Polish film festival begins on HOT on October 15.

This special event is a follow-up on the Polish Zoom that was screened last year and this year it will be shown on Israeli TV  in cooperation with the Polish Adam Mickiewicz Institute

This movie festival will offer the Israeli audience an exquisite collection of Polish movies. It starts on October 15 and will last one month. This event is the outcome of a joint project by HOT, the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland and it is a continuation of the Polish Zoom that was screened last year in Israeli cinematheques. This year, due to Covid-19, the movies will be shown on TV.

Among the movies that will be screened the thriller “Demon” stars Itai Tiran as a groom possessed by the soul of a murdered Jewish girl, then Agnieszka Holland’s “Spoors” based on Nobel Prize Winner Olga Tokarczuk’s novel that focuses on the relationship between man and nature, the psychological thriller “I’m a Killer” about a serial killer unjustly condemned to death in the eighties. They will be followed by the drama movie “Supernova” about a tragic accident that irreversibly shatters the quiet and routine-like life of a village community, by “The Lure” – guess yourself whether it is a horror movie or a musical – about two mermaids who emerge from the water in Warsaw and start dancing in a nightclub.

The Polish movie festival on HOT consists of 8 contemporary Polish movies which won rave reviews and international prizes. The movies will be screened at the same time on HOT movie channels.

The Polish movie festival will enable the Israeli audience to enjoy some of the best and award-winning Polish movies at home.

The 8 movies screened at the festival provide an excellent overview of the successful Polish movie industry and its young and important directors.

The movies deal with complex social, political, individual and spiritual issues, they confront the past with the present, delve into problems of crime, violence, hypocrisy and vengeance and last but not least, touch on issues of woman power, efforts to silence women and their need to be heard, the relationship between man and nature, sexuality etc.   

The cinematic language of these movies is very rich, the directing brilliant and ditto for the photography.

The Films:

Supernova / Supernova

Bartosz Kruhlik

Poland / 2019 / 78 min / drama / Polish

A quiet, sunny Sunday. Birds chirping, cow mooing, dog barking. Suddenly, one child appears on the village road, then another, and finally, a young woman, determined to leave her drunken husband.Family conflict is interrupted by a traffic accident. The culprit, a famous Polish politician, flees the scene, changing the fate of the entire village community and his own. Lynching court becomes inevitable. Best Polish debut of the year at the Gdynia Film Festival.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhZTC9bcRSQ

Spoor / Pokot

Agnieszka Holland

Tchech Republic, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Słovakia / 2018 / 128 min / drama, crime / Polish

The film is set in a remote mountainous region of the Kłodzko Valley in south-western Poland, where an elderly woman, Janina Duszejko, turns witness to a violent and mysterious death of several hunters. She is convinced she knows who the murderer is, but nobody believes her story. The Polish-language title, Pokot, is a hunting term that refers to the count of wild animals killed. The English title Spoor refers to the traces and tracks left behind by the hunted game.

A crime film, adapted from the novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Nobel Prize Winner Olga Tokarczuk. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Alfren Bauer prize (Silver Bear). Best director at Gdynia Film Festival.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_6XC7eQFLA

United States of Love / Zjednoczone Stany Miłości

Tomasz Wasilewski

Poland / 2016 / 104 min / drama / Polish

Poland, 1990. The winds of change are blowing in Poland. The first euphoric year of freedom, but also of uncertainty for the future. Four apparently happy women of different ages decide it’s time to change their lives, fight for their happiness and fulfill their desires. Agata is a young mother, trapped in an unhappy marriage, who seeks refuge in another, impossible relationship. Renata is an older teacher fascinated with her neighbor Marzena – a lonely former local beauty queen, whose husband works in Germany. Marzena’s sister Iza is a headmistress in love with the father of one of her students.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itl8yMio6D4

Tower: Bright Day / Wieża: Jasny dzień

Jagoda Szelc

Poland / 2017 / 106 min / psych. thriller / Polish

In rural Poland, Mula (Anna Krotoska) is a housewife, a mother, and a bit of a control freak. Her daughter Nina (Laila Hennessy) is about to celebrate her First Communion—like most Polish people, her family is Catholic. They gather for the occasion, including Mula’s estranged sister Kaja (Malgorzata Szczerbowska), who disappeared six years ago for mysterious reasons and happens to be Nina’s real mother. Mula invites Kaja to the festivities on the condition of secrecy, but her dominion over her house and family won’t be so easy to maintain.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QUsG6__6o4

I’m a Killer / Jestem zabójcą

Maciej Pieprzyca

Poland / 2016 / 107 min / psych. thriller / Polish

In I’m a Killer Pieprzyca tells a story inspired by Zdzisław Marchwicki, an alleged serial killer found guilty by the communist regime of Poland and sentenced to death. Accused of killing fourteen women, Marchwicki was the greatest terror of his times. He also became the greatest enemy of the contemporaneous authorities, which could not allow a bloody scar to appear on their image of the ideal state. The communist regime was not interested in the facts that there were lots of inadequacies in the investigation and that a part of the evidence was fabricated. Marchwicki’s death was meant to calm the emotions of society.

Review: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/jacinta-review-1293576

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFAdTbJGxEo

Demon / Demon

Marcin Wrona

Poland, Israel / 2015 / 93 min. / thriller / Polish, English

Demon, a smart, atmospheric Polish horror film about a wedding that gets interrupted after the groom becomes possessed by a Jewish “dybbuk” (a cross between a vampire and a ghost), is a paradoxically heavy movie with a deceptively light tone. While many contemporary horror films use jump scares and gore to shock viewers out of complacency, “Demon” makes horror touchstones, like a disembodied child’s hand emerging from under the bed, seem relatively normal. Or, put another way: the horrors of “Demon” are disturbing because you can see how ordinary they might seem to anyone who isn’t paying enough attention.

The film was mentioned as one of the leading candidates for the main awards at the Gdynia Film Festival.In 2015, was one of the best received films at the Toronto Film Festival. With Itay Tiran, Israeli very known actor, Agnieszka Zulewska, Andrzej Grabowski.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GafK0WuRCnk

Gods / Bogowie

Łukasz Palkowski

Poland / 2015 / 121 m /drama / Polish

The early career of cardiac surgeon Zbigniew Religa. Despite harsh reality of the 1980s Poland, he successfully leads a team of doctors to the country’s first human heart transplantation. Camerimage 2014 Nominee Golden Frog Main Competition Piotr Sobocinski Jr., Golden Trailer Awards 2015 Nominee Golden Trailer Best Foreign TV Spot Watchout Studio AM Productions,

Netia Off Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema 2015 Winner Audience Award

Winner Honorable Mention Piotr Sobocinski Jr., For Nude Area Nominee The Kulczyk Foundation Award The Polish Feature Film Competition, Polish Film Awards 2015 Winner Audience Award, Winner Eagle Best Director Lukasz Palkowski, Best Screenplay Krzysztof Rak, Best Actor

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIeaoMqnxpk

The Lure / Córki dancingu

Agnieszka Smoczyńska

Poland / 2016 / 92 min / drama, comedy, horror musical / Polish

The Lure (Polish: Córki dancingu – “Daughters of Dancing”) is a 2015 Polish horror musical film directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska. It tells the story of two mermaids who emerge from the waters and perform in a nightclub. One falls in love with a man, and gives up her tail, but loses her voice in the process. The story is a reworking of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, with inspiration from Smoczyńska’s experiences.

Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema Nominee Best Feature Film – Avant-Garde and Genre, Calgary Underground Film Festival 2016 Winner Jury Award Best Narrative Feature, Chicago International Movies and Music Festival 2016 Winner Best Fiction Feature, Chlotrudis Awards 2018, Nominee Chlotrudis Award Best Use of Music in a Film, East End Film Festival, UK 2016 Nominee Best Film EEFF’s Best Film Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016, Nominee Best International Feature Film, Fantasia Film Festival 2016 Winner Cheval Noir Special Jury Prize, Fantasporto 2016 Winner International Fantasy Film Award Best Film, Best Special Effects, Best Director, Film Club’s The Lost Weekend 2017 Winner Lost Weekend Award Best Soundtrack, Fright Meter Awards 2017 Winner Fright Meter Award Best Costume Design, Best Make Up, Indiewire Critics’ Poll 2016 Nominee ICP Award Best Undistributed Film, Nashville Film Festival 2016, Winner Grand Jury Prize, Best Film Winner Best Actress Marta Mazurek, Netia Off Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema 2016 Winner Fipresci Jury Award, Winner Making Way Award, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival Winner Narcisse Award Best Film Honorable Mention, Odesa International Film Festival 2016 Nominee Folden Duke International Competition, Polish Film Awards 2016 Winner Eagle Dicovery of the Year, Polish Film Festival Winner Best Debut Director, Seattle International Film Festival Nominee New Directors Competition, Sofia International Film Festival Winner Young Jury Award best Film, Sundance Film Festival 2016 Winner Special Jury Prize World Cinema Dramatic, Tiburon International Film Festival Winner Federico Fellini Award, Vilnius International Film Festival 2016 Winner New Europe New Names Competition Best Director

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJB5hctnxQQ