SECTION: POLSKIE HORYZONTY: The Female Gaze

31FFC Sektions Button Specials

In the last few years, films by female directors from Poland have increasingly made a name for themselves on the international festival scene. Most recently, two Polish women, Agnieszka Holland and Małgorzata Szumowska, were represented in the main competitions in Venice. Recent successes at other international A-list film festivals confirm this trend.

Agnieszka Smoczyńska's THE SILENT TWINS wowed the critics at Cannes 2022. For her first English-language film, she was able to win British superstar actress Letitia Wright for one of the leading roles, which shows the good reputation Polish female directors enjoy in the international industry. In addition, the increasing number of national awards for productions by Polish women directors also testifies to a positive trend in the industry as a whole, even if the struggle of female filmmakers for promotion and recognition continues to be determined by numerous and variously motivated obstacles.

The FFC is showing an exemplary selection of very different films by Polish women directors, most of which focus on female identification figures; among them are all three films by Agnieszka Smoczyńska. IMAGO, the new film by Olga Chajdas, is a remarkable and unusual film by another renowned Polish director in this year's FFC competition.

The series is supported by the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation.

AUTUMN GIRL

AUTUMN GIRL

BO WE MNIE JEST SEKS

Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
PL / 2021 / 105 min
Poland in the 1960s. Kalina Jędrusik is considered the "Marylin Monroe of Poland" - diva and sex symbol, femme fatale and feminist. A woman who lived by her own rules, challenging not only society but also the state, and offending the party and ...
read more
FUGUE

FUGUE

FUGA

Agnieszka Smoczyńska
PL/SE/CZ / 2018 / 102 min
Two years ago, the well-behaved mother from the Wroclaw region suddenly disappeared and reinvented herself in Warsaw without any memory. She fought her way through life as a strong, self-confident woman until a TV program revealed her identity. Now ...
read more
THE LURE

THE LURE

CÓRKI DANCINGU

Agnieszka Smoczyńska
PL / 2015 / 92 min
"Pull us out / Don't be afraid / We won't eat you up yet!" With this song, two mermaids attract the attention of a celebrating society on the Vistula. Pulled ashore, they find themselves in the middle of the candy-colored world of the eighties. In a ...
read more
THE SILENT TWINS

THE SILENT TWINS

THE SILENT TWINS

Agnieszka Smoczyńska
PL/US/UK / 2022 / 113 min
Inseparable twins June and Jennifer Gibbons live with their parents and siblings in provincial Wales in the 1970s. The family comes from Barbados and the  schoolgirls experience the usual everyday racism, but basically grow up sheltered. ...
read more
HELA

HELA

HELA

Anna Kasperska
PL / 2022 / 81 min
Rebellious teenager Hela gets into trouble everywhere she goes, which is why she has landed in a youth home again. All she really wants is to take care of her little sister. And that's why she has already escaped from this home again. Impressive ...
read more
ILLUSION

ILLUSION

ILUZJA

Marta Minorowicz
PL / 2022 / 89 min
Hanna's daughter disappeared without a trace a few months ago. The police are at a loss, but the teacher does not give up the search for her child, hopes, fears, despairs and seeks help in the supernatural. With a great talent for expressive images, ...
read more
SHREDS

SHREDS

STRZĘPY

Beata Dzianowicz
PL / 2022 / 98 min
A family drama through the seasons. In winter, engineer and university professor Gerard and his son Adam still go hunting together. In spring, the father already has Alzheimer's and increasingly loses his sense of reality. An unsettling etude about ...
read more
SILENT LAND

SILENT LAND

CICHA ZIEMIA

Aga Woszczyńska
PL/IT/CZ / 2021 / 113 min
Vacation with obstacles: Anna and Adam, good-looking, smart, successful, have booked a luxury villa in Italy. But the pool is without water, the fan doesn't work, and there is friction between the two. When an accident occurs on their doorstep, ...
read more
VIKA!

VIKA!

VIKA!

Agnieszka Zwiefka
PL/DE/FI / 2023 / 74 min
At 84, Virginia "Vika" Szmydt is the oldest DJ in Poland, if not Europe. She gives lectures in nursing homes, spins rock'n'roll and swing at dance parties, and techno at queer demos. But the search for eternal youth reaches its limits at the latest ...
read more