Journey to Poland at Watershed this spring
Monday, 6th April 2009
Film, food, music and vodka – Watershed are laying on a veritable banquet of Polish entertainment and cuisine from 19 – 26 April at Journey to Poland / Podróż do Polski, a festival celebrating the best of Polish film. From classic to contemporary to shorts and features – we’ll take you on a cinematic journey through the heart of this culturally rich country with live music, cinema and cuisine.
Bristol has a long-established Polish community – with over 50,000 Polish nationals currently residing in the South West and 15,000 in the immediate Bristol area – and Watershed has been working closely with its members to deliver an exciting and diverse festival programme.
To complement the festival Watershed’s Executive Chef Oliver Pratt has been consulting with Polish chefs to offer a guest menu featuring some of their most flavoursome national dishes from the week commencing 20 April in the Café/Bar. They’ll be around for a limited time only, so be sure to sample the menu while you can..gif)
The Watershed Café/Bar will also be hosting a Polish Party on Sat 25 April from 2200hrs, where you can enjoy a performance by Rzeszow-born, Bristol based mad musical genius Katapulto. You’ll be able to sample some Polish nibbles and ticketholders for the evening’s screening of Tricks will receive a complimentary ‘Wsciekly pies’ shot – vodka, Tabasco and raspberry juice in the colours of the Polish flag– for a true taste of Polish authenticity.
Journey to Poland’s cinematic journey begins on Sun 19 April at 1330 with a Double Bill of films from Andrzej Wajda, one of Poland’s most celebrated directors. His devastating new film Katyn, which addresses the horrific secret massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet forces at Katyn during WWII, will be previewed on Thu 23 April at 1800.
Poland also produces an outstanding variety of short films. On Sat 25 April at 1400 we’ll be screening a selection of the best Polish shorts from past years of the Encounters Short Film Festival and on Sun 26 April at 1530 we’ll showcase shorts from the Krakow Film Festival. The variety and quality of the films are evidence of the astonishing filmmaking talent currently coming out of the country.
Some of this talent – graduates from the Lodz Film School – directed Ode to Joy, a three-part feature examining the difficult choices facing Polish youth today, which will screen at 1800 on Fri 24 April. Tricks, on Sat 25 April at 2030, takes a humorous look at Polish small town life as a young boy becomes convinced a local man is his absent father. Festival favourite My Nikifor, a portrait of eccentric Polish artist Nikifor Krynicki shot in the beautiful snowy spa town of Krynica, will conclude Watershed’s Journey to Poland at 1800 on Sun 26 April.
