Polish films about the dictatorship

In the former Czechoslovakia, 1950s, police captain Hakl investigates a jewelery robbery. An opened safe deposit leads to a known burglar. What seems an easy case soon starts to tangle. When he is called off the case, he continues on his own. The investigation leads him onto thin ice. Can he beat a stronger enemy and save his family and his own life?

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.

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.

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.

Anna, a young novitiate in 1960s Poland, is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a family secret dating back to the years of the German occupation.

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.

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.

Pressured by his superiors to disgrace public intellectual Warczewski, a professor and respected writer whom they believe to be a "camouflaged Zionist," rough security-services colonel Rozek enlists his sexy but naive girlfriend, Kamila, to insinuate herself into the distinguished older man's life and report on his every move. Not particularly interested in serving communism but eager to please her domineering lover, Kamila accepts the mission, reporting under the code name "Little Rose." As quick scenes contrast Kamila's crude pleasures with Rozek and her more refined experiences with Warczewski, it becomes clear that the more time the unschooled young woman spends with the professor, the more she comes to have true feelings for him.

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.

Mateusz is an intelligent, romantic young man tragically trapped inside his own body, suffering from severe cerebral palsy that makes speech and controlled movement nearly impossible. Born into a loving family, Mateusz’s protected world is shattered when circumstances place him in an institution where he is misunderstood and mistreated. Featuring an astonishing, virtuoso lead performance, Life Feels Good beautifully recounts the true story of one man’s extraordinary efforts to endure in the face of impossible odds.

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

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.

Every day at 6 pm a serial killer kills another person. Police officer Helena Rus thinks the killings are done by one man only and decides to reveal the killer's identity by getting back in 18th century history of the city.

Pawel, a Polish man in his early 30s, makes a living with his father Zygmunt importing second-hand clothing from the North of France to Southern Poland. On his way back from one of regular "business trips", Pawel is shocked to discover his father's picture on the cover of a Polish tabloid newspaper. The headline "traitor" is written next to his name. Zygmunt is a genuine hero of the struggle against totalitarianism and a recognized member of the "Solidarnosc" labor movement of the 80s. But now, Zygmunt is suddenly accused by the paper of having acted as a secret informer called THE MOLE by the communist regime.

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.

A duplicitous young man finds success in the dark world of social media smear tactics — but his virtual vitriol soon has violent real-life consequences.

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.

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.

A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.

Karina is doing her best to have the first happy relationship ever. Unfortunately, the man to whom she gave her heart, seems to be more interested in himself than her. One unforeseen event and one little lie will change Karina’s organized life into an emotional and hilarious roller-coaster. It soon turns out that other people around Karina have their little secrets, too. When the truth comes out, everyone will have to finally put their relationships and in their hearts in order.

The movie begins innocently enough - a group of technology addicted teenagers finds themselves in an off-line camp. However hiking in the woods with no smartphone in sight will not go as planned. They will have to fight for their lives against things they never have seen before, even in the darkest reaches of the Internet. Faced against the dangers lurking in the forest, they will find true friendship, love and sacrifice. Will they come out of it in one piece, or in bloody bits?

Shopping malls - today's place of creating desires. Best jewelry, clothes, shoes. Unaffordable by young girls, but they "work" to get themselves sponsors for new items.

Two middle-aged male friends are travelling together by car and expressing their thoughts and emotions connected with women.

An offbeat romantic comedy about a silver-painted street performer and the soft spoken zoo worker who falls for him.

The love between Mateusz Krol, a Kashubian boy, and Marita von Krauss, a Prussian aristocrat in whose family home he is taken in when his mother dies, grows and matures thorough the years, while Kashubia, the northern Polish region where they live, suffers the consequences of the tragedies that will ravage Europe from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the World War II.

Helina, a modest checkout assistant at the Butterfly retail chain, dreams about getting a better life for herself and her daughter. An opportunity presents itself when Helina becomes a store manager. However, she soon discovers that the price for better wages and an improved standard of living is dishonesty, employee exploitation, and fraud.

Neck leads a quiet life, totally subordinated to his wife. His colleagues are out of town, and the neck is working in the company ordering the highway. When the case agent stars, feisty Clementine, sexy blonde kidnaps him to Warsaw, where the neck turns into a celebrity. To rescue a friend moves Phicol and Jadźka jealous wife.

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

Marcin Krysztalowicz's film is both a partisan ballad, showing the real face of German occupation of Poland during WW2 and a startling war thriller. It tells a story of corporal "Wydra", struggling not only with Germans and Polish traitors but also with his own past...

Inspired by true events from the 1970s, the story revolves around a young detective who becomes the head of a police unit focused on catching a rampant serial killer of women, nicknamed 'The Silesian Vampire'.

Laura and Massimo are back and hotter than ever. But the reunited couple's new beginning is complicated by Massimo’s family ties and a mysterious man who enters Laura’s life to win her heart and trust, at any cost.

Set in communist Poland of the 80s the movie depicts early career of cardio surgeon Zbigniew Religa.

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikolah to smuggle him back to their homeland.

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

During 1962's Cuban missile crisis, a troubled math genius finds himself drafted to play in a U.S.-Soviet chess match -- and a deadly game of espionage.

A celebrity journalist and renowned womanizer starts to rethink his life choices after he falls for a mysterious model who leads a double life.

An ambitious young journalist uncovers the horrific slaughter of 22,000 Polish officers during World War II, a secret kept hidden for far too many years.

Inspired by true events of 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash in Smolensk, the film tells the partially fictional story of crash and various people affected by the tragedy. The protagonist is a journalist Nina, who refuses to accept the official version of the story and pursues her own independent investigation.

After 11-year-old Zachary Cowan strikes his classmate across the face with a stick after an argument, the victim's parents invite Zachary's parents to their Brooklyn apartment to deal with the incident in a civilized manner.

A dashing young Italian in Poland finds himself caught between two women — a novitiate nun and a ruthless corporate ladder-climber — in this lacerating vision of contemporary Poland from master filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi.

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.

Summer time. Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, have their first date in a park. Hesitant and shy at first, they soon discover each other, get closer as they wander, and end up falling in love. But as the sun goes down, it is time to separate... And a dark night begins.

The most turbulent five years in the life of a genius woman: Between 1905, where Marie Curie comes with Pierre Curie to Stockholm to be awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the radioactivity, and 1911, where she receives her second Nobel Prize, after challenging France's male-dominated academic establishment both as a scientist and a woman.

Can you imagine what it means to grow up as the child of a mass murderer? Hans Frank and Otto von Wächter were indicted as war criminals for their roles in WWII. Nazi Governors and consultants to Hitler himself, the two are collectively responsible for thousands of deaths. But what stood out to Philippe Sands were the impressions they left on their sons. While researching the Nuremberg trials, the human rights lawyer came across two men who re-focused his studies: Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter. The men hold polar opposite views on the men who raised them.

A 40-year old actress (single and strong, yet lonely), her sister (an emotionally unstable schoolteacher whose married-with-kids life appears more orderly) and their domineering father, who gradually loses control over his family due to his wife's sudden illness and his own health troubles; these are the three individuals at the heart of this film, a touching story about the strength of family ties in a situation of imminent danger.

A stay-at-home mom and avid reader of crime stories discovers the deepest secrets of a small town's residents while investigating a woman's murder.

A couple decides to spend a romantic evening in a floor of a semi-abandoned building that slip because she works as a consultant for the council house and got the keys. During the evening they discover that a hooded murderer is the only tenant left in the building...and they have become the new target.

A short tale about the demons that slumber deep in the human soul and have the power to push people into the abyss of blind hate, fury and rage.

The story about the friendship between two women, family problems and difficult childhood.

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.