AFA Screening: Art Cinema/ Cinema Art, New Directions in Polish Filmmaking

Tadeusz Konwicki THE LAST DAY OF THE SUMMER / OSTATNI DZIEŃ LATA (1957, 66 min, 35mm, b&w.)

The winner of the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival in 1958 in the category of experimental films, this first feature by Tadeusz Konwicki – who was previously not a film director but a novelist – shocked viewers with its truly unconventional style of visual narration and partially improvised dialogue. Made with a shoestring budget and a crew of only five, the film was photographed by Jan Laskowski, one of the great Polish cinematographers, without any artificial lighting or sets. It is a story of an encounter – on a beach on the Baltic sea – between two strangers, a woman and a man, who are struggling to find meaning in their war-shattered lives. The film’s form and narrative were so far ahead of their time that there was no response to it, and its minimalistic style was not taken up again until almost sixty years later, with Wilhelm and Anka Sasnal’s IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE (2011).

With Irena Laskowska and Jan Machulski.

Wilhelm & Anka Sasnal IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE / Z DALEKA WIDOK JEST PIȨKNY (2011, 77 min.)

This film was shot by Wilhelm Sasnal in Super-16mm then blown up to 35mm. It is a story of a young man who leaves his village, whereupon his neighbors kill his dog, plunder his house, and eventually burn it to the ground. The simple-minded primitive greed and barbarity of the villagers awakens the memory of violence by the Poles towards the Jews during the German occupation of Poland. The stunning beauty of the film’s images, juxtaposed with the ruthless, primitive force and foulness of the villagers’ existence, exposes the savagery of human nature.

With Marcin Czarnik, Piotr Nowak, Elżbieta Okupska, and Jerzy Lapiński.

Zbigniew Libera . WALSER (2015, 78 min, digital.) With Gustaw Klyszcz, Krzysztof Stroiński, and Joanna Wiktorczyk.

Work on the film began in 2011 when Libera won the Film Prize contest sponsored by the Polish Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Wajda School, for a feature-length film project entitled AN AFTERNOON AT THE OZONE BAR. While in production the working title was changed to WALSER. It tells the story of Andrzej Walser, a railroad clerk who finds himself lost in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by a primitive tribe of eternally-young proto-hippies. As a first-time film director and writer, Libera was advised during pre-production by film legend Andrzej Wajda, who worked closely with the artist to help realize his ideas. Gorgeously photographed by Adam Sikora, the film incorporates an invented language and musical instruments.

U.S. PREMIERE!

Łukasz Ronduda & Maciej Sobieszczański PERFORMER (2015, 62 min, digital.) With Oskar Dawicki, Andrzej Chyra, Agata Buzek, Jakub Gierszał, and Zbigniew Warpachowski.

Made in collaboration with Maciej Sobieszczański, PERFORMER was Ronduda’s directorial debut. A curator of Polish experimental film at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Ronduda has created collaborative projects with many Polish artists. PERFORMER is a story about the life and work of one of the most important contemporary Polish artists, Oskar Dawicki, who plays himself. It features documentation of Dawicki’s work, embedded in a story that depicts his life and art, and culminates in his (fictional) death.

Wilhelm & Anka Sasnal THE SUN, THE SUN BLINDED ME / SŁOŃCE, TO SŁOŃCE MNIE OŚLEPIŁO (2016, 74 min, digital.) With Rafał Mackowiak, Piotr Grabowski, and Joanna Drozda.

This film was inspired by THE STRANGER by Albert Camus, which focuses on an alienated man who meets a dark skinned stranger on the beach and kills him. Though written in 1942, Camus’s story is relevant today, given the waves of refugees and migrants from Africa and the Middle East that are arriving at the borders of Europe. The hostility with which the Polish government and the majority of Polish society has greeted these migrants is almost incomprehensible given the experiences of WWII and its aftermath, when millions of Poles were themselves displaced. The film is stunningly shot in tones reminiscent of Wilhelm Sasnal’s paintings, and its minimalistic images underscore the tragic banality of hate.

Łukasz Ronduda A HEART OF LOVE / SERCE MIŁOŚCI (2017, 78 min, digital.) Polish. With Magdalena Cielecka, Jacek Poniedziałek, and Justyna Wasilewska..

Ronduda’s second feature, and his first as a solo filmmaker, is a complex love story between two real life artists, Zuzanna Bartoszek, a poet, and Wojciech Bąkowski, a musician in contemporary Warsaw, who continuously reinvent their relationship, work, and everyday life as one endless performance – a work of art. As in his first film, Ronduda attempts to merge the art world and the film world, resulting in a new form of noncommercial, creative cinema.

U.S. PREMIERE!