Filmhouse Edinburgh, Kinoteka and BFI announce the UK national tour for Martin Scorsese’s Masterpieces of Polish Cinema – the first celebration of fully restored Polish cinema classics on such a large scale. The UK tour kicked off in London at the 13th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival at the beginning of April and will continue at venues throughout the UK until the end of September. Confirmed cities include Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, Canterbury, Cardiff, Derby, Dublin, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and the Chichester International Film Festival.

The idea for the original project germinated in December 2011 when Scorsese travelled to Poland to accept an honorary degree from the Łódź Film School. The connections he made came together to form the idea of a North American tour of fully restored Polish Classics. Martin Scorsese has personally selected 24 Polish films that have been an inspiration and influence, including many undiscovered gems, all brilliantly restored and digitally remastered. The resulting series premiered in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in February 2014, where it was hugely popular.

Ashes and Diamonds by Andrzej Wajda

Austeria by Jerzy Kawalerowicz

The season includes classic works from some of Poland’s most accomplished and lauded filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda, the most represented director in the tour. Wajda has five films screening including Ashes and Diamonds (1958), a complex, morally ambiguous masterpiece starring the ‘Polish James Dean’ Zbigniew Cybulski. Four films by Jerzy Kawalerowicz have also been selected, including his most personal project, Austeria (1982), a tale of anti-Semitic persecution during WWI. Another filmmaker integral to Polish cinema was Krzysztof Kieślowski, perhaps best known to British audiences for his Three Colours Trilogy (1993-94). Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Killing (1987) is a grimly confrontational study of the protracted process of ending someone’s life, whether through casual murder or meticulously planned execution. This film contributed to a national debate that ultimately ended capital punishment in Poland. Krzysztof Zanussi is a world-renowned director, screenwriter, producer and author who studied philosophy and physics before graduating at the Łódź Film School in 1966, Zanussi’s intellectual and philosophical works are known for exploring the complexity of moral choices and metaphysical questions in everyday life. His films The Constant Factor (1980) and Illumination (1972) also screen in the Masterpieces season.

A Short Film About Killing by Krzysztof Kieślowski

Full details of the season and national tour along with the full programme details for the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival programme can be seen online here. The season will be at Filmhouse Edinburgh until 17 June.

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