From November 10th to 15th, Kampus Hybernská will host part of the Polish Film Festival Prague, organized by 3Kino. In addition to Andrzej Wajda's final film and two exhibitions dedicated to his work, you can also catch Polish animation, short films by young creators, a debate about Major Zeman, stand-up comedy, and theater.
On Tuesday November 10th at 6:00 PM the festival program at Kampus kicks off with a stand-up performance by Polish actress Małgorzata Pikus. Even the title of her show, Chujowo, ale stabilnie suggests that she doesn't hold back. With dark humor, she describes her life in Český Těšín and the neighborly misunderstandings between Czechs and Poles that she encounters there.
A day later, on Wednesday November 11th at 3:45 PM, the opening of two exhibitions dedicated to Wajda begins in the Circular Hub . Behind the exhibition WAJDA / PICASSO lies a mystery nearly eighty years old. In 1948, Pablo Picasso arrived in Poland for the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace and, according to eyewitness accounts, sketched a dove on a napkin, which later became a symbol of peace. The napkin disappeared without a trace. The twenty-two-year-old Andrzej Wajda, then an unknown painting student, also attended the congress. Did they meet, or did they miss each other by a few steps? Original Picasso lithographs will be on display, along with Wajda's screenplay for Pan Tadeusz and photos by his personal photographer, Renata Pajchel, many of which have never been published before. They capture the director at work. The second exhibition consists of posters for Wajda's filmscreated by students from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Both exhibitions run until Sunday, so you can catch them on other festival days as well. After the opening, just head over to the hall, where at 5:00 PM begins a screening of six animated films from 1963 to 1985. Among them is Tango by Oscar-winner Zbigniew Rybczyński. The films will be introduced by Jerzy Armata, who, together with producer Eugeniusz Gordziejuk, will present the book ANIMA. Masters of Polish Animation.
On Thursday, November 12, from 5:00 PM the focus will shift from the cinema screen to the television screen of normalization-era Czechoslovakia. Ladislav Kudrna and Kamil Nedvědický from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes will analyze the episodes The Well and Mimicry from the series The 30 Cases of Major Zeman and show how the creators twisted real-life cases to suit the regime's agenda. This will be followed by a roundtable discussion Freedom Knows No Borders with Krystyna Krauze, Adam Olech, Petr Placák, František Stárek, and other guests. The discussion will focus on the Czechs and Poles who refused to submit to communist power.
On Friday, November 13 at 6:00 PM Polish critic Artur Zaborski will present three short films by students from the Warsaw Film School. Kamathipura Express by Leon Korzyński, which won a Student Academy Award, tells the story of a young Pole and a dancer escaping a Mumbai slum. In Canaan by Dominik Mirecki, two refugees find a dead body while working illegally and must decide whether to call the police, even though they risk deportation. The tragicomedy Wszystkie miały na imię Anżelika by Alexandra Kuts follows a manicurist who dreams of returning to law school, but an unexpected pregnancy changes her plans. At 19:45 follows the documentary Godmothers / Kumotry about the friendship between two widows from a Polish village in the Romanian Carpathians. The guest will be director Emilia Śniegoska.
The short films will return to the theater on Saturday, November 14 at 4:30 PM. Eight films from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany were selected by the Nisa Film Festival and Solanin Film Festival. The evening at 6:30 PM will once again belong to Wajda. In his final film, Afterimage , Bogusław Linda plays painter Władysław Strzemiński, whose rejection of socialist realism cost him his university position.
Freedom, the theme of this year's festival, will also resonate in the grand finale. On Sunday November 15 at 6:00 PM we will present Mrożek’s absurd grotesque Out at Sea about three castaways on a raft who democratically vote on which one of them to eat. In the 1970s, it was performed by the amateur Lampa Theatre at the Baráčnická rychta in Malá Strana, where the audience easily recognized it as a reflection of the normalization era.
Screenings, discussions, and performances will take place in Hall E.0, with exhibitions held in A.0 at the Circular Hub.
The complete festival program is available on the 3Kino website.
The Polish Film Festival Prague will also take place from November 9 to 15 at the Municipal Library of Prague, the Ungelt Jazz & Blues Club, and the 3Kino Central.
Tickets can be purchased via GoOut or on the Municipal Library website.
