Polish capital hosts Jewish Motifs film festival

The event at the Polish capital’s Kino Muranów cinema started on Wednesday evening and runs until Sunday.

Festival director Mirosław Chojecki said the aim is to offer an insight into the identity of Jews, who before World War II formed a sizeable part of society in Poland.

Films from 15 countries will be screened, including from Germany, Israel, Australia, Argentina, Lithuania, Canada, Austria and the Czech Republic.

The movies will be competing for a range of prizes, including the main Warsaw Golden Phoenix award.

The most eagerly-awaited films include Ferenc Török’s “1945”, which focuses on the arrival of two Orthodox Jews in a remote Hungarian village that acts as a catalyst for the inhabitants’ reckoning with their recent past.

Israeli entry “Scaffolding” tells the story of a teenager who is torn between his funny but often brutal father, who wants him to go into the family scaffolding business, and a literature teacher who inspires him.

Polish entries include “The Prince and the Dybbuk”, which focuses on the life and artistic career of Polish film director and producer Michał Waszyński (1904-1965), a Jew who converted to Catholicism, filmed the Battle of Monte Cassino as a member of the Polish Army’s film unit, directed Italian movies and worked as a producer for American studios in Italy and Spain.

Details of screenings are available at jewishmotifs.org.pl.

(mk-pk)

Source: IAR