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Outsiders and Exiles: The Films of Jerzy Skolimowski
A rare opportunity to see the work of one of the world’s most remarkable filmmakers.
As long ago as 1968, Sight and Sound dubbed Jerzy Skolimowski ‘probably the most explosive and original filmmaker in Eastern Europe’. Which remains as valid a claim today, thanks to a career that’s been as wayward and inventive as any individual film. It falls into three phases. There was a mercurial start in the 1960s that saw him described as a one-man Polish New Wave.
A lengthy period of enforced exile in Britain and the USA followed it. And finally, a return to Poland and triumphant proof, not least via the magnificent, Oscar™-nominated EO, that he’d lost none of the electrifying vigour that had so memorably charged his earlier work, or his abiding, deeply empathetic concern for people (and other creatures) trapped in the margins through no fault of their own.
- Michael Brooke, season curator
Identification Marks: None Identification Marks: None
Fantasy 1964 72 mins Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
As he prepares to join the army, having given up his studies and left his girlfriend, Polish student Andrzej spends his last day re-examining his life.
Film: Hands Up!
Hands Up! Hands Up!
Drama 1967 80 mins Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Five former colleagues have a surreal reunion in the film that saw Jerzy Skolimowski go into exile.
EO EO
Drama 2022 86 mins Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
The joint winner of the Cannes Jury Prize, EO is a strangely wonderful tale where the dark and light of humanity is laid bare.