The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana) - screening at the Polish Film Festival

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT NOW.

Director: Andrzej Wajda

Cast: Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn

Year: 1974

Duration: 164 min

Awards: Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination

This year's 11th Polish Film Festival, apart from the usual dose of a new generation "daring" productions offering us unique insights into the worlds of drug-fuelled love-affairs, teenage pregnancies, people mysteriously disappearing from supermarket car parks etc., does also present a couple of timeless classics, always worth paying attention to, even if you have already seen them years ago (rather unlikely, by the way, unless you are a dedicated follower of the Polish cinema).

The Promised Land (based on a book written in 1897 by a renowned Polish novelist and Nobel Prize winner Władysław Reymont), set in the industrial city of Łódź, tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.

Wajda presents a shocking image of the city, with its dirty and dangerous factories and ostentatiously opulent residences devoid of taste and culture. The film follows in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, Emile Zola and Maxim Gorky, as well as German expressionists such as Knopf, Meidner and Grosz, who gave testimony of social protest.

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/5/7/4/event_202225972.jpegAn epic story of three ambitious young men searching for their dreams of prosperity by starting a textile factory together: Karol, a Pole; Moryc, a Jew; and Max, a German. However, deceptions, emotional manipulations and acts of sabotage lay bare the unbridled capitalism and human cost that lies underneath the veneer of industrial progress. This incisive, and elegantly-realized Dickensian tale of greed, human cruelty, exploitation, and betrayal earned Wajda the first of his four Best Foreign Film Oscar nominations. The world (and the capitalism) may have moved on since the times in question but the movie sadly does not seem to have lost its relevance...

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/8/f/9/0/event_202236752.jpegAndrzej Wajda is film and theatre director, script writer and set designer, one of the world's most renowned cinematographers, winner of an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000 and four Academy Oscar nominations for best Foreign Language film, including one for Katyń (the story of mass execution of 22 000 Polish POW officers and citizens ordered by the Soviet authorities in 1940) in 2007.

This rare screening of the original full cinema version of the film will be introduced by Wajda through a recorded personal address.and an introduction by writer David Thompson. Unfortunately, the post-screening Q&A with lead actor Wojciech Pszoniak will no longer take place.

The downside of the event is its length which means little if any time will be left for a conversation afterwards but I believe it will be worth our effort. Only reply "yes" if you've got your ticket. Contact details will be sent later.