The KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival, the annual celebration of Polish Cinema, kicks off tonight in London for an extended13th edition, with films and events at 5 venues. This year’s programme offers audiences at venues across London and the UK a mix of film, music and visual arts with a selection of screenings; UK premieres, curated retrospectives, exhibitions, concerts, interactive workshops, industry masterclasses and special guests encompassing all aspects of Polish film culture.
KINOTEKA is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in London in partnership with Pola Arts Foundation and DFDS Seaways and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. Venues already confirmed to participate in the 13th KINOTEKA programme include the BFI Southbank, ICA, Tate Modern, Frontline Club and Filmhouse Edinburgh.
Events also include Bafta masterclasses, workshops and Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema – 24 classics, chosen by Scorsese himself, all brilliantly restored and digitally remastered. The season showcases films made during a particularly fertile and creative time in post-war Poland with work from directors such as Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Wojciech Jerzy Has, Aleksander Ford, Krzysztof Kielowski, and others.
The festival also showcases the breadth of original, innovative documentary that has come out of Poland. Pawel Pawlikowski will present a special weekend of screenings at the ICA (18th & 19th April), including From Moscow to Pietushki and Dostoevsky’s Travels. In 1862, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky travelled to Western Europe. In the early 1990s, his great grandson Dimitri makes the same journey, travelling from St Petersburg to Berlin and London to lecture about his great grandfather. Blending real and fictional events, Pawlikowski’s film reflects on one of the pivotal moments in modern history: the fall of the Berlin Wall; ruminating on the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia’s transition to capitalism.
The festival also includes contemporary art at the Tate Modern, sound art at the ICA and an exhibition of Andrzej Wajda’s film posters at the BFI.
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