POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
This annual event is organized by the UW-Madison Polish Student Association in collaboration with the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic Languages, CREECA, Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD) Film Comittee, and the Polish Heritage Club of Madison WI.
This year’s edition of the Madison Polish Film Festival will be
an online-only event held on December 5th and 6th, 2020.
All the films will be subtitled and available for screening
at any time during the festival weekend.
Registration is free and open to Wisconsin residents!
Movies screened in 2020 at the 30th
Annual Polish Film Festival
author: IRENA FRACZEK
December 5 and 6, 2020
I Never Cry
(original title: Jak najdalej stąd )
(2020, dir. Piotr Domalewski, 98 minutes)
►TRAILER◄
Seventeen-year-old Ola sets off to Ireland to bring her father’s body back to Poland after he dies in a building site accident. But never mind her dad, Ola wants to know if he saved the money for a car he had promised her. Dealing with a foreign bureaucracy in her own streetwise way, Ola finally gets to know the father who had been largely absent in her life.
Piotr Domalewski was born in 1983 in Łomża. He holds two M F A. degrees from the Acting Department at The Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Cracow and Bialystok Acting Department of The National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He is currently a graduate student in Directing at the Krzysztof Kieslowski Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia. Domalewski is a laureate of the Munk Studio’s prestigious 30′ Program which supports outstanding young filmmakers. His short films have won awards at various festivals across Europe. Obcy (Stranger, 2013) received the Grand Prix at the Cinemaforum in Warsaw and 60 kilo niczego (60 Kilos of Nothing, 2017) the Best Short Film Award at Trieste Film Festival. In 2017 he directed his feature film debut, Cicha noc (Silent Night), winner of the Grand Prix in Gdynia and of the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Discovery of the Year accolades at the Polish Film Awards. Jak Najdalej Stąd is his second feature film.
December 5 and 6, 2020
The Iron Bridge
(original title: Żelazny most)
(2019, dir. Monika Jordan-Młodzianowska, 85 minutes)
►TRAILER◄
The dramatic story about a love triangle. Coalmine Foreman Kacper begins an affair with the wife of his friend, Oskar, also a miner. He sends Oskar off to work in the most distant and dangerous parts of the pit so that he can meet his lover. During one such tryst there’s a collapse at the mine, and Oskar is trapped. The lovers throw themselves into the rescue operation. They deal with feelings of guilt and with the realization that they were the indirect cause of the trapped man’s drama. Their strong feelings for each other further complicate their predicament.
Monika Jordan-Młodzianowska was born 1979 in Bolesławiec. She studied at the Film and TV College in Wroclaw and National Film School in Łódź at the Directing Faculty. Since 2006 she has worked as casting director and screenwriter. She directed several shorts and documentaries, among them: “Hiber-nation” (“Hiber-nacja”), awarded at the Jutro Filmu (Tomorrow of the Cinema) festival. Her student film “Siena”, was awarded a Silver Tadpole for cinematography. “The Iron Bridge” is her feature debut.
December 5 and 6, 2020
Ikar. Legenda Mietka Kosza
(original title: Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz)
(2019, dir. Maciej Pieprzyca, 110 minutes)
►TRAILER◄
Inspired by the true story of the blind piano genius, Mieczylaw Kosz. As a child, Mietek (Mieczyslaw) loses his eyesight, and his mother places him in The Educational Center in Laski outside of Warsaw, a one-hundred-year-old school for the visually impaired. There he discovers music and finds that it is his way coping with the world. Mietek develops into an excellent classical pianist, but when he discovers jazz, he has only one goal: to become the best jazz pianist in Poland. He becomes more and more successful, not only in Poland, but around the world. He wins the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival. Unexpectedly, a charismatic vocalist, Zuza, walks into his life, a meeting that will change his life forever.
Maciej Pieprzyca was born in 1964 in Katowice. He graduated in Journalism from the Silesian University in Katowice (1989) and in Film Directing from the Radio and TV Department at the same University (1993). In 1990 he completed the Screenwriting Study program at the National Film School in Łódź and since has received many awards including the Silver Lion award at the 44th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for his 2019 film Icarus. The legend of Mietek Kosz.
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