SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2015 AT 5:30 PM AT THE TOWER THEATER
SUNDAY, MARCH 15 , 2015 AT 7:00 PM AT CINEPOLIS IN COCONUT GROVE
A Reception sponsored by The American Institute of Polish Culture and the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Poland will follow the Sunday March 8 th screening.
www.ampolinstitute.org
WARSAW 44
FLORIDA PREMIERE
DIRECTED BY Jan Komasa
Country: Poland
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English
Original Title: MIASTO 44
Running Time: 127min
Production Year: 2014
Category: Cinema 360º
Young Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa (he was only 31 when he shot this film) daringly took on staid Establishment views of revered history in order to tell the story of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in a way that would be seen – and seen it was, outgrossing all American films at the Polish box office last year. Aiming more for the passion of Les Miserables – the love, the youth, the battle – but minus the bombastic musical approach, Komasa’s Warsaw 44focuses on handsome Stefan, a chocolate factory worker who joins the underground Polish Home Army and finds him in a torrid love triangle with two young girls, Kama and Biedronka.When the Home Army looks to the approaching Soviet Army as a catalyst to stage the largest resistance attack furbished by any occupied WWII society, Stefan, Kama and Biedronka are swept up in a historical incident that to this day still weighs heavily on Poland’s soul.
Controversial for its techniques of heating up the drama with highly attractive lead actors and pulse-pounding, expressionistic imagery, Warsaw 44 above all succeeds in its sense of creating the vital feeling of now. Following the twin hits of Ida and Life Feels Good last year, Jan Komasa extends the sensation that Poland is the current hotspot for East European cinema. – Jaie Laplante
SHOWTIMES
Sunday March 8th @ 5:30pm MDC’S TOWER THEATER PRESENTED BY VIENDOMOVIES (THEATER 1)
Sunday March 15th @ 7:00pm CINEPOLIS
CREDITS
Director: Jan Komasa
Producer: Michal Kwiecinski
Screenwriter: Jan Kosama
Cinematographer: Marian Prokop
Editor: Michal Czarnecki
Cast: Anna Prochniak, Zofia Wichlacz, Jozef Pawlowski
JAN KOMASA
Jan Komasa was born in Poznan, Poland and studied film at the National Film School in Lodz. He made shorts and documentaries before winning international attention with his first feature film, Suicide Room (2011), a discovery of the Berlinale Film Festival. Warsaw 44 (2014) is his second feature.
