Polish Cinema’s Fall Festival Lineup Showcases Strength, Diversity of Its Growing Film Industry

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias The fall festival circuit features a powerhouse lineup of Polish cinema that showcases an industry in full stride, with hard-hitting topical dramas, award-season hopefuls and potential box-office breakouts highlighting the strength and diversity of filmmaking in a country with a storied cinematic history.

Among the hotly anticipated premieres at this week’s Toronto Film Festival is “The Peasants,” a lavish, hand-painted animated feature from the filmmaking team behind Oscar nominee and box-office sensation “Loving Vincent.” Meanwhile, three-time Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland will be on hand for the North American premiere of “Green Border,” her searing portrayal of Europe’s refugee crisis that just bowed in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Also on the Lido, two-time Berlin Silver Bear winner Małgorzata Szumowska (“Body,” “Mug”) and Michał Englert are vying for the Golden Lion with “Woman Of,” their decades-spanning portrait of a transgender Polish woman on a journey of self-discovery.

Producer Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, in Venice with “Woman Of” and Goran Stolevski’s Horizons selection “Housekeeping for Beginners,” described the Szumowska-Holland double-bill as a “huge statement” from the Italian fest for accepting “two such important films from Poland.” She adds, “It’s a good moment for Polish cinema.” Other Polish titles hitting Toronto include Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest,” a U.K.-Poland co-production that dazzled audiences in Cannes and is an early Oscar frontrunner, and Louise Archambault’s world premiere “Irena’s Vow,” a Canadian-Polish co-production based on the true story of Polish nurse Irene Gut Opdyke, who saved Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland.