Opening the Polish Film Festival this Sunday at Palace Cinemas, Norton Street, it’s off we go to OFF WE GO, a bittersweet comedy of a married couple in their twilight years whose oft interrupted road trip is peppered with inter-generational interference and the onset of illness.
OFF WE GO is a celebration of independence and interdependence, of prevailing against the onslaught of courage crushing circumstance, and of enduring love and companionship.
Marian Opania and Malgorzata Rozniatowska star as Jozef and Elzbieta Gugulak. Jozef’s mobility is compromised and he is dealing with Elzbieta’s Alzheimer’s, a disease that has her disappearing from time to time and triggering rants against an historic infidelity by Jozef forty years ago.
Irascible, cantankerous and yet incredibly caring for his wife, Jozef engages in a number of escapades to fulfil Elzbieta’s wish to visit The Three Crowns, a kind of bucket list holy grail.
Little blue vehicles and little blue pills figure predominantly in this very funny and joyfully poignant film. The two leads are a delight and the supporting cast of family and friends bring vivid characterisation.
Another absolute highlight of the festival is SEASONS, a marvellously histrionic exploration of love, ego, and the fragile architecture of marriage, set against the backdrop of the eccentric world of theatre where a narcissistic actor’s collapsing personal life eerily mirrors the roles he plays on stage.
The action unfolds across three different performances, Peter Pan, A Doll’s House and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the characters’ private lives intertwine with onstage reality, and intense emotions are accompanied by calamitous consequences.
Łukasz Simlat plays self-absorbed stage actor Marcin, blindsided by the unexpected collapse of his long-term relationship with fellow actress and mother of his children, Ola, gorgeously played by Agnieszka Dulęba-Kasza.
After relentless nagging by Marcin, Ola inadvisedly confesses to an infidelity just as the curtain goes up on a production of Peter Pan where she is playing Tinkerbell and he is playing Hook. Outraged, Marcin goes wildly off script presenting a vastly altered version of Barrie’s classic script.
By accident and design, the pair are thrown together in two more productions over the period of their divorce proceedings bringing elevated textures to their performances and their personal lives as stage roles spill into real life.
Yet another highlight is the impassioned documentary, BLOODY TROPHY, a film that delves deep into the dark world of wildlife trafficking. A journalist’s investigation into the illegal rhino horn trade unexpectedly leads to Poland and the Czech Republic, uncovering a link between the Vietnamese Thai, and Laotian mafia and local trophy hunters, whose trophies mysteriously never make it back home.
Shot in Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Republic of South Africa, it uncovers how international crime syndicates exploit legal trophy hunting loopholes, recruiting individuals from Europe and Asia to participate in pseudo-hunts in South Africa. The film exposes the intricate network involving Vietnamese, Thai, and Laotian criminal elements, highlighting their methods of operation and the devastating impact on rhino populations. Difficult to watch but as one participant in the production says, if it can change the mindset of just one poacher then the course of extinction can be curtailed.
Bordering on the macabre, then going full border crossing is MINGHUN, a cross cultural curiosity about grief, belief and posthumous weddings.
Following the sudden death of his daughter, Polish father Jurek (Marcin Dorociński) joins his Chinese father-in-law Ben (Daxing Zhang) in performing the ancient ritual of minghun – a posthumous wedding meant to ensure his daughter won’t be alone in the afterlife. Initially resistant to the idea, Jurek is slowly drawn into an unexpected journey across cultures and generations as the two men search for a suitable “ghost groom.”
What begins as a bizarre and painful task evolves into a touching exploration of love, memory, and the mysteries of those we think we know best. Beautifully framed, shot and acted, MINGHUN will haunt you long after the final credits.
The Polish Film Festival is back — and this year it’s bigger and more accessible than ever. From 31 August to 19 October, audiences can enjoy the very best of contemporary Polish cinema at three locations: Palace Norton St, Palace Central, and the Hayden Orpheum.
Now in its 11th year, the Festival will feature nine Australian Premieres in a program ranging from laugh-out-loud comedies and tender romances to gripping dramas, high-stakes heist action, and compelling investigative documentaries — all showcasing the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary Polish cinema.
All films screen with English subtitles.
Tickets are now on sale and full program is available at http://www.polishfilmfestival.org/sydney
