Writer’s Choice

Festival acquaints audiences with seldom-seen films

One of the reasons film is such a respected cultural ambassador is that it often presents, in detail, universal human themes, elements all of us can understand and relate to.

However, the settings for and circumstance of those themes vary greatly from one culture to another, providing another dimension to cinema’s power.

Szymon Wozniczka came to Wisconsin from Zakopane, Poland, about a dozen years ago. In pursuing a master’s degree in physical therapy at UW–Madison, he got involved in promoting Polish culture stateside.

Of course, this part of the country is particularly fertile ground for that because a sizeable percentage of the population claims Polish heritage. Wozniczka says that those who are several generations removed from the homeland would find a country very different from this one if they were to go back.

“The ongoing transition from communism makes for very different realities in contemporary Polish society,” he says. “Artistic representations of this society on film makes the culture more intriguing and, I hope, more concrete for audiences.” Wozniczka adds that among recent movies, the most successful were very “Polish.”

“That means intense in storyline, language, humor and on moral issues, with strong references to history and a sense of characters living in a world that changes rapidly and forever,” he says.

Six Polish films, all of them made between 2005 and 2006, will be featured in the 2006 Polish Film Festival, Friday-Sunday, Nov. 17-19. The program includes two films about the seminal Polish director and teacher Krzysztof Kies’lowski, perhaps best known for his 10-hour “Dekalog.”

That one will not be screening during this film fest. However, “Still Alive” and “My Kies’lowski” — one made by a Kies’lowski student, the other by his daughter — present a portrait of an artist few know about outside of Europe. Those films will be shown together starting at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17.

Preceding them, and opening the 2006 festival at 7:30 p.m., will be “I’ll Show You!” (2006), a Polish version of “The Parent Trap.”

Titles on Saturday, Nov. 18, include “Jasminum” (7:30 p.m.), about life among the eccentrics in a monastery, and “Ode to Joy” (9:30 p.m.), three separate stories linked by a bus trip to London.

The festival wraps Sunday, Nov. 19, with “Your Name is Justine,” about a woman sold into prostitution. It begins at 4 p.m.

Wozniczka says that these brief descriptions can’t begin to do justice to the impact that these films can have on their audiences, perhaps especially those unfamiliar with the cinema of Poland.

“Film is capable of not only reacting to realities around us but also shaping them by posing controversial questions on urgent issues. I hope that this event prompts both Polish and American audiences to draw together and discuss the current state of Poland and the perception of Poland abroad,” he says.

Wozniczka hopes to expand the festival: “I would like to secure enough funding to expand the festival to two weekends, possibly at two campus locations. I also hope to find a place for Polish and American people to meet to pose and answer questions and increase our mutual understanding of Polish culture and its perception in other nations.”

All events in the festival are free and open to the public. Films will be shown in 4070 Vilas Hall.

For more information, contact Tom Yoshikami of Cinematheque, a co-sponsor of the festival, at 263-3627 or polishfilmfest@yahoo.com.