Polish Film Festival
The ninth annual edition of the Polish Film Festival, produced by the Society for Arts, continues Friday through Tuesday, November 7 through 11. Film and video screenings will be at the Gateway Theatre, Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence. Tickets for most programs are $7, $6 for Society of Arts members. Tickets for video presentations are $4, and the 8:45 screening on Tuesday, November 11, which includes the closing and awards ceremony, is $10; for more information call 773-486-9612.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Visit Me in My Dream
A mother of three who writes children’s literature is killed in an accident; the remainder of Teresa Kotlarczyk’s 1996 fantasy parallels the mother’s existence in heaven, described as “a kind of storeroom,” with her family’s struggle to live without her. With Danuta Stenka, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Ewa Gawryluk. (6:45)
Special Video Program 2
Two short films from 1996: Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz’s Bonk-a-Bonk and Konrad Szolajski’s A New Tale of a Real Man. (7:05)
Street Boys
A docudrama with fictional main characters, set in Poznan during the workers strike on June 28, 1956. Director and screenwriter Filip Bajon will attend the screening. (8:45)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Making the Sting
Set in the early 70s, this first feature by director Olaf Lubaszenko is about two friends who form a partnership in crime. (6:00)
Happy New York
A comedy-drama about six Poles who immigrate to the U.S. and find themselves isolated from their familial and cultural roots. Directed by Janusz Zaorski; with Boguslaw Linda, Cezary Pazura, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Katarzyna Figura, and Janusz Gajos. (8:00)
Kiler
An action comedy about a cabdriver who’s mistaken for an internationally notorious hit man and finds himself growing into the role. Directed by Juliusz Machulski; with Cezary Pazura, Malgorzata Kozuchowska, Jerzy Stuhr, Janusz Rewinski, and Katarzyna Figura. (10:00)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Street Boys
See listing for Friday, November 7. (2:00)
The Dark Side of Venus
Radoslaw Piwowarski, a protege of Andrzej Wajda, wrote and directed this tale of sexual jealousy. A symphony conductor’s wife learns of his affair with a young girl and is drawn into an exploration of perverse fantasy, eventually taking a lover of her own. With Agnieszka Wagner, Jan Englert, Pawel Delag, and Anna Przybylska. Piwowarski will attend the screening. (4:00)
Brute
Maciej Dejczer (300 Miles to Heaven) directed this drama about smuggling and other clandestine activities inside a children’s hospital in Romania. With Til Schweiger, Polly Walker, and Pete Postlethwaite. (6:00)
Making the Sting
See listing for Saturday, November 8. (8:00)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Grate
Pawel Lozinski’s 1996 debut follows an old pensioner and a young boy thrown together by their common desire for a 500-franc note that a tourist has accidentally dropped through a sewer grate. On the same program, Lozinski’s A Hundred Years in Cinema (1996), a study of Polish cinema as seen and remembered by common people. (6:45)
Special Video Program 3
Three short documentaries from 1996: Marcin Latallo’s A Trace, about filmmaker Stanislaw Latallo; Hanna Kramarczuk’s Guru, about a drug treatment center; and Pawel Woldan’s Citizens, a parody of the mass media constructed from interviews at a horse market. (7:05)
Virus
The virus in question is a computer virus; launched by a terrorist in Warsaw, it leads to disasters involving a hospital, the stock exchange, and the traffic control system regulating suburban trains. A thriller written and directed by Jan Kidawa-Blonski. (9:00)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Virus
See listing for Monday, November 10. (6:45)
Special Video Program 4
Iwona Sieklerzyneka’s Pancia, a student film made under the guidance of Krzysztof Kieslowki; Mariusz Malec’s documentary As if Making the Sign of the Cross, about a group of amateur actors called the Theatre of Ritual; and Piotr Lazarkiewicz’s hour-long documentary about a recent flood, Big Water (7:05)
Prostitutes
Eugeniusz Priwieziencew’s debut film is about a 20-year-old girl with a drunken father and an illegitimate child; inspired by a successful friend, she ventures into a life of high-class prostitution but is quickly pulled into the streets. With Katarzyna Figura, Agnieszka Fitkau-Perepeczko, and Zuzanna Paluch. This program will include the festival’s official closing and awards ceremony. (8:45)
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Making the Sting film still.