Film events

Retrospective of popular Polish actor, Janusz Gajos’ films, 9 – 11 March 2005, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
Three movies will be projected : “Escape From the 'Liberty' “ Cinema”, “There and Back”, “The Yellow Scarf”

For more information, please call the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, 03- 6060800, or check at www. cinema.co.il

Janusz Gajos was born in 1939 in Dabrowa Gornicza. He graduated from the Theatre and Film Academy in Lodz in 1965 as one of its best students. A popular Polish actor, he starred in numerous films and performed on stage, notably in Andrzej Wajda's “Man of Iron”, Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog 4” and “Three Colours: White”, Ryszard Bugajski's “The Interrogation”. Also in recent years, Gajos frequently appeared on the screen. In the more commercially oriented movies, he plays gangsters, cheats, corrupt policemen and thieves. Extradition (1996); Executioner (1999); Fuks (1999); The Last Mission (1999); It’s Me, The Thief (2000)). In art films, he plays people with problems. He was highly praised and given an award for his performance as an alcoholic struggling with his addiction in Janusz Morgenstern's movie The Yellow Scarf (2000).

Escape From the 'Liberty' Cinema (1990) 87 min.
Directed by Wojciech Marczewski

The movie is set just before Poland's communist regime came to end, and the central character is a provincial censor (Janusz Gajos), a tired, sloppy, lonely man, whose wife has long since left him. For him, censorship is both an art and a game, but he does not enjoy it. During the screening of a sentimental Polish melodrama called "Daybreak" at the Liberty cinema across the road from the censor's office, the actors start to rebel and refuse to speak their lines. This is anarchy, and when the censor is unable to control the situation by himself, senior party officials are called to interfere. Eventually a film critic notes that the situation reminds of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" by Woody Allen and brings a reel of the film to demonstrate. The officials watch the film with amusement until another mix-up occurs: the second projector is turned on accidentally and superimposes "Daybreak" over "Purple Rose".


There and Back (2001), 102 min.
Directed by Wojciech Wojcicki

There and Back stars Janusz Gajos as a man who must make a difficult decision. Andrzej Hoffman (Janusz Gajos) is a doctor in Poland in the 1960s. Having not seen his wife and daughter since the end of WWII when they left the country, Hoffman considers going along with his friend Piotr (Jan Frycz) in a plan to steal money in order to buy illegal passports. There and Back was screened at the Cottbus Film Festival.

 

THE YELLOW SCARF (2000) 57 min.
Directed by Janusz Morgenstern

A tragic-comic story of human life, full of deep knowledge of human nature. The main character is a successful man in other people eyes. He is a manager with established professional position and stormy personal life. But in fact, beyond a mask of “man of success” hides loneliness and alcohol habit. On the Christmas Day he decides to put his life in order, and – to achieve that – meets his “present woman of life”, ex-wife, son and the son’s “woman of life”, trying to explain them what he never did before and repair an evil he has done. But, he cannot do this without alcohol...
 

Monday 14.11. 2005, 9:30pm

Workers '80   (Prize Fipresci, Lille, 1981)

Director: Andrzej Chodakowski, Andrzej Zajaczkowski
Poland, 1980, 93mins (English subtitles)

Polish documental film about the early SOLIDARITY movements .The film follows the events that initiated the Polish governing system transformation and the course of the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980.

Tuesday 15. 11. 2005, 6:45pm

Solidarność, Solidarność
Poland, 2005, 113mins (English subtitles)

13 film's novels by Juliusz Machulski, Andrzej Jakimowski, Jerzy Domaradzki, Jan Jakub Kolski, Piotr Trzaskalski, Filip Bajon, Krzysztof Zanussi, Robert Gliński, Ryszard Bugajski, Jacek Bromski, Feliks Falk, Andrzej Wajda, Małgorzata Szumowska

Wednesday, 16. 11. 2005, 7pm

THE MAN OF IRON (L'Homme De Fer)

Directed by Andrzej Wajda
with Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opania
Poland, 1981, 147m (English subtitles)

The course of events refers to the Polish history at the turn of 1970s and 1980s. Maciek Tomczyk, a blue collar in Gdansk Shipyards, is an active member of a Strike Committee. Winkiel, a Polish Radio reporter, receives instructions to write a report that would discredit Tomczyk. The events which the reporter is learning about through Winkiel and is witnessing give him awareness that the strikers and not the communistic authorities are those who are right.

Haifa International Film Festival – Polish Program – 18-25 October

Guests

Zbigniew Preisner - Mr. Preisner, one of the leading film composers in the world and long-time collaborator of Krzysztof Kieslowski, will be giving a masterclass to musicians, students of music, film students and the general public on music and films. The festival will hold a concert playing Mr. Preisner’s “Requiem to my Friend.”
Krzysztof Zanussi - renowned director of “Persona Non Grata” and producer of “The Welts
Jacek Borcuch - director of “The Tulips” who appears as an actor in “Persona Non Grata”
Irena Strzalkowska - representative of Tot Film Studio, who produced “Persona Non Grata,” “The Tulips” and “The Welts”
Iwona Ziolkowska-Okapiec - Executive producer of “Persona Non Grata” and “The Tulips”

Films

The Welts
Pregi
POLAND 2004
Dir.: Magdalena Piekorz
Cast: Michal Zebrowski, Jan Frycz, Waclaw Adamczyk, Agnieszka Grochowska
91 min., Polish, English subtitles

In a bleak 1980s Poland 12-year-old Wojciech lives with a cold and domineering father who beats him with his belt for the slightest provocation. The years go by and when next we meet Wojciech he is a 30-year-old journalist, an ambitious and self-reliant man. He has some anger issues of his own. And then Tania enters his life. Will the love of a good woman be enough to save Wojciech or is history doomed to repeat itself?

Screenings:
Monday          24.10   14:00   Panorama 1
Tuesday          25.10   17:00   Krieger Hall

Persona Non Grata
POLAND/RUSSIA/ITALY 2005
Dir.: Krzysztof Zanussi
Cast: Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Nikita Mikhalkov, Jerzy Stuhr, Daniel Olbrychski
117 min., Polish, English, Spanish and Russian, English subtitles

Victor has just lost his beloved wife, Helena. His old friend, Oleg, a Russian diplomat who sympathized with Poland's Solidarity movement when he was posted to Warsaw 20 years ago, turns up at her funeral. Grief-stricken Victor demands to know if Oleg and Helena had an affair.

Screenings:
Monday          24.10   19:15   Rappaport Hall - Director Present
Tuesday         25.10   18:30   Panorama 1

The Tulips
Tulipany
POLAND 2005
Dir.: Jacek Borcuch
Cast: Jan Nowicki, Andrzej Chyra, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Tadeusz Pluciński, Małgorzata Braunek, Ilona Ostrowska, Mariusz Drezek
92 min., Polish, English subtitles

Maly, an experienced racing driver, is preparing for a new race. His health, unfortunately, is not as good as it used to be. When Lolek and Matka, his good friends, find out that Maly's beloved car has been stolen, they decide with Maly’s son Dzieciak to take matters in their own hands.

Screenings:
Saturday       22.10   22:00   Panorama 1
Monday          24.10   18:00   Haifa Cinematheque – Director Present

The Wedding
Wesele
POLAND 2004
Dir.: Wojtek Smarzowski
Cast: Marian Dziedziel, Iwona Bielska, Tamara Arciuch, Maciej Stuhr
105 min., Polish, English subtitles

Poland, 2003. At the grand provincial wedding of Kaska and Janusz, Kaska's rich farmer father Wieslaw Wojnar presents the happy couple with a new Audi TT as a wedding present. The gift is a great success but the problem is that Wojnar has bought the car through a local gangster who in return wants the deeds to some land that belongs to Wojnar's uncooperative and constipated father-in-law.

Screenings:
Sunday            23.10   20:00   Panorama 1
Tuesday          25.10   20:30   Panorama 2

Reality Shock
POLAND/GERMANY 2005
Dir.: Stanislaw Mucha
79 min., Polish, Russian and German, English subtitles

This absurd documentary comedy crowns the Eastern European trilogy by Stanislaw Mucha. This time, Mucha takes us to a wooded region of Poland and shows us a peculiar community of eccentrics who, thanks to the political and economic changes and the expansion of the European Union eastwards, have been deprived of their peaceful and wholly isolated stagnation.

Screenings:
Monday          24.10   10:00   Panorama 1
Tuesday         25.10   16:30   Panorama 1

Zbigniew Preisner - Echoes of Kieslowski

Zbigniew Preisner was Krzysztof Kieslowski’s close friend and composed the scores for Kieslowski’s films "Dekalog," "The Double Life Of Veronique," The Three Colours Trilogy and more. Their collaboration has been compared to that of Fellini-Rota and Leone-Morricone.

Filmmakers, composers and the general public are invited to meet with the celebrated Polish composer and talk about music, Kieslowski and films. Preisner’s piece, "Requiem for my friend," dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Kieslowski, will be performed during the festival by the Haifa Symphony Orchestra.

Concert:           Sunday 23.10              20:00              Auditorium Hall
Masterclass:  Monday 24.10              14:30               Rappaport Hall

 For more information you can call the Haifa International Film Festival 04-8353523  or check at www.haifaff.co.il  

The Wooden Dog

Film Retrospective of Polish director, ANDRZEJ MALESZKA’s films at Tel Aviv International Children Film Festival in September 2005 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Three Maleszka’s works will be shown: The Wooden Dog from the series The Magic Tree, The Kitten, Jacob. For more information you can call the Tel Aviv Cinematheque 03- 6060800 or check at www. cinema.co.il

ANDRZEJ MALESZKA Director of over twenty films & TV series. Author of numerous screenplays & children's novels. Maleszka is a laureate of many international awards. His films are considered a most original phenomenon of European family cinema. They create a unique combination of magic and realism and show the world from the child's perspective. They also emanate warmth and positive energy. An original trait of Maleszka's films is his direct cooperation with child actors while preparing screenplays. In spite of their original character, his films enjoy considerable commercial success and are very popular with young audiences. MAJOR AWARDS: PRIX JEUNESE INTERNATIONAL MUNICH 2004 /THREE PRIZES/, for ”The Wooden Dog -The Magic Tree” CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL 2004 for ”The Wooden Dog -The Magic Tree” CAIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL CHILDREN JURY PRIZE and “BRONZE CAIRO” for “The Magic Tree” Nomination to EMMY AWARD 1998 for “Telejulia” DIVERCINE FESTIVAL MONTEVIDEO - CHILDREN JURY PRIZE for ”The Wooden Dog -The Magic Tree” INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN FILM FESTIVAL IN POZNAŃ GRAND PRIX (three times). PRIX JEUNESE INTERNATIONAL, Munich 1998 for “Telejulia” Silver Medal at the 1993 NEW YORK TV FESTIVAL for "Jacek" series. UNESCO AWARD at PRIX JEUNESE INTERNATIONAL, Munich, 1992 for “Tower of Babel” THE EMIL AWARD granted by TVSpielFilm/Germany/ for "The Kitten". MAJOR FILMS: “MECHANICAL MAGDALENE” - feature film “JACEK” - TV series without dialogue. The series was a success in many European countries . “The KITTEN” - a story of a girl who started talking feline language. “ THE BLUE ROSE” “THE CHANGE-MAKE MACHINE” – 13 x 30’ episodes. Full of uncanny ideas and absurd humour story of a machine which changes people, objects and thoughts. The series was a success in many European countries . “HUNDRED-MINUTE HOLIDAYS” FEATURE FILM & SERIES. COMEDY ABOUT THE PAPPARAZZI AND HIS SON. “THE MAGIC TREE”- full of adventure and magical atmosphere tv series for children / incl. The Wooden dog/

One of the most successful European series for children. THE MAGIC TREE IS A PRIZE WINNER AT PRIX JEUNESSE MUNICH FESTIVAL / 3 PRIZES/, CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL /2 PRIZES/, CAIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN /2 PRIZES/ AND MANY OTHERS.

THE WOODEN DOG A story about a wooden sledge which behaves like a Husky dog. It runs by itself, comes when called and protects its owner – an eight-year-old Jack. When a thief tries to steal the sledge, the boy runs away and takes it to the mountains. The wooden dog saves the boy from freezing to death running for help. A story full of adventure and magical climate with discreet computer effects and excellent children-actors.