Special screenings & festival events

ALEKSANDER FORD, POLAND / RFN, 1958, 83min

The film, which met with negative reviews from critics, was shelved for nearly 25 years, during which time it grew into a sort of legend. It is based on a story by Marek Hłasko, the cult writer portraying the pessimistic world of the lower classes, cynical and demoralized individuals blindly groping for feelings they are unable to reciprocate. When Ósmy dzień tygodnia was finally shown in Poland, it turned out not to have stood the test of time. It remains a work of value, however, if only for the superb acting of Zbigniew Cybulski.

16.11, Tuesday | 20:00 | Kino AMONDO

SIEGFRIED KÜHN, DDR, 1989, 86min

"SECTION A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME" - jewish existence during the Cold War: a German-Polish journey through time and a juxtaposition of cinematic histories on the occasion of DEFA’s 75th anniversary.

The relationship of the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland towards Judaism was, in light of the Nazi occupation, Shoah and the Cold War, characterised in several respects by reinterpretations of history. Accordingly, the few films that were made on the subject proceeded cautiously. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the foundi[...]

20.11, Saturday | 20:00 | Kino AMONDO

David Perlov, Israel, 1979, 66min

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

On 11 April 1961, a trial of Adolf Eichmann began at the District Court in Jerusalem. The defendant was a high-profile functionary of the Nazi police apparatus during World War Two, actively engaged in coordinating the process of the extermination of Jews. The Israeli authorities turned the Eichmann trial into a trial over the Holocaust.

The Eichmann trial was a watershed moment shaping Israeli identity and world’s memory of Holocaust. 60 years afte[...]

21.11, Sunday | 14:00 | Muzeum POLIN

Wanda Jakubowska, Poland, 1947 , 104min

The Last Stage / Ostatni Etap

Poland's first film about the Holocaust was made as early as 1947. Director Wanda Jakubowska was herself interned in Auschwitz. Aided by survivors and amateur actresses, she filmed in the former concentration camp. This fictional film, with its strong documentary-like elements, portrays an everyday life marked by the cruel excesses and sadism of the guards, but also the will to survive of the imprisoned women and a growing spirit of resistance in view of the Red Army’s imminent approach.

The [...]

18.11, Thursday | 19:00 | FINA

ALEKSANDER FORD, POLAND, 1936, 45min

A rare occasion to see this film by Aleksander Ford, made before the war, in Yiddish. Financed by the “Bund” Socialist party, this documentary with elements of fiction was made in a sanatorium for Jewish children in Miedzeszyn. It tells the story of the children’s return to health and of the rebuilding of human bonds. When it first screened, the film was charged with “containing scenes that feed on the misery of the masses and promote communist ideas under the guise of humanitarianism and modern child rearing methods”, subsequently co[...]