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FESTIVALS Poland

Two years after talks in Warsaw, Imagine opens festival

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- Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski's new feature launched the 28th Warsaw International Film Festival, which this year will screen 200 films from 55 countries

Two years ago Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski and UK producer Mike Downey was on the same jury at the Warsaw International Film Festival and Jakimowski told him about his new film project – a drama about visually impaired people.

On Friday (October 12) Imagine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(photo), the director's third feature and his first after Tricks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Jakimowski
interview: Tomasz Gąssowski
film profile
]
(2007), produced with Downey's London-based Film and Music Entertainment, opened the 28th edition of the showcase at Warsaw's Multikino. Jakimowski and his cast were there, including Alexandra Maria Lara (and UK actor husband Sam Riley), Edward Hogg, – and among the audience was a group of the visually handicapped, who experienced the film with a special wifi-transmitted soundtrack from their earplugs.

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The European premiere of Imagine (after Toronto) is one of the main attractions in this year's programme, for which festival director Stefan Laudyn and his team have selected 200 films (130 features) from 55 countries, to be presented by 120 visiting directors, actors and producers.

The first sell-out was Aftermath [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Saturday, October 20), Polish director Wladyslaw Pasikowski returns to the big screen after TEN years with a controversial thriller about Poles killing Jews, inspired by a real-life 1941 massacre: in a village, more than 100 Jews were herded into a house, which was then set on fire by their Polish neighbours, who took over their houses and farms. Starring Ireneusz Czop and Maciej Stuhr, the film was staged by Polish producer Dariusz Jablonski.

Unspooling between October 19-21, Warsaw's 8th CentEast Market programme will comprise the Warsaw Screenings, with six recent local features, and a package of 10 works-in-progress from Eastern Europe and Russia, which will tomorrow (October 16) be introduced at Moscow's Red Square Screenings market. There is one Polish entry, Traffic Department, a new project from Wojciech Smarzowski, whose Rose won six Polish Eagle Film Awards this year.

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