PROGRAM

CORPUS CHRISTI (“Boże Ciało”)
Directed by Jan Komasa, POLAND 2019

AMNESTY (“Amnestie”)
Directed by Jonáš Karásek, SLOVAKIA 2019

HAVEL (Havel),
Directed by Slávek Horák, Czech Republic 2020

Kincsem - Bet on Revenge
Directed by Gábor Herendi, Hungary 2017

OCTOBER 15 - 22

Anchored by a “dynamically physical, wild-eyed performance” (The Hollywood Reporter) by newcomer Bartosz Bielenia, CORPUS CHRISTI is an incisive, darkly humorous, and “engrossing exploration of faith, second chances and the possibility of atonement” (Screen).

After spending years in a Warsaw prison for a violent crime, 20-year-old Daniel is released and sent to a remote village to work as a manual laborer. The job is designed to keep the ex-con busy, but Daniel has a higher calling. Over the course of his incarceration he has found Christ, and aspires to join the clergy - but his criminal record means that no seminary will accept him. When Daniel arrives in town, one quick lie allows him to be mistaken for the town’s new priest, and he sets about leading his newfound flock. Though he has no training, his passion and charisma inspire the community. At the same time, his unconventional sermons and unpriestly behavior raise suspicions among some of the townsfolk - even more so as he edges towards a dark secret that the community hasn't revealed in the confessional booth.

AMNESTY captures a world controlled by StB, the Secret State Police in Czechoslovakia, where dissidents communicate through secret messages - a world in which people spy on members of their own families for personal gain while also dreaming of freedom.

The incredible Velvet Revolution of November 1989 sees the dawn of democracy and opens up new opportunities for everyone, but not all of the inmates of the infamous Leopoldov Prison – many of them political hostages of the Communist establishment – are granted amnesty, and an explosion of emotions among those left inside develops into a full-blown riot. Prisoner Drahos Lupko, a reluctant hero, has to overcome enormous obstacles to fight for his rights. Surrounded by cruel, selfish and manipulative people – outside of the prison walls as well – he rises to the challenge, determined to achieve a second chance in life.

OCTOBER 22 - 28

A drama inspired by the life and personal development of Vaclav Havel, prominent Czech playwright, dissident and president, Havel focuses on the titular individual’s transformation from successful - then banned - playwright of the late 60's into a human rights fighter in the 70's, leading to his presidency in the late 80's.

The film is not just a descriptive biopic, but the drama of a self-doubting intellectual torn between his passions and his self-imposed duties. Havel grows from a careless bohemian into a mature man, realizing that he must accept this responsibility if he in order to free the nation both for the greater good as well as to prove his worth - and to prove it, above all, to himself.

Hungarian aristocrat and supreme horse trainer Sandor Blaskovich is killed by his former friend, Austrian officer Otto von Oettingen, while arresting him for treason. Von Oettingen takes over the Blaskovich castle with his young daughter Klara, while Sandor’s orphaned son Ernő is forced to move to a poor laborer’s cottage. Ernő cannot forgive Oettingen for taking his father’s life, land and honour. Years later, he goes on to purchase and train a magnificent horse named Kincsem, which he believes will be his winning ticket to regaining the family home. The horse grows into an unbeatable champion but is wild and unruly, just as the woman who shows a keen interest in Kincsem: Klara von Oettingen.