The annual, two-part festival presents classic Polish cinema as well as contemporary works produced by the newest generation of the country’s filmmakers. It showcases internationally recognized films that might not otherwise be seen in the area and attracts renowned Polish actors, directors, screenwriters, and critics to Rochester.

Schedule:

7:30 p.m: Lotna
1959, 89 minutes
Directed by: Andrzej Wajda
Written by: Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Żukrowski
Music: Tadeusz Baird
Principal cast: Jerzy Pichelski, Adam Pawlikowski, Jerzy Moess Mieczysław Łoza, Bożena Kurowska, Bronisław Dardziński
The film, based on Wojciech Zukrowski story of the same title, is set in the beginning of World War II, when the Polish cavalry still fought with lances against German troops. The story is told through the trials of Lotna, a beautiful white thoroughbred horse that passes from one cavalry-man to another during the September campaign. The film features one of the most discussed scenes in Polish cinema: the symbolic attack on the German panzer troops undertaken by the Polish cavalry, and an image of a cavalry-man hitting the barrel of German tank with a sabre in an act of desperation.

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