Closely watched trains.
Continue readingTag Archives: Poland
A Real Pain (2024)
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I didn’t expect to feel quite so gutted by what seemed to be an ‘odd couple in Poland’ navel-gazing by Jesse Eisenberg.
Continue readingGreen Border (Zielona Granica) (2023)
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I sat in the front row of the Capital cinema for the first time to watch this intensely emotional epic from Agnieszka Holland as a man across the aisle from me was chewing on something that sounded like a hard lolly with his mouth open for the first 10 minutes of the film and I couldn’t handle it. The front row was a good choice as it enveloped me in the austerity and complexity of this story of asylum seekers in Europe.
Continue readingThe Girl with the Needle (Pigen Med Nålen)(2024)
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Silent Land (Cicha Ziemia) (2021)
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A compelling parable about the indifference of those with more than enough.
Continue readingThe Pawnshop (Lombard) (2022)
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Clips from the US ‘reality’ TV show Hard Core Pawn occasionally appear in my socials and its depiction of pawnshops is firmly rooted in the capitalist myth that those without somehow deserve their lot. The owners unapologetically buy low and sell high and aggressively eject the many grifters trying to con them with worthless or stolen junk. In Lukasz Kowalski’s empathetic observational documentary Lombard, we see poverty in all its forms in Poland’s largest pawnshop.
Continue readingNever Gonna Snow Again (Sniegu juz nigdy nie bedzie) (2020)
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This beautiful and decidedly enigmatic mood piece from Malgorzata Szumowska (Mug (2018), Body (2015)) and Michal Englert confounds as much as it satisfies.
Continue readingCorpus Christi (Boze Cialo)(2019)
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This solid and compelling drama from Jan Komasa wraps a story about morality and choice around the limitations of class and culture in rural Poland.
Continue readingDay 24: My favourite film with a colour in the title
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Three Colours: Blue (1993)
I found this the hardest prompt of the lot but, in the end, I couldn’t not choose Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs (Three Colours) trilogy. After Hal Hartley, Kieślowski was my next favourite director and this trilogy was the first time I saw films that interconnected.
Continue readingTower. A Bright Day (2018)
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Image via miff.com.au
I have no idea what this film is about. If there were signs of a meaning, I missed them and felt confounded as the credits rolled. Continue reading
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