Poland, 1981.
Things go from bad to Warsaw for psychiatry professor Andrews who flies from England to Poland at the invitation of a woman to present a paper on mental illness.
Little does she know she is being used as a pawn in an act of political protest against General Jaruzelski who has just introduced martial law in reaction to the Solidarity movement. He and his Soviet masters are cracking down like its Hungary in 1956 or Prague in in 1968.
Lost luggage, confiscated passport, unaccounted accommodation, and seemingly abandoned by her sponsor, Professor Andrews is beset by dreams of crows and the very real anxiety of being trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare.
A murder of crows takes on new significance as her obsession with taking Polaroids feeds into notions of the paranoid, images recording shadowy figures and photographic evidence of foul play.
Lesley Manville is splendid as the flinty shrink determined to escape the madhouse she has been enticed to enter. Language and cultural barriers conspire to counter her psychological equilibrium and in the face of annihilation instinct kicks in. Lots of pluck and a not a little luck help her endure a nightmare scenario.
Thanks to Gdansk, 14 year old Dawid has a chance to escape his forlorn and woebegone existence in a small town suburbia where he lives with his mother and little brother, his father incarcerated in a local jail for thievery and thuggery.
Dawid’s aptitude for judo has him in line for a scholarship in Gdansk, a lifeline to start afresh with mother and sibling away from the toxic orbit of his repeat offending father.
Filial and fraternal machinations make easy transference fraught as the film unfolds volatile domestic and societal pressures that conspire to curtail Dawid’s pursuit of a future free from the drear and despair of his present circumstance.
Slightly jollier is PICASSO’S MERMAID, a bitter sweet tale of real estate and real regret, a cross generational story pinned on a fabled off the cuff daub on a housing estate wall by the legendary artist.
These three films contribute to the Polish Film Festival now in its 12th edition, bringing a selection of acclaimed contemporary films, exciting Australian premieres and a landmark Polish classic — Andrzej Wajda’s cinematic masterpiece Ashes and Diamonds — to audiences in Sydney.
Running from 14 November to 6 December 2026, the Festival showcases the breadth of contemporary Polish film making.
OPENING NIGHT 14 NOVEMBER 2026 I HAYDEN ORPHEUM
Tickets are now on sale and the full program is available at www.polishfilmfestival.org
