Polish Zoom – a month-long celebration of the best Polish films featuring nine excellent award winning and much praised movies via HOT VOD.
A special celebration of Polish movies begins on October 21 and will continue for roughly a month – this is a follow up to the 2019 Polish Zoom event –
this year nine quality Polish films will be introduced to the Israeli viewer in his or her home.
The selection includes a variety of genres from some of the best Polish creative currently working.
This special event, a follow up to the 2019 Polish Zoom which we are now continuing in a digital format – was made possible by the Polish Institute Tel Aviv working with the
Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland.
How to watch: Enter HOT VOD Cinema and from there pick Cinema Time
About the movies:
Mr Jones
2019
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, Spoor, In Darkness) brings to the screen the extraordinary untold story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious young Welsh journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933 and uncovered the appalling truth behind the Soviet “utopia” and Stalin’s regime. Initially a regular news investigation, his quest quickly turned into a life-or-death journey… helping inspire George Orwell’s famous allegory Animal Farm.
Jones became well-known in the English press following his reports on the flight Hitler and Goebbels took to Frankfurt, he was one of the few western reporters at the time to take note of the new German leader. Jones resigned a civil-servant role to travel to Moscow where he attempted to land his next big story. An interview with Stalin. In the USSR he meets a young British female reporter who exposes the truth behind the regime and its violence. Overcoming Soviet censorship Jones is able to get to Ukraine. There he becomes a witness to the man-made famine which abandoned millions of soviet citizens to die as the grain they grew was sold to foreign markets to finance the industrialization of the Soviet Empire. Jones was deported back to the UK where he exposed the horrors he had witnessed. Pressured by the Kremlin, other western reporters denied his findings. The film tells an ever-important story about the hunger for truth, cynicism, the corruption of the media, the cowardice of governments and the indifference of regular people.
Like a cat with a Dog
2018
Director: Janusz Kondratiuk
A bitter-sweet portrait of family relations, inspired by a true story. A vision of an unconventional family, with its conflicts and rivalries, filled with ironic humor. When the older brother, Andrzej, suddenly gets ill, despite their differences and a wall of misunderstandings that grew between them over the years, the younger brother agrees to take care of him, giving their relationship a completely new meaning.
Kamper
2016
Director: Łukasz Grzegorzek
Kamper has a fairly easy going life. He makes a living by testing video games. He has a pretty and talented wife who is taking cooking lessons from a famous chef. This turns sour when she is unfaithful to him. Attempting to get even, he starts an affair with his Spanish teacher. In this game, however, he will be the one tested. Will Kamper and his wife be able to reach the next level of their lives together? This drama about immature 30 something year old people and their relationship hardships is also a light hearted comedy. A film which blends romance, aggression, irony and bitter laughter as it takes a sharp look at freedom and structure, living as a bachelor and in a relationship. The story we watch is full of paradoxes as Kamper moves from youth to adulthood.
Korpus Cristy
2019
Director: Jan Komasa
Corpus Christi is the story of 20-year-old Daniel who experiences a spiritual transformation while living in a Youth Detention Centre. He wants to become a Catholic priest but this is impossible because of his criminal record. When he is sent to work at a carpenter’s workshop in a small town he dresses up as a priest and accidentally accepts spiritual leadership of the local parish. The arrival of the young, charismatic preacher is an opportunity for the local community to begin the healing process after a tragedy which happened there.
This film won almost every possible award since it was first screened at the Venice Film Festival and became a blockbuster film in its native Poland. This despite, or because, it deals with the status of the Church in Polish society. Seen as one of the most promising young actors in Europe following his role in the film, Bartosz Bielenia inhabits an iconic role. The film touches on satire but is not a cynical one and is packed with plot twists and many engaging characters. It would also be included in the Jerusalem Film Festival on December 10-20.
Body
2015
Director: Małgorzata Szumowska
A bleak comedy which is both shocking and funny, this film was nominated for the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Silver Bear award for best director. A public prosecutor who lives with his daughter Olga following the death of his wife is pushed into facing a very different life when his daughter suffers from anorexia and is taken to a mental hospital. There, she meets Anna, a therapist who claims to be able to communicate with the spirits beyond the veil…
Afterimage
2017
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Polish painter Władysław Strzemiński is at the focus of this film, the last one made by world-famous Polish director Andrzej Wajda. In it, the audience sees how a brilliant painter clashes with the political ruling class of his time. The abstract holistic paintings he created were seen to oppose the Socialist Realism lauded in post-war Poland. This movie presents how political persecution can ruin the personal autonomy of the individual.
Sweat
2020
Director: Magnus von Horn
Sweat recounts three days in the life of fitness trainer Sylwia Zając, whose presence on social media made her a celebrity with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. Despite of this, she is looking for true intimacy and a human connection. After she posts a video in which she tearfully confesses her loneliness she encounters a stalker who refuses to leave her alone. She attempts to maintain her usual cheerfulness but his texts and behaviour escalate. When will she fall apart? How will the stalker react when she confronts him? How will this film end?
Silent Night
2017
Director: Piotr Domalewski
Adam (Dawid Ogrodnik), who lives and works abroad, visits his family home in the Polish provinces on Christmas Eve. At first, he keeps the real reason for his visit to himself, but it isn’t long before he starts letting one relative after another in on his plans. His father (Arkadiusz Jakubik), his brother (Tomasz Ziętek), who he’s fallen out with, his sister (Maria Dębska) and her husband (Tomasz Schuchardt) all have a significant role to play in his scheme. Things get even more complicated when he announces that he’s going to be a father. At that point, in line with time-honoured Polish tradition, alcohol appears on the table. Nobody in the family has the slightest suspicion that the ensuing events of that Christmas Eve are going to have a massive impact on all their lives.
Panic attack
2017
Director: Paweł Maślona
Six stories about ordinary people put in extreme situations, which cause them to experience a panic attack. We experience a roller-coaster of events: a woman meets her two exes during one night, a couple picks the worst seat on an airplane, a young girl risks having her girlfriends expose her as a porn star, a bride gives birth at her own wedding, a teenager gets stoned for the first time while a young man has to beg his weird mother to save his life’s work. A brilliant satire, this film that slices through social norms with razor-sharp humour.
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Polish and Ukrainian movies at the International
