GDYNIA, SEPTEMBER 18, 2007ALEX DELEON FOR www.filmfestivals.com"KATYN FEVER” IN POLAND AS THE WAJDA VERSION OPENS GDYNIA FESTAndrej Wajda’s new film “KATYN” concerning the mass murder of Polish Prisoners of War perpetrated by the Russians in 1940 and for years either hushed up or cynically blamed on the Germans, is more than just another film by a famous director. It has become a “cause celebre” and a national event stirring up the collective Polish memory of this incredible Rus...

The 32nd Gdynia Film Review ends on Up-beat Note as 92 Year Old Actress takes the Cake ! by Alex Deleon, PolandThe Annual Review of Polish Feature Films in Gdynia on the Baltic seashore is quite unusual in that it is both a compendium of the entire Polish feature film production for the preceding 12 months, and also a kind of local Oscar competition in which a professional jury votes on the best work of the year in the usual categories. This year there was a total of 22 films in competition, abo...

Andrzej Wajda, 81, the dean of Polish filmmakers and generally recognized as one of the all time great film directors -- period -- will open the 32nd Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia on September 17. This long awaited dissertation on the egregious massacre of Polish officers (POW!) in WW II perpetrated by the Russians -- then cynically blamed by them on the Germans-- has been a pet project brewing in the mind of the Polish screen maestro for a number of years. The new Wajda opus will pr...

THIRTIETH POLISH FEATURE FILMS FESTIVAL IN GDYNIASeptember 12-17, 2005The Gdynia Festival of Polish Feature Films (Festiwal Polskich Filmow Fabularnych) is an annual event showcasing the entire feature film production of the country in the preceding twelve month period right up to curtain time. The festival was established on somewhat shaky ground in 1974 in the shipyard city of Gdansk -- later to become famous for the Solidarity strikes which led to the downfall of Communism in Poland -- but t...