News

Netflix’s recently released Polish miniseries, Hound’s Hill, might disappoint viewers with its narrative choices, given the way it pretends to be a slow-burn thriller only to jam-pack all the plot threads into one of the most ludicrous endings ever seen. But at the same time, it should be acknowledged that there was no dearth of efforts from the cast, who were exceptionally good at highlighting the ambiguous, unreliable nature of the characters they played in the series. The strong performances of the cast allowed the series to swiftly juggle between plot threads based on dysfunctional parental relationships, small-town power struggles and corruption, the role of the media, and the state of judiciary control—providing a rough idea about the socio-political condition of Poland, that is until the series’ ending messed up everything. For what it’s worth, the drawbacks of the series highlight that, with a better script, the...

In 2024, it seemed like the running theme across a lot of Netflix crime dramas was “disjointed families or communities coming apart at the seams due to a criminal act.” I’m not saying that it was an enjoyable trend; I’m just saying that the streaming giant was consistently churning out stories which were following a set pattern, despite originating from all over the globe. Now, we’re one week into 2025, and I’m starting to notice a new trend amongst Netflix TV series and miniseries set in the crime drama subgenre: bloated subplots and bad editing. For starters, there’s Missing You, where the story about breeding dogs and scamming rich people took up more time than the murder and missing person cases. Bandidos Season 2 was so interested in the death of Lili’s father that it forgot to make its treasure hunt adventurous or fun. The breakthrough in...

While you’re still in the vice-like grip of its multilevel narrative it may not feel like it, but a film like Agnieszka Holland’s bruisingly powerful new refugee drama ultimately comes from a place of optimism. It is optimistic to expect and to nurture a reaction of potentially motivating outrage, when you portray the brutality of which human individuals, at the behest of human institutions, are capable. It is optimistic to believe that, faced with extraordinary cruelty, a viewer’s ordinary decency will be compelled to rise and rebel. “Green Border” is a heart-in-mouth thriller set on the Polish-Belarusian border that wraps its social critique in the razor wire of punchy, intelligent cinematic craft in order to elicit precisely such emotions. If we can feel the horror, perhaps there is hope.

It is 2021 and a Syrian family are fleeing Isis and their ravaged hometown of Harasta on an airplane bound for Belarus.

Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed multiple territory deals on Agnieszka Holland’s “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland.

The film has been sold to Condor (France), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy), Leopardo Filmes (Portugal), McF Megacom (former Yugoslavia), Kino Swiat (Poland) and Aqs (Czech Rep./Slovakia).

“The Green Border” tells the story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko, who opened the country’s doors to migrants as a back door to enter the EU.

The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

A co-production between Poland,...

Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland.

Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.

The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

A co-production between Poland, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic, “The Green Border” is produced by Marcin Wierzchosławski (Metro Films), Fred Bernstein (Astute Films) and Holland. Co-producers are Maria Blicharska,...

Xavier Henry-Rashid’s London-based sales agency Film Republic has closed deals for multiple territories on “F*cking Bornholm,” a tart comedy of social discomfort. The film had its international premiere in the main competition section of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label award.

In his review, Variety’s Guy Lodge commented that Polish writer-director Anna Kazejak‘s “precise, piquant film deserves wider festival exposure and discerning distributor interest.” It has now been acquired by Iceland’s Bio Paradis, Arsenal for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lithuania’s Garsas, Slovenia’s Rtv, Israel’s Yes and Sweden’s Lucky Dogs. The international trailer has its debut below.

In the film, two couples with kids go away for a short holiday on the Danish island of Bornholm. Each person has different goals and expectations, and each one of them and their relationships will be tested.

It was described by Lodge as a “dark,...

Dead End is a Netflix thriller comedy series directed by Grzegorz Jaroszuk and Jakub Piatek starring Jasmina Polak, Anna Ilczuk and Michal Sikorski.

A thriller with loads of comedy that manages to find its own eccentric voice.

Premise

Four people are car-sharing when they accidental cross paths with a bank robber on the run.

Dead End (2022) About the Series

An interesting production, that takes from the classic American road-movies and sets it in Poland, with funny and distinctive characters, from the bank robber, to the four car passengers he has to deal with, or who have to deal with him in the this ‘Dead End’ road that is different and peculiar, and will surprise with its casual and lighthearted tone.

In six episodes in which the story unfolds in its own rhythm, and where comedy is successfully meshed with action and strangeness in equal parts. This is a refreshing bet,...

Connecting Cottbus took place November 9-11.

Polish writer-director Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska’s debut feature Dolphin was voted as the best pitch at the 24th edition of the East-West Co-Production Market Connecting Cottbus, which took place during FilmFestival Cottbus.

Orlewicz-Zakrzewska and her producer Magdalena Sztorc of Warsaw-based Before My Eyes also received the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s Project Development Award of € 5,000 toward the project’s further development.

The project, described as “an intimate dramedy with a surreal touch”, sees a singer’s boyfriend coming back from holiday with a dolphin growing inside his belly. Orlewicz-Zakrzewska said that “using the role reversal...

In the movies, as a rule, family vacations go wrong far more often than they go right: We may crave rest and relaxation when we travel, but it’s less interesting to watch others do the same. Rarely, however, have a few days at the beach degenerated quite so tensely and toxically as they do in “Fucking Bornholm,” a dark, distinctly unrelaxing comedy from Poland that mines male abuse, entitlement and ennui for laughs that all come with an accompanying wince — whilst aligning its sympathies firmly with a put-upon wife and mother, superbly played by Agnieszka Grochowska, trying and sometimes failing to keep it all together. A less abrasive provocation than its confrontational title might suggest, writer-director Anna Kazejak’s precise, piquant film deserves wider festival exposure and discerning distributor interest following its international premiere in the main Karlovy Vary competition.

With its coolly arch comic tone, neat formal composure...

Xavier Henry-Rashid’s sales agency Film Republic has acquired Anna Kazejak’s “Fucking Bornholm,” ahead of its international premiere Saturday in the Crystal Globe competition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

The Polish comedy drama potrays the generation of today’s 40-year-olds from the perspective of a woman who is in need of profound changes in her life.

Two couples with kids go away for a short holiday on the Danish island of Bornholm. Each person has different goals and expectations, and each one of them and their relationships will be tested. Each one of them has a problem to be revealed.

Henry-Rashid said: ” ‘Fucking Bornholm’ is a wonderful, fun and psychologically tormenting couples ‘melee a quatre.’ ”

The film stars Agnieszka Grochowska, Maciej Stuhr, Grzegorz Damięcki, Jasmina Polak and Magus Krepper.

It is produced by Marta Lewandowska, and the screenplay was written by Filip Kasperaszek and Kazejak. The production company...

Lukasz Palkowski’s Gods was the big winner at this year’s annual showcase of Polish cinema at the Gdynia Film Festival which ended with a gala awards ceremony at the weekend.

Gods (Bogowie), based on the life of Zbigniew Religa who performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland in the 1980s, received the Grand Prix Golden Lions for best film as well as individual awards in the categories of screenplay, make-up, production design and actor in a leading role for Tomasz Kot.

In addition, Gods received the award of the Polish Film Festivals and Reviews Abroad as well as the Journalists’ Award, Elle magazine’s Star of the Stars award for lead actor Kot and Radio Gdansk’s Golden Claquer Award for the longest applauded film at a screening in the Musical Theatre for the Main Competition.

Palkowski made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with Reserve, which won three prize at the festival in Gdynia...

Hardkor Disko

Written by Krzysztof Skonieczny and Robert Bolesto

Directed by Krzysztof Skonieczny

Poland, 2013

‘Be intense or be nothing’. This statement, made by a middle-aged architect during a civilised breakfast, is put forward as a motto for his daughter’s disaffected generation. Lacking in attention and purpose, they need ‘stimulus after stimulus’ to stay interested, to keep them feeling alive. The phrase also becomes something like a raison d’être for Hardkor Disko, a film that hinges on its discomforting atmosphere and ability to aggravate the senses.

It opens with Marcin (Marcin Kowalczyk), a sullen, misanthropic figure, playing with a large knife in an abandoned theme park. At one point he leaves it hovering right between his eyes; you get the impression he could just let it drop there and then. Instead, he makes for Warsaw and goes directly to an expensive apartment, in search of the couple who live there.