At Cinematek, we shine a spotlight on one of Poland's most visionary filmmakers. Piotr Szulkin (1950-2018) was a director, screenwriter, novelist, theatre director and painter whose fantastical inventions spin elements from 20th century philosophy and Polish medieval literature into a synthesis of speculative fiction, film noir and grotesque allegory. His surreal, satirical Apocalypse Tetralogy is Polish cinema's best-kept secret; Golem (1979), The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981), O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilisation (1985) and Ga-ga: Glory to Heroes (1986) are unhinged dystopian parables transcending simple genre definitions to mock the mechanisms of political power, testifying to Szulkin's unique visual approach, idiosyncratic stylisation and absurdist sense of humour.
Because of the unabashedly political nature of his work, Szulkin regularly faced censorship from the Polish People's Republic in the 1970s and 1980s. As the world seems hell-bent on ignoring the lessons of the past, his four existential allegories about the hostile nature of modern society and the evils of totalitarianism resonate more than ever. We are screening these viciously funny fever dreams alongside some shorts by this extraordinary filmmaker, in new digitally restored versions, to be introduced by Daniel Bird, specialist in eastern European cinema.
In a dark dystopian future, an engraver has an identity crisis after being cross-examined about crimes he didn't commit. Is he human, or a clone created by surgeons? This Kafkaesque sci-fi was an allegory of the Polish People's Republic, but its depiction of untrammelled A.I. and fake news now seems prescient.
It's 1999 and the Martians have landed! A TV presenter balks at peddling pro-Martian propaganda, so ministry goons trash his flat and kidnap his wife. Banned by the Polish government, Szulkin's reworking of H.G. Wells' story stirs double-speak and state-employed crisis actors into a discomfiting alternative reality.
After a nuclear apocalypse, survivors subsist in a cavernous bunker, waiting for the ark their leaders have promised will save them. Little do they know the prophecy is a hoax, and that the dome protecting them from radiation is on the verge of collapse. Szulkin's sci-fi satire builds to an awe-inspiring climax.
A convict is blasted through space to colonise an alien planet (which looks just like Earth), where he is welcomed as a hero and served hotdogs made from human fingers before learning he is to be publicly impaled for a crime he has yet to commit. The final part of Szulkin's apocalypse tetralogy is also the funniest.
