The Culture Commission of the PhD Students’ Association of the Jagiellonian University invites you to vote for the film we will watch during the next edition of the Doctoral Students’ Film Club, which will take place on Thursday November 9, 2023.
You can vote using the following link until Sunday October 22nd:
This time, you can choose one of the following films (all of the following descriptions come from the films’ distributors).
The Peasants, dir. DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman, Poland/Serbia/Lithuania 2023. In Polish with English subtitles.
The fates of the Boryna family and the beautiful, mysterious Jagna are set against a backdrop of changing seasons and seasonal agricultural work. Women, especially the tragic figure of Jagna, are at the heart of the plot.
The unique microcosm of a rural community serves as a pretext to tell a universal and startlingly relevant story, one of tragic love and life in a small village where brutal rules determine everyone’s place in the collective, while transcending its constricting limits entails shaming and rejection.
The Peasants has been made using a painting-based animation technique that stole the hearts of fans around the world with the release of the studio's previous production, Loving Vincent.
Władysław Reymont’s monumental novel is filled with ornate descriptions of nature. The film has been made on the basis of painting from the Young Poland period, which perfectly expresses the novel's mood. Interpretations of the works of such artists as Józef Chełmoński, Ferdynand Ruszczyc, and Leon Wyczółkowski will appear on the big screen.
The film's score was composed by the multiple award-winning producer Łukasz L.U.C. Rostkowski. As part of the international Rebel Babel Film Orchestra, the composer has created a unique Slavic collective of folk music that like painters through the use of traditional means (folk instruments and songs) have created a magical analog landscape that complement the beauty of the painted images.
A Haunting in Venice, dir. Kenneth Branagh, USA 2023. In English with Polish subtitles.
This tense, unsettling thriller is based on Agatha Christie’s novel Hallowe'en Party. This film was directed by Oscar® winner Kenneth Branagh, who simultaneously plays the famous detective Hercule Poirot.
The film's plot is set immediately after World War II in Venice on the eve of All Saints’ Day. Hercule Poirot, who is voluntarily spending his retirement in the world’s most marvelous city, is participating in a spiritualist seance in a palace that is falling into ruin. When one participant of the seance is murdered, the detective must solve the mystery of his death, penetrating the world of the haunted possession's shadow and mystery.
The unforgettable characters are played by such excellent actors as Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Michelle Yeoh.
Past Lives, dir. Celine Song, USA/South Korea 2023. In English and Korean with Polish subtitles.
This love story effortlessly and skilfully redefines the rules of a romance on the silver screen and has won the hearts of audiences and Sundance and the Berlinale as well as the fans of A24 Films.
This thoroughly modern film heals broken hearts, gives love a chance, reconciles the past and present, teaches how to separate without wrath, and gives hope for a new beginning. In the process, it accomplishes the impossible: you will fall in love with each of the three protagonists.
In-Yun is the Korean belief that people grow close to one another because their lives had met in previous incarnations. Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) grew up together in South Korea. Separated by fate as children, they reconnect thanks to social media years later. Ultimately, the romantic and migratory odyssey leads them both to New York. At this point, Nora is already married, while Hae Sung has recently become single. The question of "What would have happened if...?” keeps haunting them as well as Nora's husband (John Magaro), who is surprised by the Korean's visit.
Past Lives brings to mind the spirit of Richard Linklater's trilogy and the best New York movies. Echoes of Buddhist reflections on fate and the spiritual dimension of relationships accompany this plot divided between New York and Seul, filled with modern technology and desired touch, memories, and the present. This is not incidental: the director of Past Lives is a native of South Korea. Celine Song has based her magic debut, the latest hit from A24 Films, on her own recollections. American critics have called this the “best film of the year.” Consequently, an unusual story of love, lost hopes, new opportunities, and that elusive yearning for past lives that lies deep inside each of us has been made.