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Polish film at
the 25th Jerusalem Film Festival
10 – 19
July
The very special event during the festival will be a premiere of the
film “Katyn” (Oscar nominee 2008) by the eminent Polish director,
and the Academy Award Winner, Andrzej Wajda. Among other films that
will be screened are: "Time to die" by Dorota Kedzierawska and "The
Ark" by Gregorz Jonkajtys.
Katyń,
Dir. Andrzej Wajda /
Poland
2007 / 118 minutes / Polish Eng.
Subtitles
 In
September 1939, following the signing of the RibbentropMolotov Pact,
and simultaneous with the advance of the German army into Poland, the
Soviet army crossed the Polish border from the east, taking tens of
thousands of soldiers, officers, and police prisoner. Anna, the wife
of a cavalry officer, heads east to find her husband, but he refuses
to heed her pleas and remains with his soldiers. With his troops, he
is taken to a POW camp near the Katyń Forest
where in March 1940, over 15,000 of them, some of Poland’s finest sons, are executed
by members of the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police. In the post-war
People’s Republic of
Poland, Jerzy, one of the few
survivors of the massacre, is forced to hide the harsh truth from
his compatriots. Only after the fall of the Iron Curtain was the
truth of Soviet responsibility for the katyń massacre officially
released. One of the murdered officers at Katyń was Captain Jakub
Wajda, the father of Andrzej Wajda who, after World War II, became Polands greatest filmmaker (from
Kanal and Ashes and Diamonds to Man of Marble and
Korczak).
Time to die (Dir.
Dorota Kędzierzawska) Poland 2007 / 104 Min. / Polish Eng.
Sub.
 Aniela
lives alone in a dilapidated mansion in the Warsaw suburbs. The house is full of ornaments
and memories from decades of her familys history, but old age and
lack of resources have left the garden unattended and the entrance
gate rusted. The nouveau riche neighbor in the mansion next door
offers to buy the house for a handsome sum, in order to tear it down
and expand his real estate. Aniela refuses, and her stubbornness
grows after her son tries to convince her to sell. Now it all starts
to look to her like a plot. In the last decade and a half, Dorota
Kędzierzawska has been among the outstanding voices in Polish
cinema. We saw I Am at JFF 2006, following which the Rehovot Women`s
Festival held a retrospective of her films. While her previous film
dealt with childhood, Time to Die was written especially for the
veteran actress Danuta Szaflarska, over 90 years old.
Cinematographer Arthur Reinhart composes amazing baroque
images—fearlessly using a black and white reminiscent of the
glamorous style of the past and helping Kędzierzawska open a window
into the life and fears of a lonely woman nearing the end of her
life.
The Ark
/ Dir.: Grzegorz Jonkajtys /
Poland, 2006 / 8 min.
 In
the aftermath of a catastrophic epidemic, the survivors flee from
the mainland in huge oil tankers, in search for plague-free lands.
The leader, obsessed by the need to save the little that’s left of
the human race, takes the healthy ones aboard.
10 – 19 July,
Jerusalem
Cinematheque,
Derech Hebron 11
Jerusalem
For further
info & tickets:
www.jff.org.il
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