After a decade spent making mostly non-fiction short films, Wojciech Jerzy Has delivered one of the most powerful Polish feature debuts of the 1950s, adapted from a story by Marek Hłasko and staged in a baroque symbol-strewn style that Has would quickly make his own. Long-term alcoholic Kuba Kowalski (a riveting Gustaw Holoubek) has an appointment booked at a drying-out clinic, but not for several more hours, and he finds the sparsely Beckettian décor of his flat too oppressive to spend much time in. Surely a trip to a nearby café and bar won’t cause any problems?
Plus Birch Street (Ulica Brzozowa, 1947), a short film co-directed with Stanisław Różewicz, about the renovation of a badly war-damaged Warsaw street.
Please note, tickets will go on sale to the public at https://www.bfi.org.uk/ on the 13 March 2025 (BFI champion members from 10 March & BFI members from 11 March)
