The Culture Commission of the Jagiellonian University’s PhD Student Association invites you to choose the film we will watch during the next edition of the Doctoral Students’ Film Club, which will take place on Thursday April 13th. You can vote up through Sunday March 26th using the following link:
Filip, dir. Michał Kwieciński, Poland, 2022
It's 1943 in Frankfurt. Filip has lost his entire family in Poland. Being in the heart of Nazi Germany, he is hiding his Jewish ancestry amidst frequent brushes with death. He works as a waiter in the restaurant of a posh hotel, surrounded by beautiful women and friends from all over Europe. However, this elaborately built world around him is falling apart like a house of cards. Soon, Allied bombers will wipe this vibrant tower of Babel off the face of the earth.
In Polish, French, and German with Polish subtitles.
Holy Spider, dir. Ali Abbasi, Germany/Denmark/France/Sweden, 2022
A fact-based thriller in the spirit of David Fincher’s films, Holy Spider is an uncompromising image of contemporary Iran. Directed by Ali Abbasi, whose credits include the Oscar-nominated Border, exposes the violence of an oppressive, patriarchal system. It perfectly explains the source of the wrath of the Iranian men and women today.
Although the film’s plot takes place in Iran, this dark thriller openly refers to great American classics like Scorsese’s Taxi Driver or Fincher’s Zodiac. Somber and thick like a muggy urban night, Abassi’s film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where Zar Amir Ebrahimi received the award for Best Actress.
Holy Spider is a masterful true crime film about a woman who seeks the truth at risk to her life, posing a challenge to the patriarchal system. Ebrahimi plays a journalist tracking a serial killer of prostitutes in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad (these crimes did indeed occur, and sixteen women were killed). Religious leaders, the police, and media make no effort to mask their silent admiration for the fanatic who “cleanses” the streets of sin and decadence. Thus, the protagonist is up against not only the killer but also predators in uniforms and who occupy high offices for whom the lives of women, including her own, are without any value. The world of Holy Spider is like a sticky spider web directed against them.
In Persian with Polish subtitles.
Corsage, dir. Marie Kreutzer, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France, 2022
films. The great Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), awarded at Cannes, plays Sisi, a scandalizing rebel and the most beautiful and most intriguing woman of that age. Corsage is a biting, universal, and timeless tale of freedom.
After two decades, the beautiful and charismatic Sisi is sick and tired of the uptight world of the Austrian monarchy; representing the empire is the last thing she wants. Much more interested in decadence, she goes on a great journey across Europe to meet her old friends (and rekindle old flames). However, her monarchical duties are calling her back, while her attempts at making life more exciting shock and scandalize Vienna. Will the sassy Sisi find a way of living how she wants?
In German, French, English, Hungarian, and Italian with Polish subtitles.