KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival

Now in its twelfth year, KINOTEKA returns to the capital for a five-week celebration of Polish cinema, music and visual arts. Taking up residence in some of London’s top arts spaces including the Barbican, Riverside Studios, BFI Southbank, ICA, National Gallery and Tate Modern and new additions Cafe Oto and the Union Chapel, this year’s bumper programme boasts UK premieres, documentaries and shorts alongside interactive workshops and masterclasses alongside exhibitions and concerts.

With five weeks of screenings and events to take us through until the end of May, we pick out some of our highlights from KINOTEKA’s dense programme, spanning themes such as Polish Cinema Classics, New Polish Cinema, sex behind the Iron Curtain, art and design and a rare chance to discover the work of painter, sculptor and filmmaker, Walerian Borowczyk in the Cinema of Desire strand.

In the first major retrospective of the prolific director, Borowczyk is honoured at BFI Southbank (1-27 May) with an extensive series of rarely screened early shorts, groundbreaking animations and live-action features and double-bills including The Theatre or Mr and Mrs Kabal, Blanche and Goto, Island of Love. Head to the ICA on 24 and 25 May for screenings of Borowczyk’s shorts. Want more Borowczyk? The BFI Southbank and ICA will jointly present a retrospective in partnership with KINOTEKA with exhibitions and screenings at the ICA in The Listening Eye (20 May to 29 June).

Over at the Barbican, KINOTEKA presents a fascinating look at sex and intimacy behind the Iron Curtain with a programme of Communist-era Polish animated shorts in Sex in the Polish Socialist Republic (Monday 12 May). There will also be a rare opportunity to see the newly restored print of Wadja’s 1970s classic, Man of Marble (Sunday 11 May), also thought of as the Polish Citizen Kane.

Part of the New Polish Cinema strand, winner of Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival last year, Pawel Pawelkowski’s IDA is a poetic exploration of faith in rural 1960s Poland, shot in stunning black and white, screening on Saturday 24 May at the Barbican including a Q&A with the director.

Throughout the festival, don’t miss the fantastic series of live music events including live Polish music from saxophonist and clarinettist, Mikolaj Trzaska, playing songs from soundtracks to the films of  Wojciech Smarzowski at Dalston’s Cafe Oto (Saturday 10 May). Closing the festival with a gala performance at Islington’s Union Chapel (Friday 30 May), the legendary Arditti Quartet perform a live soundtrack to two short films by the Quay Brothers following an opening performance from DJ duo Skalpel, famed for his sampling of 1960s and ’70s Polish jazz combined with hip hop and club music.

Celebrating the artistry of Polish cinema, the ICA, Tate Modern and National Gallery screen a selection of arthouse films including a special showing of award-winning arist Lech Majewski’s new project, Field of Dogs (Saturday 24 May, National Gallery), a follow up to last year’s sold out multi-layered visual tapestry, The Mill and The Cross. At Riverside Studios, explore the career of one of the most important figures in post-WW2 Polish graphic art, Henryk Komaszewski on the centenary of his birth (until Saturday 3 May).

Spanning the city, KINOTEKA is a true cross-arts celebration of Poland and its global influence on the arts, expanding beyond the screen to represent Polish cinema’s diverse mix of styles and inspirations.

The 12th Polish Film Festival KINOTEKA takes place at various venues around London until Friday 30 May 2014. For full programme details: www.kinoteka.org.uk