As filmPOLSKA returns for its 21st edition, we sat down with Bartek Tesarz, artistic curator of the festival and the film programme at the Polish Institute Berlin, to talk about the enduring relationship between Poland, Berlin and the big screen. We discussed Warsaw’s current revival through film, an unsung historical horror from the inimitable Andrzej Żuławski, contemporary global issues seen through Polish lenses and the incomparable Andrzej Wajda, this year’s retrospective’s honoree. From filmPOLSKA’s beginnings to this year’s expansive programme, Tesarz takes us through the festival’s history, its changing identity and what makes Polish cinema so compelling right now.
First things first: I’d love to know a little more about the Polish Institute Berlin.
The Polish Institute in Berlin was established in 1956. Much like the Institut Français Berlin, we promote Polish culture abroad. We’re not necessarily here just for the Polish community, but to create a united sensation with updates about what’s happening in Poland culturally – what we’re proud of, the achievements and hidden gems that haven’t had wide release. Our office and gallery is on Burgstraße, right by Museum Island, with exhibitions throughout the year. Entry is free. We’re a team of 12 people. I’m responsible for the film programme but we also have people behind literature, music, art, theatre – a broad team in which everyone is a specialist with their own artistic focus.
How did the film festival come into being?
The film festival came to life 21 years ago, created by Kornel Miglus who, at the time, was working at the institute. It filled a vacuum for the Polish film industry – especially its visibility outside of Poland. It started off small, each year growing in size. Its main part is the competition, where we showcase seven films (first and second features) from young emerging filmmakers, because it’s important for us to represent the works of people who are making their first steps in the Polish film industry. Its formats are both fiction and documentary format. This excites us, as it allows for each year’s films to be really broad in their topics and forms. There’s prize money sponsored by the Polish Filmmakers Association, which is exciting.
Tell me about the festival programme.
Our programme is big. We have 30 feature films and, traditionally, two side programmes: Panorama, in which we showcase films over the established ‘masters of the craft’, and Retrospective. In this section, we present older films, from the 1900s onwards, that maybe German audiences haven’t seen, or at least might not have seen presented on the big screen. Apart from Panorama and Retrospective, we have different sidebars. This year, one is a programme called Two Hearts. Berlin – Warsaw. We’ll screen three films that present a modern landscape of Warsaw.
Why Warsaw in particular?
I kept having conversations, both professionally and privately, with people wanting to go on a small weekend escape – something nearby and easy by rail. They ask, “Is Warsaw worth visiting?” I feel like the city has changed a lot in the last few decades and people are still somehow unsure or haven’t yet discovered it. In a year where Rosalía’s ‘Berghain’ video is shot entirely in Warsaw and we have Charli xcx’s new acting turn in a film set there (something you wouldn’t maybe expect – Charli xcx and a love letter to Warsaw), this felt like the right moment. So these three films, made predominantly by young filmmakers, show themes surrounding love, different backgrounds and their relationship with the city. In the past, Warsaw on screen shows us a place known for being blitzed and obliterated, so it’s cool to look forward and see what has come out of those sad and hardened roots. It’s a vibrant and fun city, full of culture, business, industry – a true European capital.
What else is on the programme?
Every year, we have the Kunst im Kino, a programme [of films] on September 15 at the Hošek Contemporary gallery. Its name this year is Breathe In, Berlin. It’s free. We’ll have five amazing installations and a live performance from Agata Siniarska. For the first time in our history, we’re doing a lot more industry-based events, including pitching workshops for young Polish talents with the Wajda School & Studio. This is an open event on Friday, September 11. We have a workshop aimed at young filmmakers with shorts experience who want to make the step into feature film. It will be presented by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, who’s made great films like The Lure and The Silent Twins.
So much happening! And then, of course, your retrospective this year is respecting a great artist of European cinema.
Yes, this year is under the patronage of Andrzej Wajda, to showcase his legacy. I had this idea of showcasing him in this retrospective, not just his directorial work. Obviously, he’s a great director who’s made countless masterpieces, but more interesting is this lesser known side of his work. It’s not well known outside of Poland, or maybe even inside Poland, that Wajda was the artistic director of the film group Zespół Filmowy X throughout the 70s and the 80s. It shows him, not just as an artist, but as an organisational mentor, helping read scripts, get films off the ground and give artistic insights within the X group.
On top of this, one of the biggest organisational issues back then was to fight for films against censorship and get releases out. After the Polish martial law of 1981, a lot of films that were deemed controversial by the Party ended up shelved. Many films didn’t get seen until the end of that decade. Wajda put himself out there, meeting officials and defending the films under review by the cultural ministry at the time. This was a side of him I wanted people to know about. So the retrospective is the work of Wajda, but also of those around him that he fought for and supported. I think the spirit of that is shown in our visual identification.
Can you tell us what that visual identification is?
It’s based on a brick, which as an artefact is fascinating in itself – a basic tool to build things as a community. You come together to build a home, to build communal spaces, be it industrial, living, culture, safety. But also, it was a tool used in the revolution. It was the most basic tool to be used as some kind of weapon in the grassroots uprising. So as an artefact, to me, it shows a great duality of heading into the future, building together, but also fighting for your right to be respected. In the 70s and the 80s, there were so many instances of uprising where people were brutally dismantled by the Party.
I feel like Warsaw has changed a lot in the last few decades and people are still somehow unsure or haven’t yet discovered it.
Lastly, a brick was an item deeply personal to Wajda. One of his masterpieces, Man of Marble (screening as part of the retrospective), focuses on this idea of socialist heroes rebuilding Poland after World War II. These men exceeded expectations by making 200% or 300% of the mandated norm. His protagonist, Mateusz Birkut, was one of those people, a bricklayer, who was first used as poster child of the new political norm, just to be unfairly discarded. When the film was presented at the Polish Film Festival in 1976, some of the jury members were ideologically communist and completely disregarded the film. Then here was Wajda’s film, uncovering the facade of those times. The jury disregarded the film. Afterwards, all the festival journalists got together to present Wajda with an award, but they had nothing to give him, so they got a brick, all signed it and gave it to him. In his lifetime, Wajda commented many times that this brick was the most important award he ever received, more than his Palme d’or or honorary Oscar.
That’s a beautiful story. What do you look for in curating? Can you pick out anything that’s distinct in Polish cinema?
The biggest joy is to bring Polish cinema to the audience. My biggest goal is to see the cinemas full and to discuss the films. I want them to feel something and remember the films.
Could you pick some films from the programme that you would like to highlight?
Oh no. That’s Sophie’s choice!
Indeed! Maybe contemporary works first?
I want to show that Polish cinema can be edgy and make brave decisions.
From our emerging filmmakers, I was so impressed by Emi Buchwald’s craft and the way she wrote No Ghosts on Good Street. This is in our competition strand this year. I saw the premiere last year at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. It’s mature in its writing and the way it handles its characters; it’s incredible that it’s a debut. It’s about siblings and love, about four young (early 20s, mid 30s) siblings trying to find their own space and voice in Warsaw. It has imperfect characters treated with great care and a touch of magical realism. For our opening night, we’ll show Chopin, a Sonata in Paris. This will be the German premiere, with director Michał Kwieciński. It’s a beautiful film showing how Chopin might be a figure who lives in our collective consciousness. It focuses not just on his musical genius but on a human who’s just found out he’s terminally ill, how he processes that and how his life turns into a race against the clock. This film is about creating a legacy – eternal, artistic, musical – but also, physical things: relationships, primal instincts with his children, things we deal with under the shadow of a diagnosis.
And your older showcases?
For classics, there are five Andrzej Wajda films. I’d recommend all of them! We’re showing The Devil by Andrzej Żuławski (if you know him, maybe it’s from his more famous Berlin-shot Possession). It’s a historical horror deeply rooted in Polish identity, presented in a very dark, clever, metaphoric way, touching on Polish historical experience. But it’s digestible and works just as a great film for those who don’t know much about that. Visually, it’s so impressive, the scale of it, and for a second feature, it’s impressive. He was young when he made it. He handles the material of Polish history through metaphor in an incredible way. I think it was the longest shelved film in Poland at the time. It was made in 1972 and not screened until the late 80s.
I’ve seen there’s a lot of material you’re showcasing with surprising topics, broad in that they don’t just stick to inside Poland.
We chose some stuff this year that’s transgressive. I want to show that Polish cinema can be edgy and make brave decisions. It’s a piece of the puzzle of the broader European cinema culture. We’re showing films that can be produced beautifully and written in distinctive ways. For example, in confronting Polish issues, you’ll see that these issues sometimes don’t differ so much in Germany, South America, the USA, Japan, China. There’s universality but specificity, without cliché. I appreciate artists taking risks, even when they might not pay off. I want Polish filmmakers to be brave and free with the topics they choose and the directorial approaches they take. I also want to show that the Polish film industry is international. In this year’s competition, four of the films aren’t actually talking directly about Poland at all. Silver by Natalia Koniarz is about the Bolivian mines. Weronika Mliczewska’s Child of Dust looks at a Vietnamese man looking for his father after the war. Robert Kwilman is this brilliant Dardenne Brothers-style filmmaker. In Capo, he shows how the tables have turned and Polish industries are now exploiting immigrants. After years of Polish citizens being exploited in the Western hemisphere, we now find ourselves as perpetrators. I think these films are important.
filmPolska is happening from Sep 9-16 at the Polish Institute Berlin and in various cinemas. You can follow them @polnisches_institut_berlin
