For the 15th time, the “Kozzi” Film and Theatre Festival took place in Zielona Góra, Cottbus’s Polish partner city. Named after crime film actor Maciej “Kozzi” Kozłowski, who was born in the nearby village of Kargowa, the festival presents a mix of contemporary Polish cinema—including genre films—and pays tribute to the work of selected filmmakers.
This year, alongside Kozłowski, the focus was on actress Ewa Dałkowska and Andrzej Wajda, who would have turned 100 this year. In his films, the iconic director reflects the traumas and hopes of his generation—those who grew up during and after the Nazi occupation and the Second World War, and who later faced state socialism and the challenges of post-socialist transformation. Once again, I was deeply impressed by the selection: by Wajda’s heroes caught between worlds, by his iconic imagery, by a poetic language that finds a different style in each film, and by the way he invites us to reflect on the condition humaine. This is democratic cinema on a grand scale—sometimes wild, sometimes light in touch, always precise and still strikingly relevant today. Perhaps even more so now, as it engages with the social divisions that emerge in particularly challenging times.
With the support of the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, the FilmFestival Cottbus will dedicate a homage to Wajda in its next edition. This will be complemented by Polish-German student film programmes from the Wajda Film School in Warsaw and the Filmuniversität KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, exploring the continuing influence of his cinematic and moral legacy.
The same question will also be addressed in a course at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg as part of the World Heritage Studies programme, which Prof. Jens Adam, Head of Cultural Management, and I are teaching there. Together with the students, we attended this year’s Kozzi Film Festival to watch several of Wajda’s films—at a time when Poland is dedicating an entire cultural year to him. At the same time, there was also an opportunity to discover a number of new Polish productions. The award for Best Film in the competition went to Maciej Sobieszczański’s BROTHER, which was screened in the FFC’s Youth Film Competition in 2025.
More information: https://festiwal.norwid.net.pl/
Text: Bernd Buder