Madison Polish Film Festival

If your patience with binge-streaming is at an end, or even if it’s not, rediscover the joys of foreign cinema with this free film fest. Poland’s vibrant cinema is at the heart of this two-day festival, which kicks off at 3 p.m. on Nov. 19 with Tata, directed by Anna Maliszewska, in which a lonely father takes his daughter and a friend on an unexpected journey in a film that’s an offbeat member of the road trip genre. At 5:30 p.m., Dangerous Gentlemen (Niebezpieczni dżentelmeni), directed by Maciej Kawalski, is a crime comedy in which the protagonists awaken following an all-night bender to discover a corpse on the couch, with no idea as to what’s happened. The festival continues with two more films on Dec. 3; at 3 p.m. is Shreds, directed by Beata Dzianowicz, in which a multi-generational family faces the first symptoms of Alzheimer's in the elder generation. At 5:30 p.m., Filip, directed by Michał Kwieciński, is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Polish novelist Leopold Tyrmand about surviving in Nazi Germany during World War II. Find updates at gns.wisc.edu.

media release: The Madison Polish Film Festival is back! This year, the festival will take place on November 19 and December 3 at the Marquee Cinema (located in Union South) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. All screenings are FREE and OPEN to the public. Join us to again celebrate Poland's vibrant and universally recognized cinematic tradition. Everyone is welcome – Zapraszamy na festiwal!

The 2023 Madison Polish Film Festival program:

Sunday, November 19:

3 pm: Tata (dir. Anna Maliszewska, 2022; running time: 1h 50 min): A lonely dad, facing the sudden death of a Ukrainian babysitter, takes his daughter and her friend on a journey by truck. Will a trucker and two scamp girls handle the transport of frozen fish, body smuggling and life without a home?

5:30 pm: Dangerous Gentlemen (Niebezpieczni dżentelmeni, dir. Maciej Kawalski, 2022; runinng time: 1h 50 min): Joseph Conrad and three other notorious artists wake up after a crazy party with a dead man on their couch with no clue who he was, why he’s dead, or why the gendarme is knocking at the door.

Sunday, December 3

3 pm: Shreds (Strzępy, dir. Beata Dzianowicz, 2022; running time: 1h 40 min): The Pateroks are a loving, multi-generational family. Their lives are peaceful and humorous. Suddenly a crack appears in this harmonious reality: Grandpa Gerard begins to act strangely, breaking social conventions and norms. It turns out that these are the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

5:30 pm: Filip (dir. Michał Kwieciński, 2023; running time: 2h 5 min): In 1943, a Polish Jew, who managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto, is waiting restaurant tables in Frankfurt while pretending to be French and taking revenge on the Nazis in his own unique way.