After arriving at a holiday villa on an Italian island, bourgeois couple Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Żulewska) discover that the swimming pool is empty. The migrant worker sent to fix it suffers a deadly poolside...

Virtual reality (or VR) is taking leaps and bounds in the world of cinema. This technology, which refers to a simulated experience of reality, transmitted through a headset, enables artists and directors alike to explore the spatial...

In 1983, communist Poland is still under martial law. After being arrested and beaten by the police, Grzegorz Przemyk, son of the opposition poet Barbara Sadowska (Sandra Korzeniak), dies. The only witness, Jurek Popiel (Tomasz Ziętek),...

From Wojciech Jerzy Has, the director of the dazzling The Saragossa Manuscript, this early low key work (presented in the Cannes competition) from his Polish Film School period explores the effects of WW2 on the Polish psyche. Adapted...

Winning the award for best directorial feature debut at the Polish Film Festival in 1980 Without Love marked the arrival of the distinct talent of Barbara Sass. Positioning strong, independent contemporary women centre stage,...

Having received his first major break as an actor with (the now internationally renowned) Andrzej Wajda, Daniel Olbrychski continued to appear in his films and took the lead in this elegiac tale of 1920s Poland. Often described as...

Described by the Lincoln Centre in 2019 as “a disturbingly prescient allegory of power, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth world” Piotr Szulkin’s sci-fi drama opens just before the dawn of 21st century. Based on H G Wells’...

Amateurs were cast in the main roles in this final segment of Kazimierz Kutz’ Silesian trilogy, which began with Salt of the Black Earth in 1969. With an affectionate script, adapted from the novel by Albin Siekierski, the film unfolds...

Hugely popular with Polish audiences on release and considered affectionately as one of the top 10 Polish comedies of all time Sexmission is a smart satire of a totalitarian state. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick (wanting to work in every...

Life on the streets is brutal as ex secret police officer Franz Maurer (Bogusław Linda) is ‘downgraded’ to an ordinary policeman and has to adjust to his new status. Often compared to Tarantino for his bloody scenes and gallows humour...

Ostensibly shut down in 1977 because the production was going over budget Andrzej Żuławski's epic soon gained cult status as an unfinished masterpiece. Adapted from (his great-uncle) Jerzy Żuławski’s influential The Lunar Trilogy (only...

Acclaimed by Jean-Luc Godard, Jerzy Skolimowski’s feature debut (which won him two Best Director prizes) was made on a very restricted budget whilst he was still at the Łódź Film School. It introduces Andrzej Leszczyc (a character...

Following the success of her debut feature, Provincial Actors, Agnieszka Holland made Fever, based on a story by Andrzej Strug. However, soon after its release martial law was declared in Poland and the Polish Communist government banned...

In the communist period, schoolgirl Marta shares a room with her sister and grandmother (Ewa Wiśniewska). Her parents – moonshine-making intellectual Tadek (Adam Woronowicz) and workplace trade union leader Elżbieta (Kinga Preis) – are...

After the bride and groom break up at the last minute, the wedding reception goes ahead – owing to its expensive cost. While the guests drink and make merry, simmering tensions emerge between the in-laws of the would-be newlyweds:...

New to London and in need of money, Chinese migrant Yiling Li (Jennifer Tao) spends her nights illegally showing people around the former flat of notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Across the course of her nocturnal activities, she...

Iwona (Sonia Bohosiewicz) and Kamil (Jacek Beler) seem to live worlds apart. She is married, but bored and unhappy with her middle-class, credit-fuelled life of luxury. He tries to earn a living writing rap lyrics, lives in his mother’s...

As a child, Grzegorz Płonka (Michał Sikorski) struggles to communicate, leading to a diagnosis of autism. It later turns out that he is experiencing hearing loss. With the help of a hearing aid, Grzegorz discovers the world of sound and...

The life of 23-year-old Tomasz Komenda (Piotr Trojan) is upended when he is arrested and charged with the rape and murder of a teenager. After being found guilty, he is sentenced to 25 years in prison, where he is regularly beaten and...

In May 1943, Szmul Zygielbojm (Wojciech Mecwaldowski), a member of the Polish government-in-exile, commits suicide in London. This leads young British journalist Adam (Jack Roth) to follow the coroner’s investigation, in doing so...

After the collapse of communism, Alek (Maciej Stuhr) migrates from Wrocław to the US, leaving his son Tomek (Teodor Koziar) to live alone with mother Helena (Weronika Książkiewicz). One day, Alek unexpectedly returns home with gifts for...

In December 1970, a series of strikes and riots took place in northern Poland in protest against the sudden increase in price of basic groceries. In response, the communist government sent in the army and police to put a violent end to...

In the communist period, schoolgirl Marta shares a room with her sister and grandmother (Ewa Wiśniewska). Her parents – moonshine-making intellectual Tadek (Adam Woronowicz) and workplace trade union leader Elżbieta (Kinga Preis) – are...

After the bride and groom break up at the last minute, the wedding reception goes ahead – owing to its expensive cost. While the guests drink and make merry, simmering tensions emerge between the in-laws of the would-be newlyweds:...