Polish Noir

In recent years, Czechs have discovered Poland as a popular holiday destination and it was only a matter of time before we would visit the country of our northern neighbors in our festival program. The Polish film noir section includes four films from the 1950s and 1960s, when Polish cinema rose to great artistic success and received a positive response abroad (Knife in the Water). This collection is complemented by the extraordinary audience hit of the 1990s, Pigs, which was made in a turbulent time of political transformation. The section reflects the early work of esteemed auteurs (Roman Polanski, Wojciech Jerzy Has) as well as titles that have been rather neglected in the Czech Republic (The Criminal Who Stole a Crime). The films will be presented at the festival by Iwona Łyko-Plos, curator of the National Film Archive in Prague, who has long been interested in the history of Polish cinema.

Milan Hain