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Netflix’s recently released Polish miniseries, Hound’s Hill, might disappoint viewers with its narrative choices, given the way it pretends to be a slow-burn thriller only to jam-pack all the plot threads into one of the most ludicrous endings ever seen. But at the same time, it should be acknowledged that there was no dearth of efforts from the cast, who were exceptionally good at highlighting the ambiguous, unreliable nature of the characters they played in the series. The strong performances of the cast allowed the series to swiftly juggle between plot threads based on dysfunctional parental relationships, small-town power struggles and corruption, the role of the media, and the state of judiciary control—providing a rough idea about the socio-political condition of Poland, that is until the series’ ending messed up everything. For what it’s worth, the drawbacks of the series highlight that, with a better script, the...

"Are you willing to take risks?" Big World Pictures has revealed an official US trailer for an indie thriller titled Disco Boy, marking the narrative feature debut of an Italian filmmaker named Giacomo Abbruzzese. This premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year to mostly positive reviews, and layer played at the New Directors/New Films Festival in NYC. The film stars acclaimed German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. After fleeing Belarus, he joins the French Foreign Legion and goes through hell at boot camp to make it out as a soldier & gain his French citizenship. It also stars Morr Ndiaye, Laetitia Ky, Leon Lucev, Robert Wieckiewicz, and Matteo Olivetti. Disco Boy will open at The Quad in New York City on February 2nd, and at Laemmle Theaters in LA on February 9th. The "ambitious film is a jarring,...

In the 1930s, the Polish port city of Gdynia became a brief landing pad for immigrants from neighboring countries, including Jews who sought safety and prosperity before the rise of Nazi Germany. Though the Museum of Gdynia quietly explains this messy history, obvious markers of that past aren’t visible across the city. Its marina boasts a massive monument to 18th-century Polish military hero Tadeusz Kościuszko, whose actions became the stuff of legend both for the Poles and the Americans, but otherwise Gdynia stands anew, with sparkling metallic structures surrounding its stretch of the Puck Bay and the Polanka Redłowska forest.

By contrast, in the nearby town of Gdańsk, with its brightly colored and narrow buildings that hug a labyrinthine waterway, the markers of history are more immediately apparent to the naked eye. Much of the buildings have been reconstructed such that nearly every street teems with homages to the past.

Closing ceremony of festival in Gdynia sees Polish film community speak up against “awful hatred” directed at Holland in recent weeks.

Pawel Maslona’s second feature Scarborn (Kos) won the Grand Prix - Golden Lion at the 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia whose closing ceremony saw the Polish film community express their solidarity with Agnieszka Holland in the light of the vociferous political campaign against her and her film The Green Border.

In his acceptance speech, Maslona spoke out against the “awful hatred” directed at Holland in recent weeks and noted that, despite Poland being a country with a strong Christian faith,...

Exclusive: Jason Mitchell (Mudbound) and Bartosz Bielenia (Corpus Christi) have joined Jacek Braciak (Leave No Traces) for historical action title Scarborn, based on the story of Polish general and revolutionary war hero Tadeusz Kościuszko who is best known for fighting at George Washington’s side in the American War of Independence.

The project, which is the directed by Pawel Maślona and has just wrapped its shoot, also stars Robert Wieckiewicz (In Darkness) and Agnieszka Grochowska (Leave No Traces). Daniel Baur’s K5 International has boarded worldwide sales on the project.

Scarborn, which is written by Michał A. Zieliński, sees Kościuszko (Braciak) and his African American friend and former slave Domingo (Mitchell) return to Poland to organize an uprising and fight against the Russian invasion by mobilizing the Polish nobility and peasants. They are followed by a ruthless Russian captain, Dunin (Wieckiewicz) who wants to capture the general at any cost...

1983 Trailer Netflix‘s 1983 (2018) TV show trailer stars Robert Wieckiewicz, Maciej Musial, Michalina Olszanska, Andrzej Chyra, and Zofia Wichlacz. 1983‘s plot synopsis:”The deeply frozen Cold War is heating up. Twenty years after a devastating terrorist attack in 1983 that halted the course of Poland’s liberation and the subsequent downfall of the Soviet Union, an idealistic [...]

Continue reading: 1983 (2018) Teaser Trailer: A Terrorist Attack in 1983 Poland Keeps the Iron Curtain up for Decades [Netflix]...

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, FandangoNOW, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical Annihilation The Last Witness   Digital HD: Rent from $4-$7 or own from $13-$20 (HD may cost more than Sd). Check with your favorite Digital HD provider to see if the same movies listed above on cable Mod are also...

Soviet secret police began a series of mass executions circa 1940 of Polish citizens they knew would reject foreign occupation upon WWII’s completion. Some of the resulting graves were discovered in the Katyn Forest three years later with more found elsewhere totaling 22,000 bodies. Because of the diplomatic relations necessary to join the Allied nations with the “enemy-of-my-enemy” Ussr, official word on the Katyn massacre stated Nazi Germany was to blame. This lie was crafted with obvious intentions: America and Britain needed to placate Joseph Stalin and the Soviets needed Poland to retain a modicum of good will towards their new rulers by manufacturing a worse villain. Writer/director Piotr Szkopiak’s grandfather was one of the innocents murdered and The Last Witness is his way of honoring their memory.

He and co-writer Paul Szambowski have built their historical fiction as a means of exposing the horrific lengths all these different...

"We have a suspect - a crime writer..." "I think the book is your confession." Saban Films has released an official trailer for a dark crime thriller titled, of course, Dark Crimes. The title is a variation of the title for the original article this is based on in the New Yorker, called "True Crime", subtitle "A postmodern murder mystery." Dark Crimes stars Jim Carrey as a detective who gets involved in a case where a Polish author killed someone in real life the same way as in one of the fictional crime novels he wrote. Marton Csokas plays the author, and the cast includes Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kati Outinen, Vlad Ivanov, Agata Kulesza, Robert Wieckiewicz, and Piotr Glowacki. This loos quite dark and mysterious, but also quite good, I'm intrigued. Especially by Carrey's fierce, bearded performance in this. I really want to check it out. Here's the official trailer (+ new...

"He dragged you into all of this, not me." Momentum has debuted a trailer for a post-wwii thriller titled The Last Witness, from director Piotr Szkopiak. In the film, Alex Pettyfer stars as an "ambitious young journalist" who uncovers the true story of a horrific slaughter of 22,000 Polish officers during WWII, shot by Stalin's secret police shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland. The film seems to feature flashbacks in addition to the main storyline set later on, with Pettyfer trying to uncover the truth. The full cast includes Michael Gambon, Talulah Riley, Robert Wieckiewicz, and Will Thorp. This seems quite good, but oddly it's going out straight-to-vod without any festivals premieres, so I'm not too sure. Take a look below. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Piotr Szkopiak's The Last Witness, direct from YouTube: An ambitious young journalist (Alex Pettyfer) uncovers the horrific slaughter of 22,000 Polish officers during the Second World War.

Exclusive: Talulah Riley joins cast of political thriller now underway in UK.

Shoot is underway in the West Midlands, England, on political thriller The Last Witness, starring Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four).

Talulah Riley (Westworld) has joined the production alongside Robert Wieckiewicz (In Darkness), Piotr Stramowski (Pitbull), Henry Lloyd Hughes (Now You See Me 2) and Michael Gambon (Harry Potter). Director is Piotr Szkopiak (The Coroner).

Pettyfer plays Stephen Underwood, a journalist who uncovers the horrific murder of 22,000 Poles under Stalin’s instructions, though for many years the blame for the killing was placed on the Nazis.

At the time, information about the Katyn Massacre, as it came to be known, was covered up by both the British and Us governments in view of the delicate relationship with Russia during and after the war.

Riley plays Jeanette Mitchell, a Junior Commander in the Auxiliary Territorial Service who is also Underwood’s lover.

The film is...

Exclusive: Gfm Films to launch world sales on post-war thriller about the mass murder of 22,000 Poles.

Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) is to lead cast in post-wwii thriller The Last Witness alongside Robert Wieckiewicz (In Darkness) and Michael Gambon (Harry Potter).

In writer-director Piotr Szkopiak’s (The Coroner) feature, Elvis & Nixon actor Pettyfer will play Stephen Underwood, a journalist who uncovers the horrific murder of 22,000 Poles under Stalin’s instructions, though for many years the blame for the killing was placed on the Nazis.

At the time, information about the Katyn Massacre, as it came to be known, was covered up by both the British and Us governments in view of the delicate relationship with Russia during and after the war.

Shoot is due to commence November 7, 2016 in locations throughout the UK. Carol Harding will produce and Krzysztof Solek and Pettyfer will co-produce.

UK sales outfit Gfm will launch the project at this week’s Afm in...

2015 was a successful year regarding the quantity and quality of foreign productions shot in Poland. At the beginning of the year, Anne Fontaine (“Coco Before Chanel,” “Perfect Mothers”) filmed a French-Polish co-production “Agnus Dei” in Warmia, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film features Polish and French actresses among others Lou de Laage, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Joanna Kulig.

In the spring, the crew of a Polish-German-French-Belgian co-production about the life of Maria Sklodowska-Curie (dir. Marie Noelle) spent 20 days on the set in among others Lodz, Leba and Krakow. The cast is international, and the film is made in French. The Polish Nobelist is portrayed by Karolina Gruszka (“Oxygen”).

The summer brought about increased activity of German producers. A Zdf TV show, “Ein Sommer in…” was filmed in two resort towns in the north-eastern Poland – Mikolajki and Mragowo. Ard and Tvp collaborated on the set of "Polizeiruf 110" ("Police Call 110"), which was filmed in July and August among others in a Polish border-town – Swiecko. Also in July began the shooting of a new part of detective TV series "Der Usedom-Krimi" filmed on both the Polish and German side of the Usedom island.

However, a true influx of foreign productions took place in the autumn. American-Polish thriller “Chronology” was filmed in Poznan. The cast includes William Baldwin (TV series "Gossip Girl," "Adrift in Manhattan") and Danny Trejo (“Machete,” “From Dusk till Dawn”).

The Goetz Palace in Brzesk, in Malopolska hosted filmmakers from India who for six days were shooting “Fitoor,” an Indian adaptation of Dickens's “Great Expectations.” The crew consisted of over 40 Indians and almost 80 Poles. Another crew from India – this time from the so-called Kollywood in the south of the country – spent twenty days on the set in various Polish locations (among others Zakopane, Walbrzych, Krakow, Leba). The film titled “24” features Surya, a Tamil superstar, in the main role.

The autumn months were also very intensive in Lodz with three simultaneous big film sets. Andrzej Wajda (“The Promised Land,” “Walesa. Man of Hope”) worked on his new film “Powidoki”; Opus Film, the producer of “Ida”, organized for an Israeli partner eleven-day shoot to a film set in 1970s – “Past Life,” directed by Avi Nesher; and American director Martha Coolidge (“The Prince and Me,” TV shows “Sex and the City,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Weeds”) filmed her project “Music, War and Love,” whose producer is among others Fred Roos known from such films as “Apocalypse Now,” “The Godfather” or “Lost in Translation.” The picture features Adelaide Clemens (“The Great Gatsby”), Connie Nielsen (“Gladiator”), Toby Sebastian (“Game of Thrones”) and Stellan Skarsgård (“Nymphomaniac”).

The end of the year was also very successful for Malopolska and Krakow. Two movies were filmed in the region – an American-British biography of Martin Luther commissioned by PBS with Padraic Delaney (“The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” “The Tudors”) in the main role; and a feature titled “True Crimes” starring two-time winner of a Golden Globe – Jim Carrey (“The Truman Show,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “The Mask”) as the protagonist. The crew spent 32 days on the set in Krakow. The picture was directed by Greek Alexandros Avranas (“Miss Violence”), written by Jeremy Brock (“Brideshead Revisited,” “The Last King of Scotland”), and produced by Brett Ratner (“X-Men 3: the Last Stand,” TV series “Rush Hour”). Accompanying Jim Carrey were Charlotte Gainsbourg (“Nymphomaniac,” “Antichrist”); Marton Csokas (“The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”) and Polish actors Agata Kulesza (“Ida”) and Robert Wieckiewicz (“Walesa. Man of Hope”).

The first information about productions planned for 2016 has already been released. In January, Krakow will host the crew of French black comedy “Grand Froid,” Gérard Pautonnier's debut featuring Jean-Pierre Bacri (“The Taste of Others,” “Let It Rain”), Olivier Gourmet (“Rosetta,” “The Son”) and Arthur Dupond (“Bus Palladium”). The project won the first edition of the Krakow International Film Fund.

Audience Award won by Pale Moon with the film’s Rie Miyazawa named best actress.

The 27th Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) wrapped tonight with Josh and Benny Safdie’s Us-France co-production Heaven Knows What winning the Tokyo Grand Prix. The top award comes with a cash prize of $50,000.

The co-directors also took Award for Best Director ($5,000) with their film about young junkies struggling to survive in New York. Heaven Knows What was an Asian premiere in Tokyo after Venice, Toronto and New York.

The Special Jury Prize ($20,000) went to Bulgaria-Greece co-production The Lesson directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.

Rie Miyazawa took the Best Actress award ($5,000) for her performance in Pale Moon, a world premiere title which also picked up the Audience Award ($10,000).

Directed by Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirishima Thing), the film was the only Japanese work in competition and drew pleased buzz from hard-pressed festival-goers looking for good Japanese films in the selection.

[link...

Wroclaw New Horizons roundup: works in progress include Close Ups and I, Olga Hepnarova.

Wide Management has begun presales on the Polish-German co-production Summer Solstice by Michal Rogalski which was one of 10 Polish films featuring in this year’s works in progress showcase at the Polish Days during Wroclaw’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Producer Maria Golos of Prasa Film said that German theatrical distribution for the €2.5m film, which is set in Poland after the Nazi defeat during the Second World War, will be handled by Farbfilm.

Separately, Leszek Budzak of the young production company Aurum Film revealed that Jacek Lusinski’s second feature Carte Blanche will be released early next year by Kino Swiat in Poland.

Based on the true story of a history teacher who is losing his sight, the lead part of the teacher is cast with the ubiquitous Polish actor Andrzej Chyra.

Magdalena Piekorz’s third feature psychological drama Close Ups was...

Wroclaw New Horizons roundup: works in progress include Close Ups and I, Olga Hepnarova.

Wide Management has begun presales on the Polish-German co-production Summer Solstice by Michal Rogalski which was one of 10 Polish films featuring in this year’s works in progress showcase at the Polish Days during Wroclaw’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Producer Maria Golos of Prasa Film said that German theatrical distribution for the €2.5m film, which is set in Poland after the Nazi defeat during the Second World War, will be handled by Farbfilm.

Separately, Leszek Budzak of the young production company Aurum Film revealed that Jacek Lusinski’s second feature Carte Blanche will be released early next year by Kino Swiat in Poland.

Based on the true story of a history teacher who is losing his sight, the lead part of the teacher is cast with the ubiquitous Polish actor Andrzej Chyra.

Magdalena Piekorz’s third feature psychological drama Close Ups was...

Lech Walesa, the man who founded Poland's Solidarity movement and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and become the country's first post-Communist president, will present a special screening of the director's cut of Andrzej Wajda's tribute to him, Walesa: Man of Hope, in July at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Actors Robert Wieckiewicz and Agnieszka Grochowska -- who play Walesa and his wife Danuta -- will attend a red carpet gala screening of the premiere of the biopic, created specially for the festival. Czech petroleum company Unipetrol, part of fest sponsor Orlen Group, supported the creation of the director's cut,

read more...

Wojciech Smarzowski's (Rose, The Dark House) latest feature is an excruciating tale about one man's persistent fight with a consumptive addiction and about love that can help his life get back to normal. Smarzowski's films are always controversial but Pod Mocnym Aniolem, based on Jerzy Pilch's award wining novel of the same title (loosely translated as The Strong Angel Inn), is boldly advertised as his most shocking and most meaningful picture yet.Jerzy (Robert Wieckiewicz) is a writer and an alcoholic. We meet him when he believes that he can actually win with his addiction. He falls in love with a young girl and finally feels that he has someone to live for. Unfortunately, he can't resist the temptation and one day goes straight to a...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida scored a second top festival prize in one night, after success in London.

The international jury of the Warsaw Film Festival has awarded the City of Warsaw Grand Prix to Pawal Pawlikowski’s Ida, which won Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival on the same night.

The black-and-white film set in the 1960s, which the international jury praised for “the superb combination of script, directing, cinematography, acting and music”, also received the prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Warsaw.

Speaking to ScreenDaily after the awards ceremony, producer Ewa Puszczynska of Lodz-based Opus Film said the film will be released on 90 screens in Poland this Friday (Oct 25) by distributor Solopan Spólka.

Fandango Portobello Sales is handling international distribution, and Music Box Films are planning the North American release for the second quarter of 2014. It debuted at Toronto last month.

Puszczynska was joined on stage to receive the Grand Prix by the non-professional...

Chicago – The 2013 49th Annual Chicago International Film Festival and Michael Kutza – Festival Founder and Artistic Director – announced the competition award winners at a ceremony in the ‘W’ Hotel City Center on October 18th. The Gold Hugo for Best Film went to “My Sweet Pepper Land,” from Iraq, France and Germany.

Kutza made the announcements along with Mimi Plauché, Head of Programming, Programmers Alex Kopecky and Penny Bartlett, plus members of the various juries who worked evaluating the competition. The W Hotel City Center is near Chicago’s financial district and the Sears (now Willis) Tower. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.

International Feature Film Competition

’My Sweet Pepper Land’

Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival

The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “My Sweet Pepper Land” (Iraq/France/Germany), directed by Hiner Saleem

The Silver Hugo – Special Jury Prize: “The Verdict...

Captain Phillips | Enough Said | Escape Plan | Prince Avalance | The Lebanese Rocket Society | Like Father, Like Son | The Broken Circle Breakdown | Turbo | Last Passenger

Captain Phillips (12A)

(Paul Greengrass, 2013, Us) Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Michael Chernus. 134 mins

No room for Depp-like jollity aboard this pirate tale. Instead, Greengrass brings his usual reportage-style urgency to a true-life Indian Ocean hijack situation. It's tense, credible and intelligent, even if pitting four Somali fishermen against Hanks, a big ship and formidable back-up is a pretty unfair contest – that very imbalance is part of the point.

Enough Said (12A)

(Nicole Holofcener, 2013, Us) Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener. 93 mins

Gandolfini's final performance elevates a polished but trifling comedy, centring on a blossoming romance poisoned by an ex-wife.

Escape Plan (15)

(Mikael Håfström, 2013, Us) Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger. 115 mins

The "geriaction" veterans join forces to punch their way out of a high-tech super-prison.

Prince Avalanche (15)

(David Gordon Green,...

A full-tilt biopic tribute to the Polish trade-union leader and founder of the Solidarity movement is very enjoyable

At the age of 87, that remarkable Polish film-maker Andrzej Wajda has directed a movie with terrific gusto and a first-rate lead performance from Robert Wieckiewicz. It's a full-tilt biopic tribute to the trade-union leader Lech Wałesa, founder of the Solidarity movement: bullish, cantankerous, with an exasperating charm and the gift of the gab. Wałesa's defiance of Poland's Soviet masters removed the very first brick from the Berlin Wall. Famously, Wałesa was the one subversive trade-union leader whom Margaret Thatcher felt able to love: Arthur Scargill did not enjoy the same admiration.

Wałesa: Man of Hope is a belated companion piece to his Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981), respectively about a Stakhanovite bricklayer and his son in Poland; it discloses now an unexpected trilogy, and somehow suggests, in retrospect, that the...

This biopic tribute to Lech Wałęsa, the Nobel peace prize-winning politician and human rights activist, is an enjoyable look at an unconventional hero

• Why you should go to the London film festival

• More on the London film festival

At the age of 87, that very remarkable Polish film-maker Andrzej Wajda has directed a movie with terrific force and irresistible storytelling gusto – and a first-rate lead performance by Robert Wieckiewicz. It's a full tilt biopic that pays tribute to the trade union leader Lech Wałęsa, founder of the Solidarity movement, a bullish, courageous man, stubborn and cantankerous, with an exasperating charm and the precious gift of the gab. Wałęsa's defiance of Poland's sclerotic Soviet Communist masters and their local apparatchiks removed the very first brick from the Berlin Wall. Famously, Lech Wałęsa was the one subversive trade-union leader that Margaret Thatcher felt able to love. (Arthur Scargill did not enjoy the same admiration.

Chicago – The 49th Annual Chicago International Film Festival starts tonight, October 10, 2013, with a tribute to Roger Ebert and the premiere of James Gray’s “The Immigrant,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Marion Cotillard. Wasting no time, there are at least a dozen flicks this weekend that could grab your attention. It’s one of the strongest Ciff line-ups in memory, with a few nearly-certain Oscar candidates next to some films that are unlikely to play again in Chicago any time soon.

We have a great mix of options for you in the first five days of the fest (10/10-14) in our first of three highlight pieces put together by Brian Tallerico, Patrick McDonald, and, making his Hc debut, Nick Allen. The first page features films we’ve actually seen and recommend while the second features films over the same period that looked interesting that we either couldn’t get to or...

Exclusive: Walesa will be in attendance at Lff screening of Wajda’s film.

Ambitious young UK distribution outfit Project London Films Ltd. is planning a 45-site release for Andrzej Wajda’s new feature Walesa, Man Of Hope (out in UK cinemas on Oct 18).

Former Polish President Walesa will be in London next week for the film’s BFI London Film Festival screening. Robert Wieckiewicz (who plays Walesa) is also due in London for the Lff premiere of the film, recently chosen as Poland’s Oscar entry.

Project London, run by Managing Director Pawel Jodlowski and Business Development Director Mariusz Muskietorz, releases films targeted at the UK’s sizable Polish population.

The distributors have come up with an ingenious marketing campaign for the Walesa movie. They have joined forces with Polish Village Bread, the renowned UK-based Polish bread, pastry and cake company. In the week of the release of the film, all loaves...

Exclusive: Walesa will be in attendance at Lff screening of Wajda’s film.

Ambitious young UK distribution outfit Project London is planning a 45-site release for Andrzej Wajda’s new feature Walesa, Man Of Hope (out in UK cinemas on Oct 18). Former Polish President Walesa will be in London next week for the film’s BFI London Film Festival screening. Robert Wieckiewicz (who plays Walesa) is also due in London for the Lff premiere of the film, recently chosen as Poland’s Oscar entry.

Project London, run by Managing Director Pawel Jodlowski and Business Development Director Mariusz Muskietorz, releases films targeted at the UK’s sizable Polish population.

The distributors have come up with an ingenious marketing campaign for the Walesa movie. They have joined forces with Polish Village Bakery, the renowned UK-based Polish bread, pastry and cake company. In the week of the release of the film, all loaves of Polish Village Bread will have advertising...

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival has released an incredible guest list of celebrated talent from around the globe. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Catherine Breillat, Nicole Garcia, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bertrand Tavernier, Steve McQueen, Godfrey Reggio, Denis Villeneuve, Bill Condon, Jean-Marc Vallée, John Wells, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade, Atom Egoyan, Matthew Weiner, John Carney, Jason Reitman, Jason Bateman, Yorgos Servetas, Liza Johnson, Megan Griffiths, Fernando Eimbcke, Alexey Uchitel, Johnny Ma, Biyi Bandele, Rashid Masharawi, Paul Haggis, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Álex de la Iglesia, Bruce McDonald, Jennifer Baichwal, John Ridley, and Justin Chadwick.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers and artists are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:

Ahmad Abdalla, Hany Abu-Assad, Yuval Adler, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Alexandre Aja, Bruce Alcock, Gianni Amelio, Thanos Anastopoulos, Madeline Anderson, Nimród Antal, Louise Archambault,...

Rural Russian film takes top prize at Poland’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Russian director Alexander Fedorchenko’s Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari received the Grand Prix and a €20,000 ($27,000) cash prize at the 13th New Horizons International Film Festival (July 18-28) in Wroclaw.

The decision by the International jury, headed by Hungary’s Bela Tarr and including Polish film-maker Joanna Kos-Krauze and Berlinale Forum director Christoph Terhechte, was announced ahead of the Polish premiere of Malgorzata Szumowska’s In The Name Of on Saturday evening.

Fedorchenko’s film had its world premiere at last year’s Rome Film Festival.

Review: Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari

In June, it won three awards - best script, best cinematography and the Prize of the Russian Guild of Film Scholars and Film Critics - at the Kinotavr “Open Russian” Film Festival in Sochi.

The $2m production by Fedorchenko’s 29 February Film Company explores the myths of the Russian...

Wojciech Smarzowski (Drogowka, Roza, Wesele), one of the most prolific Polish directors of the 21st century, is about to finish shooting his latest film entitled Aniol, a hard-hitting drama about alcoholism and its overpowering ability to destroy a person's life. Robert Wieckiewicz (Vinci, In Darkness) plays Jurus, a writer who finds himself on the verge of a moral breakdown due to the destructive disease that's alcohol addiction. Based on the controversial novel Pod Mocnym Aniolem, written by Jerzy Pilch, Aniol might come as a haunting tragicomedy that's also an intriguing cautionary tale, with a bold social commentary on the condition of the whole Polish society. The first images give the impression of a minimalistic stage play, carefully orchestrated by Wieckiewicz during his time defying drinking...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Playing out somewhere in between Schindler’s List and The Diary of Anne Frank, Director Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness tells the tale of one man’s struggle to justify what he knows is right against the pressures of the time, his personal ambitions, and the unpredictable nature of war of weather. Unlike Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, In Darkness has no genuinely virtuous motive behind all the things Leopold Socha (played terrifically by Robert Wieckiewicz) does in his efforts to shelter Polish Jews who’ve taken to the sewers in a final desperate attempt to escape the Nazi imprisonment and slaughter. What begins as an extortive business arrangement transforms into an act of grace as the true circumstances and realities of the horrors unfolding in Poland become clearer to Socha, who devotes himself to their salvation even if it might get him killed.

Read more...

Chicago – There were countless foreign films in 2011 more deserving of an Oscar nod than Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness.” The film lacks the brutal edge, gut-wrenching tension and memorable characterizations that distinguished so many similar Holocaust-era dramas. Yet the lukewarm “been there, done that” reaction of many American critics has left me rather mystified.

This isn’t a great film, per se, but it is still a harrowing and compelling portrait of resilience in the face of evil. Best known for her fact-based exploration of Hitler youth, “Europa, Europa,” Holland is skilled at creating the sort of vividly atmospheric environment that seeps into a viewer’s bones. One of my favorite films as a child was Holland’s sublime 1993 adaptation of “The Secret Garden,” which viewed the gothic interiors and lush mazes through the eyes of bewitched children.

Blu-ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

With “In Darkness,” Holland burrows beneath the chaotic streets of a Polish city,...

Although we have a plethora of holocaust flicks out there, In Darkness decides to shed a focused light on one true account that took place in the Polish underground. Literally.

The 145 minute telling reenacts how a Polish citizen named Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) cuts a deal with a bunch of Jewish people, who are trying to avoid persecution from the German Nazi party. The Nazis have offered lucrative cash rewards to the... Read more on Examiner.com...

The Polish film-maker Agnieszka Holland began her career in the 1970s working with Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi before making an impressive debut with Provincial Actors, in which she used a rep company and its discontents as an image of Polish life in the run-up to the creation of Solidarity. She's since divided her time between eastern Europe and the west, where her work has ranged from Washington Square to episodes of The Wire. Her latest Polish film, the tough, unsentimental In Darkness, brings together themes from two of the most highly regarded movies about the second world war, Wajda's Kanal, about Nazi troops pursuing resistance workers through the Warsaw sewers in 1944, and Schindler's List, Spielberg's true story of the quixotic German industrialist who saved the lives of more than 1,000 Jewish workers in wartime Poland.

Holland's film is also closely based on fact. Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), a sewer worker in German-occupied Lvov,...

21 Jump Street (15)

(Phil Lord, Chris Miller, 2012, Us) Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson. 109 mins.

As with comic books, now that all the big titles have gone, it's down to TV's B-list to feed Hollywood's appetite for ready-made movie concepts. Based on the show that first traded on Johnny Depp's youthful good looks, it stars Hill and Tatum – a great odd-couple anchor – as two low-flying cops who are sent back to high school to infiltrate a drugs ring. The premise is an almost pitifully obvious excuse to aim for broad-appeal paydirt with a mix of fratboy crudity, teen-movie romance and crime-flick action, but for all the box-ticking, it has intermittently hilarious results.

Contraband (15)

(Baltasur Kormákur, 2012, Us) Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi. 110 mins.

Mark Wahlberg sticks to what he's good at, which is muscled, breathy and slightly high-pitched posturing in a brooding action thriller. Here he plays a smuggler lured...

It’s The Diary of Anne Frank, only with sewers. And it’s more about the hidee than the hiders. This is the true story of sewer inspector and small-time criminal Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), who in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943 agrees to hide a small band of Jews in the dank underground tunnels of the city of Lvov, in exchange for a not-so-small fee, of course. That’s okay because all Jews are rich, and anyway they’re not even grateful for what Socha is doing for them, so fair’s fair... or so he believes. Will he learn the errors of his bigotries and discover that Jews are people too? In Darkness, a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars, is elegantly presented, chock full of moments of dreadful suspense in a horrible milieu in which everyone is ready to take advantage of anyone at a moment’s notice,...

This is the Pure Movies review of In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland and starring Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup and Marcin Bosak. Written by Michael Holder for @puremovies. Brutal, dank, disturbing, devastating, sickening and also pretty scary – In Darkness is a film about the Holocaust, yes, but not quite as expected. It is based on Robert Marshall’s book In the Sewers of Lvov, which chronicles the true story of Polish sewer worker Leopold Socha, who risks execution to hide a group of Jews for 14 months until the war ends. There are good performances all round as petty thief Socha (Robert Wieckiewics) initially agrees to help Mundek (Benno Fürmann) and his fellow Jewish companions after their escape from the ghetto in exchange for a daily payment. But as the Jews’ money inevitably runs out, Socha becomes less interested in the business arrangement and sacrifices...

The story of Leopold Socha, who hid terrified Jews in secret underground passageways of the sewers where he worked during the second world war in Poland, is a fine film

Here is the dramatised true story of Leopold Socha: the sewer worker in Lvov in occupied Poland during the second world war who hides terrified Jews in secret underground passageways, while the vicious Nazis strut above ground. At first, Socha greedily takes all the money the desperate Jews offer him, but gradually, through the mysterious workings of redemption and grace, becomes their genuinely concerned protector. (After the war, Socha was posthumously awarded Israel's Righteous Among the Nations title.) In Darkness has something different from the storytelling brashness of Spielberg's Schindler's List – although there are similarities, including a reformed rogue and a chilling Nazi. In its fear, shame and horror, it's possibly closer to The Third Man. The brickwork tunnels, with...

Oscar-nominated WWII drama In Darkness is out in the UK this Friday. Here’s our review of a flawed yet uplifting film...

Attempting to write about In Darkness is a tricky proposition. A heartfelt, Oscar-nominated movie based on the real-life suffering of Jews in World War II, critically dissecting it seems almost cruel - like analysing a charity record, or a cake baked for a church fete. In Darkness is well acted and made with such good intentions that it seems almost sacrilegious to say it’s anything less than perfect.

When viewed against other movies based on the Holocaust, such as Claude Lanzmann’s sprawling, extraordinary documentary Shoah (1985), Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) or Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002), In Darkness isn’t without flaw. But then again, the story it has to tell is so remarkable that it’s not difficult to see why it gained attention at this year's Academy Awards.

Last week the Academy Award-nominated Polish film, In Darkness, expanded its small limited release from La and New York to a suburban art house near you following the award show’s exposure for the Anne Frank meets Caligula World War II drama. Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) was a real man who hid and protected a dozen Jewish refugees in the sewers of Lvov from 1943 to the end of the war, all while trying to keep his own reluctant do-gooding a secret from his wife and the Nazi soldiers inhabiting his city. Unlike previous films which share similar plots to In Darkness, this one registers as little more than a dirty sex film. Not to say the film’s constant depiction of sex is particularly pornographic, but rather it is dirty due to its location—a sewer. Yes, the film has a lot of sewer sex. As in, people on the run were bumping uglies next to rats...

In Darkness was recently nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars this past weekend for Best Foreign Language Film which is testament to it’s awesomeness! The movie stars Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup, Marcin Bosak and is directed by Agnieszka Holland.

Have a watch of the clip embedded below. It shows the lengths in which the characters go to to stay alive. I’ve also placed the trailer below.

In Darkness is released in UK cinemas 16th March.

One day Leopold encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto and agrees to hide them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers. But what starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement soon turns into something very unexpected, as the unlikely alliance between Leopold and the Jews seeps deeper into his conscience and they form an incredibly close bond.

Hotly tipped for a foreign language Oscar for In Darkness, director Agnieszka Holland talks about making films under communist rule – and directing The Wire and The Killing

Agnieszka Holland is the dark horse of the 2012 Oscars, which seems oddly fitting. Her latest film, In Darkness, plays as a begrimed Schindler tale, with its protagonist, Leopold Socha, hiding out in the sewers of Lviv while the Holocaust rages overhead. It has brought the 63-year-old director a nomination in the foreign language category, where she is pitted against the highly fancied A Separation, and marks the latest twist in a career that has taken her from Warsaw to Prague, Paris and La.

"Where is home?" mutters Holland, sipping bottled water in a London club. "Maybe this is." Dressed for purpose with her utilitarian hairdo and resilient, thick-framed glasses, she briskly explains that she made two Holocaust dramas before In Darkness (Angry Harvest; Europa,...

A nail biting triumph from the lethal streets of Nazi occupied Lvov through the sub-human underground of the city and back into the world of the living. Award winning Polish actor Robert Wieckiewicz plays Leopold Socha in this nail-biting narrative of personal sacrifice and redemption. Poland's official selection for the Us Oscars, Agnieszka Holland.s epic has been short listed for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Based on a true story, the place is Nazi occupied Lvov, Poland in 1943. While the people of Lvov turn their backs on the persecuted Jews the Nazis march from house to house shooting and beating people to death. The survivors go to the death camps. Socha is a down...

In Darkness Trailer 1, Trailer 2. Agnieszka Holland‘s In Darkness (2011) movie trailer stars Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, and Kinga Preis. In Darkness‘ plot synopsis: “In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above.

What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger.”

In Darkness...

In Darkness

Written by David F. Shamoon

Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Poland / Germany / France / Canada, 2011

When Claude Lanzmann was developing his landmark nine-hour Holocaust documentary Shoah, his greatest self-appointed challenge was to chronicle the facts and lasting legacy of the massacring of millions of people while avoiding even the slightest intimation that the events described could be easily encapsulated within a mere film, regardless of length or scope. Lanzmann’s film is still the object of study and appreciation is cineaste circles, but in general, filmmakers haven’t been nearly as skittish as Lanzmann in tackling what he considered to be insurmountable. In the nearly two decades since that film’s release, Holocaust movies have grown into an awards-season cliché, often derided as exploiting human tragedy in order to showcase performances in the service of awards-hungry studios. It’s in this context that one will inevitably view Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness; in this instance.

Chicago – The subject of the Holocaust has become an entire film genre onto it’s own, embracing many different styles. The latest Holocaust film, “In Darkness,” feels like a disaster movie, and iconic Polish director Agnieszka Holland has steered it to a Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Based on a true story, it begins with the self-serving nature of human beings and evolves into their better angels. In the harboring of Polish Jews within a wretched sewer system, it also becomes emblematic of the whole evil of the Holocaust, the banishment of living human beings into the darkness of a hole in the earth, constituting a form of hell. Although many tales of these events have made into narrative films, to think about the reality of what actually happened is almost too much to fathom. This realization of hell is another bitter reminder of what humanity has had to consume.

In Darkness

Directed by: Agnieszka Holland

Cast: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader

Running Time: 2 hrs 25 mins

Rating: R

Release Date: February 17, 2012 (Chicago)

Plot: A sewer worker (Wieckiewicz) tries to hide a group of Jews in the sewers during the Nazi occupation of the Polish city Lvov.

Who’S It For?: In Darkness rewards patient moviegoers with a different and unforgettable true story about survival during the Holocaust. Curious viewers should not be discouraged by the running time.

Read Allen’s interview with actor Robert Wieckiewicz and director Agnieszka Holland

Overall

Many movies have been made about the Holocaust. So many, in fact, that it’s become a bit of a punchline in the movie world concerning a film’s potential appeal. Just set it during the days of the Nazi occupation, throw in some moody lighting, and start gunning it towards Oscar gold.

Yet with In Darkness,...

In the Oscar-nominated film In Darkness, Robert Wieckiewicz plays a cynical sewer worker named Leopold Socha. Based on a true events, Socha tries to hide a group of Jews in the sewers of Polish city Lvov during the Nazi occupation. The film, which features many scenes shot in complete darkness sans for a single flashlight, is directed by Europa, Europa helmer Agnieszka Holland.

I sat down with the star and director of the film to discuss the difficulties of shooting a mostly pitch black movie, how some movies with these stories can be “Hollywood-ized,” and more. (Special translation assistance was provided by fellow Cfca member Zbigniew Banas.)

In Darkness opens in select Chicago theaters on February 17.

Was a lot of information about Leopold available in the recollection of these events?

Agnieszka Holland: We knew that he didn’t survive. He died tragically a year after the war had ended.

Chicago – One of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards is the Polish entry, “In Darkness.” The film is directed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, who had the same nomination honor in 1985 (”Angry Harvest”) and for Adapted Screenplay in 1992 (”Europa, Europa”).

Hailed as one of Poland’s most prominent contributors to their cinema history, Holland has had a career of filmmaking that has been provocative, and highly political. She was born in Warsaw right after World War II, and her Jewish grandparents were killed in the ghetto during that conflict. She made her first film in 1970, “Jesus Christ’s Sins,” while a student the Film and TV School of the Performing Arts in Prague, before embarking on a notable career in the Polish Film industry.

The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’

Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Her first major...

Agnieszka Holland ("The Secret Garden") is no stranger to the Holocaust: she won Oscar nominations for both 1985's "Angry Harvest" and 1990's "Europa, Europa." Eight years ago, David Shamoon's script based on Robert Marshall's "The Sewers of Lvov" lured her back to that period in Polish history; she couldn't let it go. The creative and technical challenge for this movie was how to keep an audience engaged while subjecting them to the horrors of claustrophobic, dank survival in the lightless, rat-infested sewers below Lvov, Poland. Charismatic actor Robert Wieckiewicz, playing a sewer scavenger who surprises himself by...

Agnieska Holland, director of the Academy Award-nominated (Best Foreign Language Feature) Holocaust drama "In Darkness," is no stranger to documenting that period on film (or to Academy Award nominations, for that matter), having made "Angry Harvest" and "Europa Europa," both Holocaust films nominated for Oscars. But "In Darkness" does mark a departure for Holland -- it's her first film set primarily undergound. Based on a true story, "In Darkness" centers on Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), a sewer worker in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland. After coming across a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto, Leopold agrees to hide them undergound in the town's sewer system, for a price. What soon begins as a business arrangement soon blossoms into something deeper, as Leopold's conscience gets the better of him. Holland spoke with Indiewire from Poland about her latest work. This...