Contemporary and classic Polish cinema will be showcased in the annual Kinoteka Polish Film Festival in the U.K., running until April 25.
This year’s event, being held for the 23rd time, will feature more than 30 screenings at leading venues around London as well as hitting the road for shows in eight other cities across the country.
The festival, billed by the British Council as a “celebration of Poland’s rich cinematic output,” will this year also feature a retrospective of director, screenwriter and producer Wojciech Has, considered to be one of Poland’s premier filmmakers.
In addition to screenings throughout the month of Has’s work, lectures will be held together with an exhibition of posters for the cinematographer’s creations in the foyer of the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank.
There will also be an opportunity to enjoy Sławomir Rogowski's documentary about Has, ‘Description Found Years Later.’
The festival will tour Britain, with regional editions held in association with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and ‘Klassiki,’ an online platform promoting films from Central and Eastern Europe.
Films will be screened at cinemas in Canterbury, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Oxford.
UK/Poland Season
Kinoteka’s opening gala on March 6 served as the inauguration of a broader bilateral culture fest called UK/Poland Season 2025.
The initiative comprises over 100 multi-artform events in 40 cities in the two countries. It is intended to “invigorate the U.K.-Poland cultural dialogue” and provide opportunities for new artists, according to the British Council, which is organizing and funding the events in Poland.
The season runs until November and will include film screenings, exhibitions and conferences among the rich tapestry of cultural offerings.
Among them will be a treat for fans of communist-era graphic design. A collection will be exhibited of film posters created in the Polish People’s Republic to advertise western movies.
Andrzej Klimowski, one of the designers whose work will be featured, told The New European cultural newspaper that poster-makers in Soviet times had unusual freedom of expression.
“We relied on visual metaphors, symbols, to produce cultural statements,” he told the paper.
The result was a unique art form that bore no similarity to the typical Hollywood fare promoting its productions. The ‘Familiar Strangers’ exhibition is available for viewing at Kiosk N1C, Lower Stable Street, King’s Cross, until April 2.
