The Polish Institute is pleased to invite audiences to a series of special film events במסגרת the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival 2026, bringing together the work of Poland’s greatest filmmaker, Andrzej Wajda, and the voices of a new generation of young Polish filmmakers.

At the heart of Wajda’s work, much of which focuses on World War II in Poland and Europe, stands the younger generation. His films center on twenty-year-old protagonists who are drawn into wartime realities and forced to shape their lives in the shadow of fascism, violence, and loss. On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, we ask: what would Wajda think of the young generation in our region today? How are the experiences of those who enlisted, lost loved ones, refused, protested, or were arrested reflected in his films? And what can the fate of his heroes teach us about ourselves?

Alongside the tribute to Andrzej Wajda, two short films by a new generation of Polish filmmakers will be screened: Dad Is Not Home and The Dybbuk. Although created decades apart and under entirely different circumstances, all three works place at their center young people confronting loss, responsibility, identity, and the search for their place in the world, tracing a fascinating continuum between classic Polish cinema and its contemporary voices.

Dad’s Not Home – directed by Jan Saczek (27 min, 2025)

Two underage brothers hide their father’s frontotemporal dementia from the outside world. In the absence of responsible adults, they must run the household, care for their father, and do everything possible to keep the family together.

The film was produced at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School of the University of Silesia in Katowice.

Wednesday, June 24, 7:30 PM

Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Hall 4

For tickets reservation

The Dybbuk – directed by Maciej Tyburski (22 min, 2025)

Leah, a young woman struggling with the loss of her beloved, finds herself possessed by a modern-day dybbuk appearing through a dating app. Torn between Jewish tradition, family expectations, and her search for personal identity, she fights to regain control of her life.

Produced at the Łódź Film School, the film offers a contemporary and original interpretation of one of the best-known motifs in Jewish culture.

Friday, June 26, 11:00 AM

Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Hall 2

For tickets reservation

Samson – directed by Andrzej Wajda (1961)

Psychological war drama depicting the tragic fate of a young Jewish man enduring the ordeal of a persecuted nation in occupied Warsaw. Jakub is imprisoned for the accidental killing of a man and is released from prison in September 1939. He works in the ghetto as a gravedigger, but after his mother’s death he escapes from it, almost against his own will. He finds shelter with various people (Lucyna and Malina, a fellow prisoner), and eventually seeks to break his isolation and return to the ghetto, only to discover that it no longer exists. He later works in an underground printing press, and when the Germans surround it, he kills the enemy and himself with a bundle of grenades.

Alongside the tribute to Andrzej Wajda, two short films by a new generation of Polish filmmakers will be screened: Dad’s Not Home and The Dybbuk. Although created decades apart and under entirely different circumstances, all three works place at their center young people confronting loss, responsibility, identity, and the search for their place in the world, creating a fascinating dialogue between classical Polish cinema and its contemporary voices.

Tuesday, June 30, 11:00 AM

Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Hall 2

For tickets reservation

The screening will be preceded by a conversation with Shani Kiniso, film scholar, founder of the “Unfathomable Cinema Project” and survivor of the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on October 7, 2023, and Dr. Shmulik Duvdevani, film critic and scholar from the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University.