In this beginning of the new millennium, a tradition of great directors and actors has returned to establish itself thanks to masters who are once again at the top and new names that have emerged. Polish cinema is experiencing a lively season with many excellent productions. After celebrating his father’s memory with Katyn (2007), on the massacre of Polish officers ordered by Stalin, Andrzej Wajda made a free film with Tatarak (2009, known as Sweet rush), which recalls the works and spirit of the Sixties, with an extraordinary Krystyna Janda, between life and fiction. He then tried his hand at the successful biography Wałęsa. Czlowiek z nadziei (2013; Wałesa. The man of hope). The collective film Solidarność, Solidarność… (2005) and the biographical Popieluszko also focus on recent history. Wolnosc jest w nas (2009; Popieluszko – Hope cannot be killed) by Rafal Wieczynski. Krzysztof Zanussi shot Persona non grata (2005) and Il sole nero(2007) in Italy, followed by the original Rewizyta (2009, known as Revisited), a search for the protagonists of his films from the seventies, and the elegant thriller Obce ciało (2014, known as Foreign body). A novice is the protagonist of the award-winning Ida (2013) by Pavel Pawlikowski, set in the early 1960s, elegant in black and white and unsettling in content: before taking her vows, Ida goes to meet her magistrate aunt and discovers an unexpected past that hides a terrible secret. Excellent interpretations of the protagonists Agata Kulesza and Agata Trzebuchowska. For Poland 2016, please check softwareleverage.org.
The great Jerzy Skolimowski is back behind the camera after seventeen years with the dark and powerful Czterynoce z Anna (2008, known as Four nights with Anna) followed by the equally successful Essential killing (2010) starring Vincent Gallo, Volpi cup at the Venice Film Festival, about a man suspected of terrorism and on the run driven only by the instinct of survival. Known for The mill and the cross (2011; The colors of passion), with Rutger Hauer in the role of Pieter Bruegel, is Lech Majewski, author of a pictorial trilogy closed by Onirica – Psie pole (2014; Onirica). By Robert Gliński of particular mention Swinki (2009, known as Piggies), about a 14-year-old recruited to prostitute himself with German clients, and Kamienie na szaniec (2014, known as Stones for the rampart), on Warsaw uprising.
Lead the influential group of female directors Agnieszka Holland, who signed Copying Beethoven (2006; Me and Beethoven) and the powerful and moving In Darkness (2011): in 1943 a sewer worker protects Jews hiding in the tunnels. Dorota Kendzierzawska’s works are always of good value: in Jestem (2005, known as I am) a boy seeks a place in the world; in Pora umierac (2007, known as Time to die) Aniela (Danuta Szaflarska) struggles to defend the earth from the aims of the builders; in Jutro bedzie lepiej (2011, known as Tomorrow will be better) three Ukrainian children dream of a better life in Poland. Małgorzata Szumowska, former author of 33 sceny z życia (2008, known as 33 scenes from life), Elles (2011) and W imie… (2013, known as In the name of…), has won the Silver Bear for directing at the Berlin Film Festival with the family drama Cialo (2015, known as Body).
Jan Jakub Kolski’s best films in the period are Jasminum (2006), a work about love and relationships in the countryside around a monastery, and Serce, serduszko (2014, known as The heart and the sweetheart), road-movie about a girl who loves dance, while Piotr Trzaskalski’s are Mistrz (2005, known as The master) and Mój rower (2012, known as My father’s bike). After the debut thriller Sala samobójców (2011, known as Suicide room), Jan Komasa made Miasto 44 (2014, known as Warsaw 44), love and adventure in the Warsaw Uprising. The first major gay-themed film was Tomasz Wasilewski’s Plynace Wiezowce (2013, known as Floating skyscrapers).
Krzysztof Krauze, who died at the end of 2014, has created three notable works, two of which with his wife Joanna Kos: in Mój Nikifor (2004, known as My Nikifor) Krystyna Feldman plays a naive painter of the 1960s; Plac Zbawiciela (2006, known under the title Savior Square) shows the disintegration of a family while awaiting accommodation; Papusza (2013) is the biography of the great Roma poet Bronislawa Wajs ‘Papusza’. Wladyslaw Pasikowski made the war thriller Poklosie (2012, known as Aftermath) and the tense spy story Jack Strong (2014) about a colonel passing information to Americans.
