Soundtrack Tel Aviv 2025 is a multidisciplinary celebration of the intersection between cinema and music. Held annually at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, the festival features film screenings, live music performances, workshops, meetings with creators, and panels exploring the interplay between sound and image, story and music.

This year, as part of the international competition, a Polish film – Imago, directed by Olga Chajdas

Friday| 21.11 | 21:45
Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Hall 4                                                                                                                                                   

 Addres: 5 Ha’Arbaah St., Tel Aviv

The screening will be preceded by a brief introduction from Dana Kesler, the festival’s Artistic Director, about the artist Ela Góra, whose life and work form the core of the film.

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Set in Communist Poland in 1987, Imago follows a rebellious artist Ela Góra who escapes regime monotony through the underground music scene and post-punk bands. Battling bipolar disorder while fighting for creative freedom, she embodies a generation’s defiance. Her real daughter, who stars and also co-scripted, delivers an unvarnished yet deeply sympathetic portrayal, set to an electrifying post-punk soundtrack.

The story is based on Lena Góra’s life and focuses on the period around her birth and early childhood. Her real mother, Ela “Malwina” Góra, was a singer in legendary bands Pancerne Rowery (“Armored Bicycles”) and Apteka (“Pharmacy”), central figures of the Tri-City (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot in Northern Poland) alternative scene in the 1980s, known for their stage energy, improvisation, and poetic imagination. Imago captures this unique atmosphere, with musical sequences resembling artistic rituals and transformative experiences.

For the film, the band Zakaz Kąpieli (“No Swimming”) was formed, inspired by the alternative sound of the 1980s. Composer Andrzej Smolik collaborated with musicians to create original pieces performed live on set – without playback – capturing the raw energy of the era.

Olga Chajdas (b. 1983) is a film and theatre director and screenwriter. Her debut feature, Nina, won awards at festivals in Rotterdam, Bydgoszcz, and Gdynia, earning her recognition in Poland and abroad. Imago is her second feature film, a multilayered story that can be interpreted as a reflection on artistic identity, a portrait of the Tri-City music scene, or a chronicle of the transition from communism to democracy, with a deeply personal dimension exploring the bond between mother and daughter.