POCIAG   1959
(Night Train)
Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
99 minutes
In Polish with English subtitles

This is one of the most famous Polish films you have never seen, a sleek and slender thriller that's leagues beyond anything that is happening in cinema today. Let's be clear... in my eyes today too much cinema is about cheap controversy or overwhelming spectacle... the only problem is that we have lost a sense of something deeper. The story in this beautiful flick is dead simple, a mystery that unfolds on a holiday train traveling from Poland to the Baltic coast. The very first shot is of the steps in front of the train station; there is a languid jazz score floating over the crisp black and white images, and right away we feel that we have somehow plunged into another world. This is a movie that is absolutely relaxed, but is a dynamic thriller at the same time. It is taut, but also dreamy. Once you have sunk into its mood, almost all movies today seem reckless and insanely hectic.

There is indeed a mystery on the train as it crosses the Polish landscape, but I won't even mention it, because this film isn't just about a story. This is the kind of film that reverberates, that breaks doors open into another realm. The camera and the action take their time, and can be seen as a metaphor for life... in other words, this movie has shades of meaning that you won't find in modern cinema. The flowing visuals are sensuous as hell, and the jazz score by Andrzej Trzaskowski is intoxicating. Within Poland this haunting film is a classic - but outside its home country it's barely known... and the cast also includes one of Poland's greatest actors Zbigniew Cybulski (dubbed the 'James Dean' of Poland). A real masterpiece, and one shows the incredible heights that cinema had reached in the former East block.

This will be a high-definition screening