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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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’...

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...

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,...