24th February 2010
Visit of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall organised by the Federation of Poles in GB at the Polish Social and Cultural Centre 

The Festiwal opens with Borys Lankosz's, Reverse (4 March, Riverside Studios), winner of the Golden Lion at 2009's Polish Film Festival and official Polish entry for the best foreign language Academy Award. Lankosz's darkly comic cross-generational drama kicks off a celebration of the best New Polish Cinema from 2009. Highlights include All That I Love (6 March, Riverside Studios), selected In Competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Jacek Boruch's film is a coming of age tale, set against the backdrop of early 80's Poland and the rise of Punk rock; Michal Rosa's Scratch (7 March, Riverside Studios), a tender and touching drama, looking at the personal impact of Poland's recent history, frequently compared to The Lives of Others, as well as Xawery Zulawski's (son of Andrzej), kinetic, larger-than-life adaptation of Dorota Maslowska's controversial, post modern, bestseller, Snow White, Russian Red (8 March, Empire Leicester Square); widely regarded as Poland's answer to Trainspotting with its portrait of the hedonistic, drug-fuelled excesses of Poland's post-Communist youth.

In stark contrast, legendary director Andrzej Wajda returns to the festival with Sweet Rush (7 March, Riverside Studios), his latest film, about desire and its consequences focusing on the story of a middle-aged married woman searching for happiness in the arms of a much younger man. Set in a retirement home for actors, well known documentarian Jacek Bawut's first feature film, Before Twilight (7 March, Riverside Studios), brings together the greats of Polish stage and screen (Jan Nowicki, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Nina Andrycz), as their characters rehearse for one last performance.

To coincide with the UK release of The Ghost Writer, Kinoteka has programmed a retrospective season of Roman Polanski's shorts (6 March, Riverside Studios) and early films focusing on his on-screen collaborations with the internationally acclaimed composer and jazz pianist Krzysztof Komeda; a crucial figure in the Polish Modern Jazz movement. The Barbican will screen Knife In The Water, Rosemary's Baby (for which Komeda was nominated for a Golden Globe), Cul-de-sac, and Dance of the Vampires (7, 13, 21, 27 March respectively, Barbican). The season is accompanied by a screening of Marina Zenovich's documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (6 March, Riverside Studios).

Kinoteka's Centrepiece Gala is a spellbinding celebration of Krzysztof Komeda‘s film compositions (including his collaborations with Polanski) with a live concert by the internationally acclaimed and respected pioneering Jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, a close friend and member of The Komeda Quintet (the Barbican, 27 March). Preceeding the concert there will be the world premiere screening of the Quay Brothers new film Maska, adapted from The Mask, a short story by Stanislaw (Solaris) Lem.

In addition, in partnership with the London Documentary Film Festival, Kinoteka is screening Bartek Konopka's humorous, Oscar-nominated film, Rabbit a la Berlin, telling the untold story of the wild rabbits inhabiting the ‘Death Zone' between the Berlin Wall and the impact of their sudden liberation after the fall of the wall. (Tricycle Cinema, 23 March)