Krzysztof Penderecki is set to return to the Barbican for the first time in 12 years to bring down the curtain on the 10th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival. The soundtrack favourite will conduct Tychy’s AUKSO Chamber Orchestra on March 22 in a special performance comprising two pieces written by himself and two responses from Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, accompanied by bespoke visuals. As we reported earlier, the pair’s compositions have also been recorded for an album to be issued through Nonesuch next month. This concert forms a suitably grand finale for the festival’s impressive programme of Polish cinema old and new, which starts at the Curzon Soho on March 8 with an International Women’s Day screening of Elles, starring Juliette Binoche and not released in the UK till spring, followed by a Q&A with director Malgorzata Szumowska.
Other highlights include previews of Oscar-nominated Holocaust picture In Darkness and Lech Majewski’s ambitious digital tapestry The Mill And The Cross (featuring Rutger Hauer as Flemish renaissance painter Bruegel and Charlotte Rampling as the Virgin Mary); visual artist Agnieszka Polska lecturing at Tate Modern; a Kieślowski retrospective plus Dekalog poster exhibition at Riverside Studios; the Prince Charles reviving Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s original Night Train; and a short films showcase at the Roxy.
For more information check the Kinoteka website.
