Pictures from Life

Russia, 1870. A group of young anarchist revolutionaries set out to overthrow the Czarist regime through violence. Their attacks create a climate of psychosis and mutual distrust among the population, but in reality, both revolutionaries and repressors are being manipulated by a diabolical individual.

A group of students of the last year of the local motor technical school is slowly entering adult life. An atmosphere of emptiness and hopelessness reigns around them. Young people have no idea for their future, but they do not want to duplicate the pattern of a poor existence according to which their parents live. One of them, Arek, had a chance to break out of this vicious circle for a moment. The possibility of a brilliant career, fame and a lot of money was opening up to him, the Polish Junior Champion in Kickboxing. Serious heart disease shattered these plans. Arek dreams of renting a flat and freeing himself from his alcoholic father. Together with Lalka, Panicz, Mucha and Renata - his closest friends, he often visits the Kosmos pub, owned by the local mafioso Marsel. One day Marsel offers Arek and Mucha a jump: they are to break into the apartment on the top floor of a skyscraper.

A famous surgeon is beaten by drunken bullies, loses his memory and cannot recollect who he was before. He gets to a village, lives in a not so well to do family and becomes the Quack - he slowly regains his talent for medicine and saves the lives of several village patients.

Old couple dreams about a cruise.

Jozef visits a dilapidated Sanatorium to see his father. Jozef undertakes a strange journey through the many rooms of the sanatorium, each which conjures worlds composed of his memories, dreams and nightmares.

Christmas is coming. Little Ania dreams of a doll she saw in a shop window.

Set in Poland in the 1970s, the main character half-heartedly goes about his job as a censor at the state run television station, whilst conducting affairs with nurses, airline pilots, etc. Interesting scene where main character must illegally emigrate to his own country.

There is a writer who in the late 1970s managed to publish a poem in the monthly "Nowy Wyraz". It was enough to become a self-confessed writer whose name began to appear in the state media. The writer takes full advantage of his privileges - he flirts with power, sympathizes with the opposition, and collapses his studies at the same time. He is saved from going to the army by an exalted essayist whose sister is the head of the psychiatric hospital in Tworki. In a psychiatric institution, a writer meets a schizophrenic who writes a novel. After his suicide, the protagonist takes over the draft, which he publishes outside of censorship under his name, thanks to which he gains fame, fame and money. August '80 breaks out....

In Stalinist Poland, cabaret singer Tonia decides to spend the evening drinking with a group of friends. The next morning, she awakes to find that, for reasons unknown to her, she has been jailed as a political prisoner. As prison officials interrogate, torture and humiliate her, she fights for survival and to maintain her innocence by refusing to sign a false confession. As her years of imprisonment pass, her relationship with her captors grows more complicated.

At the turn of the century, Lodz, Poland, was a quick-paced manufacturing center for textiles, replete with cutthroat industrialists and unsafe working conditions. Three young friends, a Pole, a Jew, and a German, pool their money together to build a factory.

Twelve year-old Edek falls under the spell of a girl named Monika while vacationing at his aunt's house. Getting increasingly infatuated with her, Edek does not know that Monika is not all she seems to be.

A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights.

After discussions with Schwartz, a producer from the West, screenwriter Stefan comes back to Poland. Everybody reminds him of his previous success: “The Flame”. The tired protagonist goes back to his wife, actress Ewa, who is eagerly awaiting him. Ewa goes to an audition which doesn’t turn out too well. On the next day, Stefan and his collaborators are wondering what to write a scenario about. Meanwhile, Stefan has a tooth ache. He decides to visit a dentist but is scared away by the price he has to pay for the treatment. Stefan still can’t find an idea for a scenario, and Ewa is not being cast. They decide to sell the car, but a man who takes their car out for a test drive doesn’t return. Stefan is changing ideas for the scenario constantly, he can’t make up his mind… at home, a pipe goes off… the wine he keeps in gallons blows up… the milicia (People’s Republic of Poland’s police) comes and general chaos ensues, as they are drowning in water and wine… which gives Stefan an idea…

It is a bitter story about a middle-aged man, who hates his life and other people, including himself. Adam Miauczynski, the character known from director Marek Koterski's previous films, is a 49 year-old teacher, who reads poetry during school lessons and later goes home swearing and calling his neighbours' names. The worst pain for him is the next 5 minutes of living. He doesn't accept himself and even everyday contacts with others cause his aggression. Though constantly dreaming of a romantic love, he is not bold enough to make his dreams come true. The desperate Miauczynski personalizes our own fears and obsessions, which have become so visible recently.

Scope is a prisoner on a behemoth space station and is chosen, like all his fellow prisoners, to 'volunteer' for the exploration of far-away planets. Landing on planet Australia 458, he is given a hero's welcome with all the sex, booze, and violence that any one man can stomach. But as his new caretakers push him towards even more heinous and deplorable acts, Scope finds that his freedom comes with a high price; his own violent demise, broadcast live for the viewing pleasure of Australia 458's inhabitants.

During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.

Poland, Christmastime. A band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty Martians take over the country and enlist hapless television newscaster Iron Idem as the voice of their propaganda machine. But when Iron dares to go off message, he makes an enemy even greater than the aliens—the state itself.

Based on the facts, the story of Dr. Barbara Makowska-Witkowska, arrested in 1983 by the civil militia. She was accused of beating up and stealing a drunk patient's wallet.

A story of the love affair between Janek Małodworny and Hanka, daughter of the kulak Nalepa. The two love each other, but their happiness is hampered by differences in possessions. To make matters worse, Małodworny is in favor of establishing a cooperative along Soviet lines, while old Nalepa is staunchly opposed.

Teenaged Beata, disgusted with hypocrisy around her, runs away from home.

An acute case of Mondayitis in Warsaw. Interwoven stories of a few inhabitants of Warsaw, including one very unlucky Italian on a governmental mission and a charitable Polish American.

A staging of William Shakespeare's tragedy, directed in 1969 by Andrzej Wajda. The roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are played by Tadeusz Łomnicki and Magda Zawadzka - actors who at that time gained popularity in the series "Pan Wołodyjowski". This perverse use of the artists' images by the director was intended to serve an interpretation of the tragedy that emphasizes Shakespeare's question: where does evil in man come from?

A young, idealistic poet, turns his back on civilization and goes to small, backwood village, rents a bed in the house of an old woman, and decides to make his living as a lumberjack. Soon he realizes that the world around him is far from perfect.

A biology professor, Adam enters a hospital for observation. He is a loner and a serious-minded man, who dislikes any display of emotions. He spends three months in the hospital while being tested. After observing patients and hospital routines around him from a distance, he learns that he will need a kidney transplant. Meanwhile his personal and professional life is falling apart: he refuses his wife's offer to donate the kidney for him; the scientific problem he was working on has been solved elsewhere. In the end Adam cracks under the prolonged pressure, waiting for the sound of an ambulance bringing a moribund patient whose kidney may be used for the transplant.

In 1807, Napoleon meets and falls in love with 22-year-old Polish countess Marie Walewska, who is unhappily married to a much older man. Enchanted by the blonde, blue-eyed countess, the emperor enters into an affair with Marie, who uses the relationship to induce Napoleon to treat Poland fairly.

A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.

Stonemasons take part in the restoration of a historic tomb.

Matylda reflects on her life on her 30th birthday.

The main character - a man who suffers from alcoholism - wants to change his tumultuous life. The day before Christmas Eve he receives a gift from his son - a yellow scarf. A gift is a kind of talisman he receives from loved ones, and every time he loses it. When after another banquet he falls into delirium, his ex-wife and secretary bring him to his mother. She helps him to sober up and arranges holiday celebration for two of them. She gives her son another yellow scarf, in belief that it will help him break the pernicious habit.

Kaziuk, a stubborn peasant and his pregnant wife live in a backwood village, unaffected by the civilization. The village is once visited by a couple of wanderers, and strange things start to happen afterward. A new schoolteacher is sent to the area. She stirs erotic fantasies in Kaziuk. In a stir of frustration Kaziuk cuts down a family tree - a sacrilegious act in the eyes of his family. Going a step further and using a scythe for cutting the rye instead of a sickle brings the whole village against him.

In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.

Stanisław Maria Rochowicz, a bumbling art historian, is falsely accused of stealing a painting. The alleged thief faces five years in prison. Desperate, he decides to hide in disguise as a woman until he can paint a copy of the stolen canvas. Lacking means to live, he takes jobs as a maid for a variety of colorful characters.

Girls no more, four heroines emerge into womanhood with a more clear-eyed outlook on life.

A young man looking for work in Warsaw has to overcome many hurdles in the world of bureaucracy to finally get employed.

A biography of Nicholas Copernicus covering 50 years of the astronomer's life - from his studies in Europe to his theological work all the way to the creation of his magnum opus, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres.

Krzysztof, a 30-something writer has been on a downward spiral ever since the success of his first novel. Struggling to compete his new work, the "Book of All Books" he retreats into alcoholism when he meets Basia, with whom he begins a volatile relationship.

Strange human-shaped phenomenon appears in Piotrowski's new flat and he approaches all available institutions to help him get rid of it.

In 1920s Poland, a police commissioner leads the investigation into a series of brutal murders of young boys as the case grows increasingly unsettling and personal.

Adaś Miauczyński, a Polish intellectual, has severe alcohol problems which affect his relationship with his son Sylwek.

Janek and Wanda live in a small room in a villa, while other rooms are occupied by offices of various institutions. Janek often stays at work after hours, just to avoid returning to the cramped apartment too early. One day, a man named Malinowski, who once lived in the same small room, visits the couple. He proposes to exchange their room for a new, two-room apartment that he has just received. Janek and Wanda are initially distrustful, but eventually, the exchange takes place. It turns out that Wanda's ex-husband, Jerzy, already lives in the new apartment. Despite the divorce, as he is registered with Wanda, he has the right to continue living in her apartment. Janek tries to find a way to get rid of the intruder.

A young girl sent to an orphanage run by nuns gets confronted with the cruel and outdated methods used by the staff.

A continuation of the story "Oko proroka", which ended with the sale of a mysterious jewel and the purchase by the Bystry family of an inn near Tarnów. Unfortunately, times in 17th-century Poland are troubled, and a curse still hangs over Hanusz and his father. Driven by an adventurous nature, Hanusz Bystry sets out for the Balkans to free his friend, Semen Berdychka, captured by the Turks while searching for his father, who has been taken into the yasir.

Jaruga, the chief of the local branch of Security Office leads a fight against a Home Army unit led by a man known as Boruta and begins to suspect that one of his men was planted by the insurgents. Another Security Office agent arrives to uncover the conspiracy and deal the final blow to Boruta.

Zdzicho leaves prison and tries to get his share from his former partners.