Polish films about birds

The lives of urbanites intertwine in a world where anything can happen at any time.

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather

Not satisfied with the result of a murder investigation in Warsaw's gay community, an officer in 1980s communist Poland resolves to uncover the truth.

On the last day of 1999, 20-year-old Sebastian locks himself in a TV studio. He has two hostages, a gun, and an important message for the world. The story of the attack explores a rebel’s extreme measures and last resort.

Days before the end of the school year, Liliana gives Janek an ultimatum, giving him 24 hours to either prove his love for her or forget about her altogether.

Kuba attends an art opening with his girlfriend of two years and bumps into Mikal. The connection between these two young men is instantaneous and intoxicating, and despite opposition from all sides, he allows Mikal into his life. The results go beyond anything he could have imagined. This intimate and bold second feature from Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski captures the often-complicated consequences of finding love where others do not want it.

A shocking story about addiction and attempts to overcome it. The script is based on Jerzy Plich’s excellent novel “The Mighty Angel” (alternative title: "The Strong Angel Inn"). Jerzy (Robert Więckiewicz) is a writer and a heavy drinker. We meet him at the point when he believes that he can beat his addiction. He falls in love with a young girl (Julia Kijowska) and finally feels that he has got the person and the reason to live for. But soon he yields to his addiction.

How was it possible that a single man influenced contemporary world so significantly? This film is an attempt to capture the phenomenon of a common man’s metamorphosis into a charismatic leader — an attempt to see how a Gdansk shipyard electrician fighting for workers’ rights awakened a hidden desire for freedom in millions of people.

The film is set in the Tricity in 2003, ten years after the end of communism in Poland. The plot, apparently based on the real-life experiences of Kraków businessmen Lech Jerzorny and Paweł Rey, is about three young, talented businessmen who open a high-tech factory. This comes to the attention of the local state ‘mafia’, the local Prosecutor, played by Janusz Gajos, and tax office boss, played by Kasimierz Kaczor, who are both jealous and would like to make money for themselves. We are in Poland, so success must be punished.

69-year-old Jola puts on elaborate make-up, while her husband spouts casual abuse in the background, how she never had much in her head and is basically worthless when it comes down to it. So Jola leaves Italy on a train bound for her native Poland. There, on the beach, she takes a trip down memory lane with her girlfriends: how she married the young man who got her pregnant, swore to care for him “in good times and in bad”, raised her six children and put up with punches, put-downs and her husband’s drinking problem. And now? Now she dresses elegantly, and takes singing and dance lessons. In the process, she meets a gentleman her age, Wojtek, and the two strike up a friendship. But divorce, at her age? What will her family, her friends or the church say? Of course, one can just leave, everyone is free to choose, but is it the right move?

Karol, an ordinary young man, runs into a much older man, whom he believes to be a Red Spider, the terrifying serial killer, prowling the streets of Cracow in 1960s. Karol becomes obsessed with the man and spies on him.

The contemporary story of a priest who launches a centre for troubled youth in a small parish. He is a good priest and is well-liked by his congregation, which remains unaware of his complicated past.

Poland, 1970. Firmly determined to fight against Soviet tyranny and prevent the destruction of the world, the high-ranking officer of the Polish army Ryszard Kukliński makes a serious decision that will put his life, his family and the fate of an entire nation at risk.

Michalina Wislocka, the most famous and recognized sexologist of communist Poland, fights for the right to publish her book, which will change the sex life of Polish people forever.

The tiny girl meets a fairy prince who saves her from the creatures of the woods.

A blind teacher breaks the rules to help a female student rediscover the pleasures of life.

The rise and fall of the most distinguished Polish-Gypsy poetess Bronislawa Wajs, widely known as Papusza, and her relationship with her discoverer, writer Jerzy Ficowski.

A movie about the power of thousands, the courage of hundreds and friendship of a few, thanks to whom a change of fate of millions became possible. Poland, lower Silesia, the beginning of a very cold winter 1981. After a series of entrapments by the security service a confrontation between the opposition and the communists seems to be inevitable. Just before the proclamation of martial law a group of young solidarity activists decide to play va banque and organize a rash action to take out 80 million of the union money from one of the Wroclaw’s banks before the account is blocked. Security service officers follow their steps. It’s the beginning of a gripping tournament in which also priests and curb dealers will play their parts. Each side has aces up their sleeve.

This harrowing tale of survival centers on Rose, a Masurian woman, whose German soldier husband was killed in the war, leaving her alone on their farm. A single woman had no defense against Russian soldiers who raped as a form of revenge, nor against plundering Poles who found themselves in desperate straits. Help arrives for Rose in the form of Tadeusz, a former officer in the Polish Home Army who deserted after he saw his wife raped and murdered by Russian troops and is attempting to hide his identity.

A father and his two teenage sons travel to a small mountain cabin for a male bonding adventure. When a lost tourist arrives at the cabin, their male-bonding outing turns into a struggle for survival.

Tadek, a Polish detective, becomes suspicious of a controversial author when the incidents described in his unpublished novel resemble the inner workings of an unsolved murder.

Basia and Marek have been on the run their whole lives. Along with their nine-year-old daughter Ula, they experience what it’s like to be an immigrant in Sweden. When a Swedish social worker visits their home, she witnesses Ula’s everyday reality, as seen from the perspective of the local culture. Ula is then taken away from her parents and placed in foster care. Will Basia and Marek stick together and fight for Ula? Will they succeed in rebuilding their bond and their family?

To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.

Alicja suffers from memory loss and has rebuilt her own free spirited way of life. Two years later, she returns to her former family to assume against her will her role as wife, mother and daughter.

Dominik is an ordinary boy. He's got loads of friends, the hottest girl in school, rich parents and money to spend on brand-name clothes. But one innocent kiss with a mate changes everything. He begins to isolate himself from the outside world, spending all his time on his computer. He meets an anonymous girl who introduces him to the "suicide room", a place from which there is no escape. Caught in a trap woven of his own emotions, Dominik becomes entangled in a web of intrigue and gradually loses what he cherishes most.

After the fall of the September Campaign of 1939, two Polish pilots are forced to fight for their nation in foreign battlefronts.

This harrowing war film is an epic dramatization of the first battle of World War II. The Battle of Westerplatte that began on 1 September 1939 will forever be remembered as the one that announced the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Over one week, fewer than 200 Polish soldiers fought against heavy German bombardment and in the process came to symbolize the power of resistance. As the violence rages, a complex battle of a more personal nature plays out between two Polish commanders over how to best lead their men. Amid the bloodshed, they must ask themselves – should they fight until the last man standing or surrender in the face of overwhelming odds? What unfolds is a stirring exploration of the fight against the forces of tyranny.

Summer of 1939. Zosia is a young Polish girl who is deeply in love with Ukrainian Petro. Their great love will be put to the test when her father decides to marry her to a wealthy widower Skiba. Right after wedding she is left alone because her husband is drafted to the Polish army for the war with Germany. Meanwhile, tensions grow due to Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians living side by side.

After taking control of the capital, Nanny's gang prepares for the biggest smuggling action in the history of Poland.

Soviet Georgia, 1983. Preparations for Nika and Ana's wedding are in full swing and it's a big day for both of their elite families. For the newlyweds and their friends, however, the celebrations are in fact part of a cover-up, as they plot an audacious escape from the Soviet Union.

Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. They cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war.

An Icelandic couple live with their herd of sheep on a beautiful but remote farm. When they discover a mysterious newborn on their land, they decide to keep it and raise it as their own. This unexpected development, and the prospects of a new family, brings them much joy before ultimately destroying them.

A few years back tragic events tied the fate of three Catholic priests. From then on they meet on every anniversary of the disaster to celebrate their survival. On an everyday basis they have their ups and downs. Lisowski works at the curia in a big city, has a career and is dreaming of the Vatican. Problem is, archbishop Mordowicz, an opulent church official who uses his political influence to build the largest sanctuary in Poland, gets in his way. The second priest, Trybus, is a village parson. He ministers to a poor community and gives in to human weaknesses more and more often. Kukuła is not faring well either. Despite his fervent faith, he loses the trust of his parishioners actually overnight. Soon the stories of the three clergymen are going to join once again.

Poland, 1990. The first euphoric year of freedom, but also of uncertainty for the future. Four apparently happy women of different ages decide it's time to change their lives, and fulfill their desires.

An estranged father and son are brought together by a young crane named Karl as they trace a family of the birds on their migratory journey from Russia to Africa.

An atmospheric coming-of-age story featuring an imaginative young boy named Marek who dreams of escaping an increasingly dangerous Poland on the eve of war for beautiful Venice.

Russia 2017. The world could be on the verge of a great war. People are anxious that things could fall apart. Evolving around an unfinished building, a diverse group of outsiders struggle to find their place in this rapidly changing society, making up the mosaic of existence that is life itself…

Follows four friends in their quest to form a punk band. As workers protests sweep across the country, Janek and Staszek, the sons of a navy man, the rebellious Kazik, and the affluent Diabel gel as a band, but their disparate lives are touched by social turmoil and outside perceptions.

What would it be like to step inside a great work of art, have it come alive around you, and even observe the artist as he sketches the very reality you are experiencing? From Lech Majewski, one of Poland's most acclaimed filmmakers, The Mill and the Cross is a cinematic re-staging of Pieter Bruegel's masterpiece "Procession to Calvary," presented alongside the story of its creation.

The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. As remarkable as Vincent’s brilliant paintings are his passionate and ill-fated life and mysterious death.

At the dinner table one night, a close-knit Romanian family is upset by a startling revelation.

Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.

After climbing Broad Peak mountain, Maciej Berbeka learns his journey to the summit is incomplete. 25 years later, he sets out to finish what he started.

A young woman haunted by her past joins a mysterious professor and his group of gifted students who investigate paranormal activity and fight demons.

In 1987 Poland, a police officer investigating mysterious disappearances infiltrates a remote monastery and discovers a dark truth about its clergy.

Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.

Laura and Massimo’s relationship hangs in the balance as they try to overcome trust issues and jealousy while a tenacious Nacho works to push them apart.

Kuba's sister falls seriously ill. In order to gather the required money for treatment he starts taking part in illegal car races.

She graduated from a prestigious high school in Warsaw and entered medicine in London. He works as a kitesurfing instructor at the seaside, thanks to which he combines earning money and passion. They will meet in Hel. The unusual charm of the boy makes the girl exceed her limits and enter a completely unknown world of kitesurfing, music and fun. The feeling that arises between them does not please her family or his friends. Is Ania and Michal's relationship strong enough to overcome adversities and become more than just a holiday love?