QFT to host Kinoteka Polish Film Festival for the sixth time
The showcase of the best of Polish cinema returns to the Queen's Film Theatre for the sixth year in a row as part of the annual KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival.
The programme of the festival (16 – 20 March) has been organised by QFT in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute in London and brings together selected highlights of Polish cinema, including internationally acclaimed titles by respected auteurs and debut filmmakers, award-winning screen performances, Oscar nominees and newly restored Polish classics.
Susan Picken, Head of QFT said: QFT is delighted to be once again hosting the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, now in its sixth year in Belfast. It’s always great to work with our friends at the Polish Cultural Institute and this year we have a truly fantastic selection of films, including the Oscar nominated ‘In Darkness’.
Roland Chojnacki, Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London added: We are very excited that Kinoteka is once more present in Belfast. Northern Ireland has for almost a decade been one of the crucial areas of our Polish culture advocacy campaign. Thanks to collaboration with local Polish community and its leaders as well as the Queens Film Theatre we can once again reach out to new audiences and broaden our reach.
KINOTEKA Belfast opens with a special screening of Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness. The film tells the incredible true story of Leopold Socha (a phenomenal performance by Robert Wieckiewicz), a sewer worker and petty thief in Nazi-occupied Poland, who, after stumbling upon a group of Jews in the sewers, agrees to hide them for a price. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement becomes something unexpected and extraordinary. Based on the book, ‘In The Sewers of Lvov’ by Robert Marshall, In Darkness is an emotional tour de force.
KINOTEKA’s New Polish Cinema section presents Courage (again starring Robert Wieckiewicz), a modern-day take on the story of Cain and Abel that explores the primal themes of sibling rivalry, cowardice, guilt and redemption; also showing are Jan Komasa’s acclaimed Suicide Room and Rafal Lewandowski’s The Mole.
On a more classical theme, Second Run DVD will be launching their Special Edition ‘Polish Cinema Classics‘ 4-DVD Box Set - a collection of newly restored Polish classics released for the first time in the UK and Ireland. The festival will be screening Second Run’s newly restored version of Kawalerowicz’s Night Train.
This year, the flagship KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary across UK. The extra special 10th birthday edition (8-22 March 2012) is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in London in association with the festival sponsor DFDS Seaways and supported by the Polish Film Institute in Warsaw and Polish Consulate in Edinburgh. It is taking place in 9 venues across London including, the Barbican Centre, Curzon Soho, Prince Charles Cinema, Riverside Studios and Everyman Hampstead, The National Gallery and Tate Modern, as well as special programmes at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and Queens Film Theatre, Belfast.
For further information and online booking for KINOTEKA Belfast please visit www.queensfilmtheatre.com