The 18th Polish Film Festival in America runs Saturday, November 4, through Sunday, November 19, at the Beverly Arts Center, the Copernicus Center, the Portage, and the Society for Arts, 1112 N. Milwaukee. Tickets are $8.50-$10; a festival pass, good for five screenings, is $45. Following are selected features screening Saturday through Thursday, November 4 through 9; for a full festival schedule visit www.pffamerica.com. Unless otherwise noted, all films are in Polish with subtitles. For more information call 773-486-9612.
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The Collector For decades Feliks Falk has supplied Polish cinema with undiluted doses of cynicism. Here he zeroes in on a repo man named Lucek whose genius for uncovering hidden assets is matched only by his ruthless disregard for his prey. The camera, galvanized from first frame to last by the extraordinary performance of Andrzej Chrya as the zealous collector, restlessly roams a colorless Poland ravaged by economic insecurity. The incorruptible Lucek, an unholy amalgam of bureaucratic piety and capitalistic drive, poses a threat to both his impoverished victims and his corrupt bosses. Unfortunately Falk, uncharacteristically directing from someone else’s script, loses his mordant edge as the hero magically becomes humane–a suitably ironic turnaround but one that feels schematic and lacks iconic verve. 93 min. (Ronnie Scheib) a Wed 11/8, 7 PM, Society for Arts
Ode to Joy There’s precious little joy for any of the characters in this 2005 trio of shorts, which are set against the shifting economic landscape of contemporary Poland. In the strongest entry, Anna Kazejak-Dawid’s gritty “Silesia,” a young woman returns from working in England to find her miner father on strike and her beautician mother unemployed and approaching a nervous breakdown. Jan Komasa’s “Warsaw,” about a rapper angered by the cruelty of his girlfriend’s wealthy father, ends so abruptly it feels unfinished. And in Maciej Migas’s “Pomerania” a fisherman on the Baltic coast tries to weather girl trouble, a skinflint boss, a shrewish mom, and a dad slipping into dementia. 113 min. (AG) a Thu 11/9, 7 PM, Society for Arts
