September 8, 4:00pm\\nNew digital restorationThe War of the Worlds: Next Century \/ Wojna swiat\u00f3w - nastepne stuleciePoland, 1981, 96mPolish with English subtitles\\nDedicated to both H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, Szulkin\u2019s follow-up to Golem begins with the Christmastime takeover of Poland by a band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty martians (played by silver-painted dwarfs in puffer jackets) who enlist hapless television newscaster Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi) as the voice of their 1984-esque propaganda machine. But when Iron dares to go off message, he makes an enemy even greater than the aliens: the state itself. Released just as Poland was being plunged into martial law and immediately banned, The War of the Worlds: Next Century is a disturbingly prescient allegory of power, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth world.Friday, September 6, 9:00pmSunday, September 8, 2:00pm\\nSCHEDULEMORE ABOUT PIOTR SZULKIN\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":304},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\",\"name\":\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\",\"description\":\"Instytuty Polskie\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6\",\"name\":\"klaudia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"klaudia\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/lukasz.sienkiewicz@msz.gov.pl\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Friday, September 6, 2019 &#8211; Sunday, September 8, 2019 Friday, September 6 &#8211; Sunday, September 8 Walter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center165 West 65th Street, New York City Tickets go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2020-04-14T18:49:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-27T15:44:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":304,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"klaudia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"klaudia","Szacowany czas czytania":"6 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/","name":"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1-296x300.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","datePublished":"2020-04-14T18:49:26+02:00","dateModified":"2020-05-27T15:44:00+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2019-09-06","endDate":"2019-09-08","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Friday, September 6, 2019 - Sunday, September 8, 2019\nFriday, September 6 - Sunday, September 8\nWalter Reade Theater @ Lincoln Center165 West 65th Street, New York City\nTickets go on sale Thursday, August 15 and are $15; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for Film at Lincoln Center members\n\"The undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d- Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com\n\u201cThe Polish 'cinema of anxiety' soars out of this world in the work of Piotr Szulkin... the films thrive on imaginative vision and sociological absurdity.\"\u2013 Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal\n\u201cAn Eastern European Ridley Scott... the cultural commentary of Szulkin's oeuvre is universalist... his future is our now.\u201d \u2013 Ela Bittencourt\nFilm at Lincoln Center in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York is proud to present Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin, a retrospective celebrating one of Poland\u2019s most revolutionary filmmakers, September 6-8.\nA director, screenwriter, novelist, theatrical director, and painter, Piotr Szulkin regularly faced censorship from the Polish Communist regime of the late \u201970s and early \u201980s for his unabashedly political works. Szulkin\u2019s profoundly imaginative films can be viewed as existential tales, absurdist parables, or premonitions about modern society\u2019s hostility and the evils of totalitarianism. Drawing from 20th-century philosophy and Polish medieval literature through speculative fiction, noir, and grotesque allegories, Szulkin masterfully wielded the shoestring budget afforded to him to consistently create shockingly iconoclastic science fiction films. Described as \u201cthe undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa\u201d (Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com), Szulkin\u2019s oeuvre was rarely seen outside of his native Poland but continues to resonate with chilling truths about humankind, drawing eerily prescient parallels to the current worldwide political climate.\nOne of the largest retrospectives of his work to date, Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin offers a selection of new digital restorations and imported film prints. The series showcases all of Szulkin\u2019s features, including his audacious cult classic Golem, often thought of as a precursor to Blade Runner; The War of the Worlds: Next Century, a reimagining of the H.G Wells novel and an indictment of mass media\u2019s influence on civilians; O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization, which follows the remaining survivors of a nuclear apocalypse as they wait for a mythical Ark to save them from their dire situation; Szulkin\u2019s exploration of female sexuality in the increasingly delirious and erotic Femina; the dadaist Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes, which follows a prisoner aboard a penitentiary spaceship as he is sent on a mission to a police state hell planet; and Szulkin\u2019s final film, King Ubu, based on the 19th century Albert Jarry play, a brutal commentary on contemporary Poland in the aftermath of the communism Szulkin criticized throughout his career. Additionally, the retrospective will highlight Szulkin\u2019s short film work, including the folklore-inspired morality play Dziewce Z Ciortem and the documentary short Working Women.\nPROGRAM\nFeminaPoland, 1991, 35mm, 84mPolish with English subtitles\nAfter her husband leaves for an extended business trip and her mother dies, a coolly detached, bourgeois housewife (Hanna Dunowska) embarks on an outr\u00e9 carnal odyssey in search of sexual fulfillment, leading her into increasingly deranged, sinister realms as memories from her childhood mingle with fever-dream seductions. Equal parts coming-of-age nightmare, softcore satire, and surrealist cantata, Szulkin\u2019s delirious erotic fantasia unfurls in a nonstop rush of indelibly uncanny images\u2014from a free-floating apparition of a lusty Joseph Stalin to a pair of shockingly randy puppets\u2014as it savages religion, the state, and the idea of the nuclear family.\nPreceded by:New digital restorationWorking Women \/ Kobiety pracujacePoland, 1978, 6mU.S. Premiere\nStylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor. RestorationSaturday, September 7, 4:30pmSunday, September 8, 8:00pm\nGa, Ga: Glory to Heroes \/ Ga, Ga - Chwala bohateromPoland, 1986, 35mm, 84mPolish with English subtitles\nResistance is futile in Szulkin\u2019s stunningly nihilistic dystopian satire. In a future where life on Earth has become so wonderful that only prisoners are used for the risky business of space exploration, poker-faced intergalactic inmate Scope (Daniel Olbrychski) is sent on a seemingly doomed mission to an uncharted planet. Upon his arrival, he discovers a world curiously like a dilapidated, postapocalyptic Earth, where he is welcomed by the populace as a \u201chero,\u201d an ignominious honor, he soon learns, that comes with a most barbaric fate. Taking the film\u2019s appropriately nonsensical title from the babble of his baby daughter, Szulkin delivers a bleakly acerbic commentary on the absurdity of life in a police state.Friday, September 6, 4:30pmSaturday, September 7, 8:30pm\nNew digital restorationGolemPoland, 1980, 92mPolish with English subtitlesIn some dystopian future, scientists attempt to create a new, pliable race of humans. A seemingly ordinary product of the effort, the genetically engineered Pernat (Marek Walczewski) is subject to round-the-clock monitoring as he goes about his life amidst drab Soviet bloc architecture. Szulkin\u2019s bold feature debut, styled in sepia tones and dramatic lighting, has been called a precursor to Blade Runner, but its title also looks back to a more ancient myth of creation and morality.\nPreceded by:New digital restorationThe Gal and the Fiend \/ Dziewce z ciortemPoland, 1976, 14mPolish with English subtitlesU.S. PremiereSzulkin stages a morality play about a sinful woman\u2019s encounter with the devil, set to the Polish ballad of the same name and imbued with folkloric imagery.Friday, September 6, 6:30pmSaturday, September 7, 2:00pm\nNew digital restorationKing Ubu \/ Ubu kr\u00f3lPoland, 2003, 90mPolish with English subtitlesU.S. Premiere\nBased on Alfred Jarry\u2019s late 19th-century, proto-Dada political satire Ubu Roi, Szulkin\u2019s final film is an outrageous, carnivalesque commentary on post-Communist Poland in which drunken degenerate Ubu (Jan Peszek) seizes control of the monarchy in a supposedly \u201cdemocratic\u201d takeover (his signature policy: universal free beer) only to institute his own absurdist, tragicomic reign of terror. Updating Jarry\u2019s iconoclastic vision with a fresh dose of dark, post-Soviet cynicism, King Ubu is an incendiary summative statement from an artist who devoted his career to lobbing grenades at the machinery of totalitarian political corruption.Sunday, September 8, 6:00pm\nNew digital restorationO-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization \/ O-bi, O-ba - Koniec cywilizacjiPoland, 1985, 88mPolish with English subtitles\nWhat remains of mankind post\u2013nuclear apocalypse is confined to a squalid underground bunker where survivors toil desperately to uphold the last vestiges of civilization. They are spurred on by their fervent belief in a fabled Ark that will deliver them from their living hell\u2014a myth propagated by the powers that be, and spread, in part, by the increasingly disillusioned Soft (Jerzy Stuhr) as he attempts to stave off total collapse. Working in an expressionistically grimy, grey- and blue-toned palette, Szulkin crafts a shattering existential parable about the false promises of politics and religion that plays out like a Sisyphean journey into madness.Saturday, September 7, 6:30pmSunday, September 8, 4:00pm\nNew digital restorationThe War of the Worlds: Next Century \/ Wojna swiat\u00f3w - nastepne stuleciePoland, 1981, 96mPolish with English subtitles\nDedicated to both H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, Szulkin\u2019s follow-up to Golem begins with the Christmastime takeover of Poland by a band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty martians (played by silver-painted dwarfs in puffer jackets) who enlist hapless television newscaster Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi) as the voice of their 1984-esque propaganda machine. But when Iron dares to go off message, he makes an enemy even greater than the aliens: the state itself. Released just as Poland was being plunged into martial law and immediately banned, The War of the Worlds: Next Century is a disturbingly prescient allegory of power, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth world.Friday, September 6, 9:00pmSunday, September 8, 2:00pm\nSCHEDULEMORE ABOUT PIOTR SZULKIN"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/02\/wydarzenie_1.jpg","width":300,"height":304},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2020\/04\/14\/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SCI-FI VISIONARY: PIOTR SZULKIN"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6","name":"klaudia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"klaudia"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/lukasz.sienkiewicz@msz.gov.pl"],"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2189,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/2189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}