The 13th annual Polish Film Festival in America, produced by the Society for Arts, continues Friday through Thursday, November 9 through 15. Screenings are at the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence, and by video projection at the Society for Arts, 1112 N. Milwaukee. Tickets are $9; passes are also available for $40 (five screenings) and $80 (twelve screenings). For more information call 773-486-9612. Programs marked with a 4 are highly recommended.
Captain’s Daughter
Keep Away From the Window
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During the Nazi occupation of Poland, a childless husband and wife in a small town shelter a Jewish woman (Dominika Ostalowska), and after the husband impregnates their guest in hiding, the wife claims the baby as her own. Visual stylist Jan Jakub Kolski (A Story of the Movies From the Village of Popielawy) directed this 2000 chamber drama, using the camera to create a sense of claustrophobia and delineate the spaces that keep the characters isolated from one another. The script, based on a story by Krzysztof Kieslowski collaborator Hanna Kral, focuses on the wife’s delusions and the subtle power play between the two rivals, but it fails to present the psychological issues with any clarity or insight; at the end, when the grown daughter repeats both her mothers’ mistakes, Kolski can’t get much out of the development besides ironic closure. 104 min. (TS) (Copernicus Center, 8:00)
Adapted from a novel by Stefan Zeromski, this has all the strengths and weaknesses of a historical picaresque: colorful characters, interesting locales, and glimpses into historical events, all set in a sprawling and aimless plot. After Azerbaijan is invaded by the Bolsheviks, a callow young man from a prosperous family (Mateusz Damiecki) sets out to find his father, traveling from Baku to Moscow to the Polish countryside, where he joins a group of student revolutionaries. Writer-director Filip Bajon manages to stay focused amid the sweeping, Tolstoyan story, evoking with a few specific shots the look and feel of an Azerbaijani oil field, a Polish country estate, a packed railcar traveling through eastern Europe, and other exotic settings. 140 min. (Jack Helbig) Bajon and Damiecki will attend the screening. (Copernicus Center, 8:00)
An hour-long episode from the TV series Big Deals, this 2000 film by Krzysztof Krauze spoofs Poland’s emerging yuppies: a woman buys a cell phone packed with expensive options as a birthday gift for her husband, and the husband mistakenly believes that she’s bought it to carry on an affair with the phone salesman. His jealousy exposes the pressure points of their modern marriage (conformity, consumerism, and competitiveness), which may seem fresh to Polish viewers but will be dreadfully familiar to Americans. Krauze’s satire is heavy-handed, and the comedy’s occasional sharp edges are negated by a pat ending. (TS) On the same program, Maciej Pieprzyca’s Inferno (59 min.), a TV drama about three young women whose plans for the future go awry the night of their prom. (Society for Arts, 9:00)
