Hanna Maciąg

After “Heat”, it is the second short feature film directed by Agata Trzebuchowska, who is known as the leading actress in Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Ida”. Her proposal is unobvious and intriguing cinema, full of understatement, tension and a peculiar, inimitable atmosphere. The protagonist of “Vacancy” is Anna (Agnieszka Podsiadlik), a quite ordinary resident of a gated housing estate. One day, the woman takes a look inside an unfinished house opposite her own and makes a spontaneous decision to stay there. She begins to observe her family members and neighbours form her hiding spot. Not only does she discover their lesser and greater secrets but, above all, learns more about herself.

Relationships with the people you love most are often the most complicated. This is the problem Hania and her mother Ewa face during their sessions with a psychotherapist, filmed intimately and with the utmost respect by director Paweł Łoziński. The camera always focuses on one person at a time, revealing every emotion hidden behind the words and silences. The empathetic therapist carefully but purposefully peels away the hard layers under which mother and daughter shield themselves. Little by little, the personal tragedies that hamper their communication rise to the surface, as well as the source of the longing for love and acknowledgement that they find so hard to fulfill.

Jill Godmilow (Far From Poland, Waiting for the Moon) in collaboration with Joanna Krakowska and Magda Mosiewicz pay homage to the original SCUM Manifesto, a French film made in 1976 by Carole Roussopoulos and Delphine Seyrig that was inspired by Valerie Solanas’s infamous text of the same name. Much like Solanas’s radical feminist text, SCUM Manifesto is a form of resistance and a call to action.

Rozalia is an actress. A professional opportunity makes it essential for her and her seven-year-old son, Kazik, to move from Warsaw to the small city of Wałbrzych in south-east Poland. The new city means a long-term contract of employment for her in the local theatre and a new school for Kazik. As they settle in, Rozalia begins to strike up a friendship with Kazik's new teacher, Darek. However, problems start cropping up at the school. Unexpected events in Rozalia's life become intertwined with her onstage role.

An eight-episode story charting seven days from the life of a cocaine dealer whose perfectly organized life begins to sink into chaos while he is forced to make the most important choices in his life.