Maja Komorowska

Katyn

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

Weekend Stories: The Hidden Treasure

Rose, an older woman living in Paris was born in Poland as a daughter of an aristocratic family. Her family house is now an impoverished home for the elderly.

The Doll

Wealthy merchant Stanislaw Wokulski falls tragically in love with beautiful yet vain Izabela Lecka. His unfulfilled love leads to many foolish decisions sealing his fate.

Revisited

In this mixture of fiction and documentary Krzysztof Zanussi invites a number of Poland’s great actors—Maja Komorowowska, Daniel Olbrychski, and Jan Nowicki—to "revisit" characters they played in the director's earlier works.

Salvation

A biology professor, Adam enters a hospital for observation. He is a loner and a serious-minded man, who dislikes any display of emotions. He spends three months in the hospital while being tested. After observing patients and hospital routines around him from a distance, he learns that he will need a kidney transplant. Meanwhile his personal and professional life is falling apart: he refuses his wife's offer to donate the kidney for him; the scientific problem he was working on has been solved elsewhere. In the end Adam cracks under the prolonged pressure, waiting for the sound of an ambulance bringing a moribund patient whose kidney may be used for the transplant.

Man of Iron

In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends disgruntled radio reporter Winkel to Gdańsk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers - particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an independent labour union leader whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.

The Judgement Passed on Franciszek Klos

Franciszek Kłos is an officer of the Blue Police in a small town. He is sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.

Lava

On the eve of the Day of the Dead, among mysterious old rituals of the Vilnius region, ghosts of the past and present start to appear.

Katyn

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

Weekend Stories: The Hidden Treasure

Rose, an older woman living in Paris was born in Poland as a daughter of an aristocratic family. Her family house is now an impoverished home for the elderly.

The Doll

Wealthy merchant Stanislaw Wokulski falls tragically in love with beautiful yet vain Izabela Lecka. His unfulfilled love leads to many foolish decisions sealing his fate.

Revisited

In this mixture of fiction and documentary Krzysztof Zanussi invites a number of Poland’s great actors—Maja Komorowowska, Daniel Olbrychski, and Jan Nowicki—to "revisit" characters they played in the director's earlier works.

Salvation

A biology professor, Adam enters a hospital for observation. He is a loner and a serious-minded man, who dislikes any display of emotions. He spends three months in the hospital while being tested. After observing patients and hospital routines around him from a distance, he learns that he will need a kidney transplant. Meanwhile his personal and professional life is falling apart: he refuses his wife's offer to donate the kidney for him; the scientific problem he was working on has been solved elsewhere. In the end Adam cracks under the prolonged pressure, waiting for the sound of an ambulance bringing a moribund patient whose kidney may be used for the transplant.

Man of Iron

In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends disgruntled radio reporter Winkel to Gdańsk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers - particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an independent labour union leader whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.

The Judgement Passed on Franciszek Klos

Franciszek Kłos is an officer of the Blue Police in a small town. He is sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.

Lava

On the eve of the Day of the Dead, among mysterious old rituals of the Vilnius region, ghosts of the past and present start to appear.

Pan Olbrychski

Biographical documentary film presenting the silhouette and artistic path of the outstanding actor Daniel Olbrychski. The narrative of the main character is confronted with his colleagues and friends, in contemporary interviews, including: with Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Hoffman, Krzysztof Zanussi, Volker Schlondorff and Adam Michnik. The archival materials will include statements and excerpts from the realization of scenes from Andrzej Wajda's films. The film roles of the main character are intertwined with his private life.

Jan Englert. Spróbuję jeszcze raz pofrunąć

A Year of the Quiet Sun

Shortly after World War II an American soldier (Norman) and a Polish refugee (Emilia) fall in love. Eventually he will return to the U.S. and both expect that she will soon follow him with her mother. Emilia's mother is sick, but will recover with the right medicine. But the mother, and not Emilia, knows that there will only be one ticket...

The Devil's Elixirs

Young seminary student Franziskus has been ceremonially ordained. He wants to escape the harshness and injustice of the world and devote himself to the service of God in the quiet seclusion of a monastery. He is also hoping to forget the beautiful lady Aurelie, whose life he saved in a flooded brook and with whom he spent an amorous night. He knows that her father would never allow her to marry him. But the devil dressed in a monk's habit and under the name Viktorin intervenes in Franziskus's destiny and attempts to lead him astray. To do so he first uses the diabolical elixirs kept at the monastery as a rare relic. When the young monk gets expelled from the monastery, Viktorin prepares another trap with the help of Aurelie's stepmother Euphemie.

Wherever You Are...

An Uruguayan diplomat brings his new wife with him on a business trip to Poland in the summer immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II.

From a Far Country

This heroic story follows the life of Karol Wojtyla, a Polish Roman catholic who ascends the throne of St. Peter as Pope John Paul II. As a young boy, Karol is a bright and talented student. Archbishop Sapieha recognizes the very special, moving qualities Karol possesses and encourages him to consider the priesthood. Although determined to study Polish literature, Karol turns to the church; he is ordained and studies in Italy, France, and Belgium. Torn by fear and repression in post-Stalin Eastern Europe, Karol becomes a poisonous thorn in the communists' side. His deer reverence and commitment return him to Poland as Pope John Paul II.

Two for the Seesaw

Jerry arrives in New York alone to escape his painful divorce and, penniless, meets Giselle, a free-spirited dancer with unfulfilled dreams. A single phone call sparks a passionate romance, but their love is tested by shifting affections and the lingering presence of Jerry’s estranged wife, turning their affair into a crowded triangle.

Decalogue I

Krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, Paweł, to look to science for answers, while Irena, Paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. Over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems.

The Maids of Wilko

Set in the late '20s. A thirtyish young man, who heads a small factory, faints at the funeral of a close friend. He decides to go home to his aunt and uncle for a while, but gets involved with a family of five women who had been in love with him at one time though he had apparently loved only one, who, unknown to him, has died since his departure. The women are mainly disillusioned with life or estranged from husbands while the youngest has a crush on him.

Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz

Inspired by true events, a story of a blind grand piano genius. As a child Mietek loses his sight. His mother places him in the care of the nuns in Laski. At the centre for the blind the boy discovers that music may be his way of seeing the world again and of describing it. Mietek goes on to become a brilliant classical pianist. Once he discovers jazz music, though, he has only one goal left: to become the best jazz pianist in Poland. He is 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. This meeting will change it forever.

The Wedding

Set at the turn of the century, the story concerns a Polish poet living in Cracow who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland's 100-year-long division under Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The bridegroom, a painter friend, and a journalist each in turn is confronted with spectres of Polish past.

Motyw

The story of a young couple who abandon city life and move to the countryside.

The Spiral

In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.

The Heart and Sweetheart

A story, warm and full of humor, about Maszenka, an 11-year-old girl from an orphanage in the Bieszczady Mountains who loves ballet. The first stage on her road to fulfilling her dream is the entrance exam to the ballet school in Gdansk. To make it there in time, she escapes from the orphanage, taking newly hired educator Kordula with her. They travel all the way across Poland, hiding from the police and meeting people who help them in need.

Family Life

A young industrial designer named Wit reluctantly returns to his family home to look after his gravely ill father. Upon entering the dark confines of a house he has not visited in six years, Wit once again finds himself exposed to the idiosyncratic pathologies of his father, sister, and aunt.

Ways in the Night

Friedrich is a wealthy, handsome German soldier fighting in World War II. His unit is stationed in Poland and occupies the estate of Countess Elzbieta. Forced to remain in her presence, Friedrich begins to pursue Elzbieta out of boredom.

Dekalog

The Ten Commandments, exact and uncompromising, literally cast in stone, continues to provide a source of moral conflict in contemporary society. In the ten part collection of films, The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieslowski examines the dilemma of fundamental sin in the lives of ordinary Warsaw citizens.

Panny i wdowy

An epic tale of a hundred years of Polish history from the perspective of women, the titular maidens and widows. Set against the backdrop of turbulent historical events.

Mit meinen heißen Tränen

A three-part Austrian television film about the life of composer Franz Schubert. The title of the film is a quote from Erstarung (Immobilization), the fourth song in Schubert's song cycle Winterreise (Winter Journey).