The KUNSTFEST WEIMAR and its long-term partner ARTE are presenting two films by important Polish female directors as a contribution to the city of Weimar’s film series on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the »Weimar Triangle«.
FRI, 27 AUG — 9.30 PM
»Spoor« (»Pokot«) // An Eco-thriller by Agnieszka Holland | ARTE/ZDF | Germany, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic | 2017 | 123 min
A series of gruesome murders targeting men takes place in a provincial Polish village. Is the perpetrator a misfit from the village — or are the animals in the forest responsible? Events start to bubble over, until the solution is revealed at a church service ...
This multi-award-winning film is simultaneously a crime drama, social commentary, and black comedy — and a provocative essay on mankind’s relationship with nature. The screenplay is based on a novel by author Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
Agnieszka Holland is the ‘grande dame’ of Polish cinema and has been president of the European Film Academy since 2020. She won a Golden Globe for her film Europa Europa (Hitlerjunge Salomon), and her film Spoor (Pokot) was awarded a Silver Bear at the Berlinale as well as a European Film Award. Holland splits her talents between Europe and Hollywood, directing films and TV series such as House of Cards.
REGIE Agnieszka Holland | Kasia Adamik DREHBUCH Agnieszka Holland | Olga Tokarczuk KAMERA Jolanta Dylewska | Rafał Paradowski SCHNITT Pavel Hrdlička MUSIK Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz DARSTELLER*INNEN Agnieszka Mandat-Grąbka (Janina Duszejko) | Patrycja Volny (Dobra Nowina) | Wiktor Zborowski (Świętopełk Świerszczyński (genannt Matoga)) | Jakub Gierszał (Dyzio)
SAT, 28 AUG — 9.30 PM
»Never gonna snow again« // A film by Małgorzata Szumowska & Michał Englert | ARTE/BR | Poland/Germany | 2020 | 113 min
One foggy morning, in an anonymous villa development on the outskirts of an Eastern European capital, a mysterious figure appears — a man with a folding table under his arm. Zhenia the masseur has a special gift: his hands can heal, and his eyes can see deep into the souls of lonely people.
Some 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the film analyses contemporary Polish society in a way that is as profound as it is humorous. The film’s protagonists, with their newfound wealth, lived through the communist era in Poland and quickly adjusted to the new capitalist system in the 1990s. Their privileges set them free, but they also shackle them — because doesn’t material wealth all too often go hand in hand with a deep existential emptiness?
Born in Krakow in 1973, Małgorzata Szumowska is one of the most notable directors of our time. She has received numerous international and Polish prizes, including winning the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Body (Best Director, 2015) and the 2018 Grand Jury Prize for The Mask (Twarz).
REGIE & DREHBUCH Małgorzata Szumowska CO-REGIE & DREHBUCH Michał Englert KAMERA Michał Englert P.S.C. PRODUKTIONSDESIGN Jagna Janicka SCHNITT Jaroslaw Kaminski | Agata Cierniak MUSIK Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz TON Marcin Kasinski MPSE KOSTÜMDESIGN Katarzyna Lewińska PRODUKTION Lava Films | Match Factory Productions DARSTELLER*INNEN Alec Utgoff (Zhenia) | Maja Ostaszewska (Maria) | Agata Kulesza (Ewa) | Weronika Rosati (Wika) | Katarzyna Figura (Hundebesitzerin) | Andrzej Chyra (Captain) | Łukasz Simlat (Wikas Ehemann)
