Małgorzata Imielska’s award-winning All for My Mother is part of New York Polish Film Festival
NEW YORK POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
Through June 6, $9 rental, $50 for all films
www.nypff.com
If you missed the sixteenth annual New York Polish Film Festival at Scandinavia House last week, either because you couldn’t find the time or are not yet ready to go to indoor theaters to watch movies, you still have a chance to check out seven of the nine films from the friendly confines of your living room. Through June 6, the works, programmed by festival founder and director Hanna Hartowicz, will be available online, either as individual $9 rentals or $50 to see them all; the jury consists of Stacy Keach, Veronica K. Hartowicz, Martyna Majok, Kama Royz, Cezary Skubiszewski, and Ewa Zadrzynska-Głowacka. In Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało), Bartosz Bielenia is mesmerizing as a violent teenager who is sent from juvie to work in a sawmill in a small town, but instead he poses as a priest and starts preaching to the community, which has been torn apart by a horrific accident. It’s about revenge and redemption not only for the village but for Poland as a whole. A hit-and-run wreaks havoc on a close-knit town in Bartosz Kruhlik’s award-winning debut feature, Supernova, a harrowing look at local justice.
Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s Never Gonna Snow Again (Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie), the opening night selection, is a satire about a masseur (Alec Utgoff) with magic hands, but he just might be radioactive. Magic hands also play a role in Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-shortlisted Charlatan (Szarlatan), based on the true story of healer Jan Mikolášek (Ivan Trojan), who starts rubbing the backs of the wrong people. Jacek Bromski’s Solid Gold is a political thriller pitting powerful businessman Kawecki (Andrzej Seweryn) against undercover agent Kaja (Marta Nieradkiewicz), who have a unique history. “The world is changing,” one character notes. “It’s no longer fit for living in.” Mariusz Wilczyński’s gorgeously hand-drawn animated Kill It and Leave This Town (Zabij to i wyjedź z tego miasta) is a bleak and bluesy piece of psychological horror about loss, with music by the late Tadeusz Nalepa and a character voiced by legendary director Andrzej Wajda. Zofia Domalik was named Best Actress at the Polish Film Festival for her portrayal of a seventeen-year-old who refuses to be caged in until she finds her mother in Małgorzata Imielska’s All for My Mother (Wszystko dla mojej matki), which won the Audience Award at the Warsaw Film Festival. Several of the films include special introductions from the directors. The 2021 NYPFF is dedicated to master auteur Krzysztof Kieślowski, who made such films as Dekalog, The Double Life of Veronique, and Red, Blue, and White; he passed away in 1996 at the age of fifty-four.