Play Poland goes fourth

Festival highlights include Ida and Life Feels Good.

by Amber Wilkinson

Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza in Ida
Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza in Ida Photo: Music Box Films
The fourth edition of the Play Poland touring festival kicks off on Thursday, October 9.

The festival - which will visit Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Sunderland, Belfast and Aberfeldy - will celebrate the best of recent Polish cinema as well as hosting art exhibitions and short film showcases. Internationally, the festival also has a presence in Ottawa, New York and Oslo.

Among this year's feature films are Pawel Pawlikowski's multi-award winning Ida, about an orphaned novice nun who discovers a living relative and travels into her family's past. Other highlights include Life Feels Good (Chce sie zyc), Maciej Pieprzyca's retelling of the remarkable true story of a boy's struggle to communicate with others after being born with cerebral palsy. Featuring a standout performance from Dawid Ogrodnik as the central character Mateusz, Pieprzyca brings a clear-eyed intelligence to a story built on resilience and humour rather than schmaltz. Pieprzyca will be in attendance at the festival.

Other films in the line-up include Tomasz Woszczynski's Floating Skyscrapers (Plynace wiezowce) - about the flowering of gay identity in Catholic Poland - and psychological Hardkor Disko, directed by Krzysztof Skonieczny.

There will be short film showcases from the Krakow Film Foundation, Munk Studio, Lodz Film School and animation studio Se-Ma-For among others and exhibitions of Polish film posters and Through The Director's Eye - a photography show comprising photos from student directors.

The feature film line-up is as follows:

For further details of the festival and screening times, visit the official site.

Share this with others on...
News

Man about town Gay Talese on Watching Frank, Frank Sinatra, and his latest book, A Town Without Time

Magnificent creatures Jayro Bustamante on giving the girls of Hogar Seguro a voice in Rita

A unified vision DOC NYC highlights and cinematographer Michael Crommett on Dan Winters: Life Is Once. Forever.

Poetry and loss Géza Röhrig on Terrence Malick, Josh Safdie, and Richard Kroehling’s After: Poetry Destroys Silence

'I’m still enjoying the process of talking about Julie and advocating for her silence' Leonardo van Dijl on Belgian Oscar nominee Julie Keeps Quiet

More news and features

Interact

More competitions coming soon.