Polish movies to woo Indian audiences

While one makes use of the methods used by the visually impaired, the other captures a road trip of an odd-couple.

Thus filmmakers - Andrzej Jakimowski and Pawel Pawlikowski create Imagine and Ida. The former will mark the beginning and the latter will close
the second edition of ‘Kinoteka Polish Film Festival’ in the Capital.

The festival kicks off today evening and will showcase a selection of some of the
best Polish films till December 12, at India Habitat Centre and Alliance Française.

Presented by The Polish Institute in New Delhi, the film extravaganza aims to bring acclaimed Polish movies closer to Indian audiences. Celebrating the best of Polish cinema, the line-up for the festival includes award-winning films from Poland’s great auteurs alongside cutting edge, exciting work from a new generation. This includes cinematic works such as Papusza, Life Feels Good and Jack Strong.

The festival began in Mumbai on November 19 and will close in both the metropolis together. Split into two parts – the first is called the Polish Cinema Now. This is focused on contemporary Polish cinema featuring some recent film successes, including Andrzej Jakimowski’s highly-acclaimed Imagine.

Imagine tells the tale of a spatial orientation instructor, who through unconventional means, teaches his blind students to navigate the world anew with an emphasis on imagination and sensory perception. His unorthodox approach to his surroundings underscores a faith in his students to overcome not just physical barriers, but their emotional vulnerabilities too.

This film offers an emotional opening to the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2014. Other films on offer also have a similar effect. Indeed, Anna Tryc-Bromley, director of The Polish Institute, adds, “The Polish Institute is bringing new Polish films from the years 2012-2014 including the Oscar candidate from Poland Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski in the Best Foreign Language Film category. We are also celebrating Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue, as this year marks the 25th anniversary of the series. The great filmmaker’s retrospective will be shown at IFFI Goa as well.”

This retrospective forms the second part of the festival. A tribute to arguably Poland’s best film director, Krzysztof Kieślowski, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the premiere of his iconic The Decalogue series, and on the occasion of the festival, first four episodes from this series will be screened.

In addition to Kieślowski movies, the festival has a special world poster exhibition based on the director’s movies. The films of Krzysztof Kieślowski in world film poster exhibition, highlights the rich trajectory of the director’s body of work. Curated by the Film Museum in Łódź (Muzeum Kinematografii w Łodzi), the exhibition consists of 45 film posters featuring some of Kieślowski’s most critically lauded films, made in the years between 1976 and 1994.

The Krzysztof Kieślowski Retrospective will be held at Alliance Française, and will also feature the poster exhibition.