Sort:

Essential Polish Cinema

The Decalogue (1989)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 17 critic votes
The Ten Commandments, exact and uncompromising, literally cast in stone, continues to provide a source of moral conflict in contemporary society. In the ten part collection of films, The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieślowski examines the dilemma of fundamental sin in the lives of ordinary Warsaw citizens.
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
Andrzej Wajda · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.
Ida (2013)
Paweł Pawlikowski · 6 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Fandango at Home Free, Plex · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MUBI, Kanopy
In 1960s Poland, young novitiate Anna is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a family secret dating back to the years of the German occupation.
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
Camera Buff (1979)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
On the Silver Globe (1988)
Andrzej Żuławski · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Eternal Family
After a group of astronauts crash-lands on a distant planet, their descendants build a civilization that gradually devolves into myth, prophecy, and tyranny.
Cold War (2018)
Paweł Pawlikowski · 4 critic votes
Free on Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
Wojciech Jerzy Has · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Klassiki
During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.
Man of Marble (1977)
Andrzej Wajda · 3 critic votes
A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
Canal (1957)
Andrzej Wajda · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, TCM
In the last few days of the Warsaw Uprising during World War II, a modest group of Resistance members remains. The band must take refuge in the sewers under the orders of leader Zadra, but it's only a matter of time before they will have to emerge. However, when they try, they are met only with intense hostility from the Nazis. Despite their attempts stay resolute through immense mental strain, it becomes increasingly apparent that they may be doomed.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Jerzy Kawalerowicz · 2 critic votes
A Polish priest arrives at a convent hoping to save the Mother Superior who is supposedly possessed by eight demons.
A Short Film About Love (1988)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Klassiki
19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...
Spoor (2017)
Agnieszka Holland, Katarzyna Adamik · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Pluto TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
A story about Janina Duszejko, an elderly woman, who lives alone in the Klodzko Valley where a series of mysterious crimes are committed. Duszejko is convinced that she knows who (or what) is the murderer, but nobody believes her.
The Last Stage (1948)
Wanda Jakubowska · 1 critic vote
Poland, during World War II. Martha Weiss, a Jewish woman, arrives at the Auschwitz extermination camp with her family. She is assigned the role of interpreter, but her loved ones are much less fortunate.
Nobody’s Calling (1960)
Kazimierz Kutz · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Klassiki
Shortly after World War 2 a young man arrives on the Recovered Territories and starts a romance with a young woman, all the while evading the ghosts of his past.
Labyrinth (1962)
Jan Lenica · 1 critic vote
A self-consciously Kafkaesque tale of a winged lonely man literally devoured by totalitarian rule.
How to Be Loved (1963)
Wojciech Jerzy Has · 1 critic vote
An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator.
Bariera (1966)
Jerzy Skolimowski · 1 critic vote
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
How the Sausage Dog Work (1971)
Julian Antonisz · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Eternal Family
Polish animated short film that uses unconventional film techniques such as cut-out, drawing, filming miscible fluids and scratched images. Also uses non-camera technique such as drawing directly on film. The film is a humorous lecture on the internal structure of a dachshund. Parodying popular lectures at the same time, it contains a message about the superiority of the products of living organisms' techniques and calls for respect for the environment.
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973)
Wojciech Jerzy Has · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Klassiki, Eternal Family
Jozef visits a dilapidated Sanatorium to see his father. Jozef undertakes a strange journey through the many rooms of the sanatorium, each which conjures worlds composed of his memories, dreams and nightmares.
The Promised Land (1975)
Andrzej Wajda · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Klassiki
In nineteenth-century Łódź, Poland, three friends want to make a lot of money by building and investing in a textile factory. An exceptional portrait of rapid industrial expansion is shown through the eyes of one Polish town.
Portrait (1977)
Stanisław Lenartowicz · 1 critic vote
A poetic reflection on the passing of time and youth.
A Woman Alone (1981)
Agnieszka Holland · 1 critic vote
A struggling single mother forms a fragile bond with a disabled laborer as they confront poverty, isolation, and the hardships of life in late communist Poland.
Blind Chance (1981)
Krzysztof Kieślowski · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.
Interrogation (1982)
Ryszard Bugajski · 1 critic vote
In Stalinist Poland, cabaret singer Tonia decides to spend the evening drinking with a group of friends. The next morning, she awakes to find that, for reasons unknown to her, she has been jailed as a political prisoner. As prison officials interrogate, torture and humiliate her, she fights for survival and to maintain her innocence by refusing to sign a false confession. As her years of imprisonment pass, her relationship with her captors grows more complicated.
Korczak (1990)
Andrzej Wajda · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
The story of Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war.
Nightmares (2007)
Yael Bartana · 1 critic vote
This film inaugurates Bartana’s “Polish trilogy”, building on the complex Polish-Jewish relations as the point of departure towards a more universal narration about the figure of a stranger or newcomer. Sławomir Sierakowski (leader of the Polish leftist group and magazine “Krytyka Polityczna”) acts here as an activist who passionately invites Jews to come back to Poland. The derelict Tenth Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw provides the scenery of his passionate speech: “Jews! Fellow countrymen! People! Peeeeople! This is a call, not to the dead, but to the living. We want 3 million Jews to return to Poland, to live with us again. We need you! We’re asking you to return!” Bartana relates here to the timeless aesthetics of propaganda films, e.g. Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will from 1934 (where the stadium also becomes an scene of political manipulation), but also the earlier Zionist film chronicles targeted at Jews settling down on the Palestinian territories.
In Darkness (2011)
Agnieszka Holland · 1 critic vote
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied city of Lviv. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lviv (formerly Poland).
Something Better to Come (2014)
Hanna Polak · 1 critic vote
Right outside of Moscow – home to the highest number of billionaires pr. capita – you’ll find the largest junkyard in the world: The Svalka. It’s a hard place run by the Russian mafia. And it's where Yula lives with her mother, her friends and many other people. Life is tough in the Svalka, but it’s also a place where beauty and humanity can arise from the most unlikely conditions. It is from this place that Yula dreams of escaping and changing her life, even if it seems impossible. Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak followed Yula for 14 years, bringing us along on Yula's journey to achieve this dream.
Afterimage (2016)
Andrzej Wajda, Marek Brodzki · 1 critic vote
Free on Pluto TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Film Movement Plus
In 1945, as Stalin sets his hands over Poland, famous painter Wladislaw Strzeminski refuses to compromise on his art with the doctrines of social realism. Persecuted, expelled from his chair at the University, he's eventually erased from the museums' walls. With the help of some of his students, he starts fighting against the Party and becomes the symbol of an artistic resistance against intellectual tyranny.

Loading…

movie (and chill).

Essential Polish Cinema

More collections