I’ve been living in rented accommodation for about 12 years now, constantly trying to make myself feel like home in different areas of different cities in different countries. As soon as I lock the door for the first time in a new place, I start putting up my pictures on the walls, filling shelves with my books and cover my bed with my grandma’s throws.
Likewise, the Polish who’ve moved to Ireland over the last decade have decorated the streets of Irish towns and cities with their own shops and enlivened the Irish culture with their own musicians, writers, politicians and celebrities – all in an effort to make ourselves to feel more at home in Ireland.
One of the many things we have imported here is Polish cinema. Four years ago, Klementyna Kasprzyk-Kucharz organised the very first Kinopolis Polish Film Festival, which was a big deal for the Polish community here. Even the Oscars couldn’t have created as much euphoria!
Every year since, Kasprzyk – with the assistance of the Polish Film Institute, the Pomeranian Film Foundation and the Embassy of Poland in Dublin – has managed to bring to Dublin the classics of Polish cinema, plus the latest releases and the most renowned Polish film directors and actors.
This year is no exception, as this week Kasprzyk brings us the fourth annual Kinopolis festival at Cineworld on Dublin’s Parnell Street. Although she moved back to Gdansk last summer to give birth to her baby daughter, it seems that she couldn’t keep away from her first love.
Kinopolis is a response to the needs of Irish-based Poles longing for the cinema of their homeland. From 22 to 26 October we will have a chance to see 13 outstanding films, many of them being the most recent achievements in Polish cinema.
Little Moscow, the winner of Golden Lion at the 2008 Gdynia Film Festival, will open Kinopolis’ week of attractions. The audience will also have a chance to meet renowned director Agnieszka Holland and outstanding actor Maciej Stuhr.
The festival will conclude with the Cinema of Historic Transition, a film retrospective commemorating the 20th anniversary of the defeat of communism and the re-birth of democracy in Poland.
– Emilia Marchelewska
