From November 25 till December 2, 2020, the cinemas “Tsentralnyi” and “Falcon Club Cinema Boutique” will show the programme “After-Images. Contemporary Polish Cinema”. What has Polish cinema become after Andrzej Wajda’s death? How are its leading themes – historical chronicles and modern paradoxes – embodied in films of the post-classical era?
We will watch new films, discover new names, follow old acquaintances, plunge into the world of “afterimages” in fiction, documentary and animation films. You can watch these films in the cinema hall, where a social distance between the spectators will be respected. We remind you that your main accessory when going to the cinema is a protective mask, which is a must when visiting all public places.
25 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00 / 27 November – cinema “Falcon Club Cinema Boutique”, 20:00
Directors: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert
Poland, Germany, 113 minutes
2020 Venice International Film Festival (Italy) – special mention
Immigrant Zhenya works as a massage therapist. His clients include the world weary inhabitants of an elite village. Despite their wealth, deep down they are all unhappy. The hands of a mysterious stranger heal their bodily ailments, the gaze lulls and sees beyond skin and bone. Zhenya’s Russian accent sounds to his clients like a song from the past, a memory of a carefree childhood. Soon, the stranger’s unusual abilities will change the lives of each of them.
26 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00 / 28 November – “Falcon Club Cinema Boutique”, 20:00
Director: Magnus von Horn
Poland, Sweden, 105 minutes
2020 The Cannes Festival (France) – official selection
International film festival in Chicago (USA) – “Gold Hugo” for the best film, “Silver Hugo” for the best art direction
Sylvia Zayats has 600,000 subscribers on Instagram. Her fitness training “Sweat” is adored not only in her native Poland, but all over the world. Sylvia shares love with viewers, starting all her stories with the words “my beloved ones”, but regardless of the broadcasts she is deeply lonely – she motivates others, but she yearns for someone who would motivate her. Once, swept away by emotions, she records a video where she cries and admits that she has no boyfriend; the video goes viral, and soon Sylvia has a stalker.
26 November – cinema “Falcon Club Cinema Boutique”, 20:00 / 28 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:10
2019 The Gdynia Film Festival (Poland) – The Golden Lions Award, Award for the best cinematography and the best actor (Dawid Ogrodnik)
Based on real events. Metek lost his sight as a child. Once in a monastery shelter for the blind, the boy realizes that music can become his guide to the big world. Over time, Metek became a brilliant classical musician, until one day he got acquainted with the work of Bill Evans. Now his only goal is to become the best jazz pianist in Poland. He travels, gives concerts and appears on television. The turn of the 1960s – 1970s is his finest hour: general admiration for his talent and fame promise happiness, but is it really so?
27 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00
Director: Xawery Zulawski
Poland, 138 minutes
2019 The Gdynia Film Festival (Poland) – award for the best feature-length film
2020 Award of Polish film critics – special mention in the category “The best Polish film”
The film “Mowa ptaków” is the story about the humiliated and insulted, outcasts of modern pragmatic society: a history teacher who is bullied by students, a Polish teacher expelled from school, a leper composer, a cleaning lady in a wealthy house, a crippled florist and a young director. This is the language of those who are expelled by a system that can only generate hatred and stupidity. The only weapon of the heroes is irony, flowers and quotes from the classics. The script by Andrzej Zulawski tells about the decline of the Polish intellectuals, which, finding themselves unable to endure neglect of knowledge, rudeness and narrow-mindedness, chooses internal emigration.
28 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 17:00
Director: Tomasz Wolski
Poland, 51 minutes
2020 International film festival «Visions du Réel» (Switzerland) – Award of the Students’ Jury
The Kraków Film Festival (Poland) – The Golden Horn for the director of the best film
Trying to remain invisible, they were everywhere. They filmed on the sly in restaurants, on the street, in stores. They listened to telephone conversations. They registered the illegal sale of fuel, tracked down lovers who met in hotels. Interrogations were filmed, during which they blackmailed the detainees, forcing them to agree to cooperation. This film is a found footage documentary based on records by Polish communist security officers in 1960-1980.
29 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 21:00
Director: Adrian Panek
Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, 88 minutes
2018 The Gdynia Film Festival (Poland) – awards for the best direction and music
2018 Black Nights Tallinn IFF (Estonia) – Audience Choice Award, Ecumenical Jury Award
2019 Fantaspoa Film Festival (Brasil) – The best film
Summer 1945. An abandoned manor surrounded by woods is home to eight children released from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Another former prisoner, 20-year-old Hanka, has been assigned to look after them. After the camp hell, young heroes gradually return to normal life, but the horrors of the past catch them again. Camp shepherd dogs wander the forests. Unleashed by the SS before the liberation of the camp, wild and hungry animals besiege the house in search of food. Fear forces children and adolescents to be guided only by the survival instinct.
30 November – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00
Director: Jaroslaw Szmidt
Poland, 91 minutes
2020 Krakow Film Festival (Poland) – National Competition
International documentary film festival “Flahertiana” (Russia)
The author of the film closely watches the struggle for the life of seven-year-old Zuzi, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic disease. Her skin is as vulnerable as a butterfly’s wing and shatters at the slightest touch. The only way to alleviate the girl’s suffering is through an expensive operation in the United States, which, however, represents a great risk. The camera captures moments of despair and glimpses of hope as parents struggle to cope with such emotions. But the greatest impression on the viewer is made by Zuzi herself, who perceives her position as an adult.
1 December – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00
Director Mariek Legki
Poland, 92 minutes
2019 The Gdynia Film Festival (Poland) – awards for the best sound
The country is gripped by pre-holiday euphoria, but not everyone is happy about it. Macek is only 35 years old, and he understands that life loses all meaning. To pay off the mortgage, he is forced to work from morning till night. The boss sets him up, and this becomes the last straw: Macek steals his car and goes where his eyes would look. An employee of the mayor’s office, 35-year-old Magda, is responsible for preparing the festive events. At first full of enthusiasm, over time she begins to notice the villainy and hypocrisy around her. The heroes’ paths cross on the day of the holiday, but will this meeting change their lives?
“Zabij to i wyjedź z tego miasta”
2 December – cinema “Tsentralnyi”, 19:00
Director: Mariusz Wilczynski
Poland, 88 minutes
2020 The Berlin International Film Festival (Germany) – Competition programme “Encounters”
Surreal fantasy for adults with horror elements. To put out the longing for the departed loved ones, the hero hides in the land of memories, where time has stood still, and the people dear to him are still alive. Over the years, a city appeared in his imagination. Once upon a time literary heroes and cult characters of children’s cartoons settle there. When our hero discovers that they have all grown old and eternal youth does not exist, he decides to return to reality. And the amazing characters living in his imagination undertake to take him back to the real world.
The film distribution in Minsk is arranged by Visual and Performing Arts Centre “ART Corporation”. The film screenings are supported by Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Institute in Minsk.
We advise you to observe safety measures and make the visit to the cinema not only pleasant, but also safe: use masks and other protective means.
Follow the news about the next screenings on the site artcorporation.by, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, VK.