SEVEN POLISH FILMS SELECTED FOR CINEAST 2026
Seven Polish documentaries and short films have been selected for this year’s CinEast Festival in Luxembourg. The line-up includes two feature-length documentaries, Natalia Koniarz’s “Silver” and Iga Lis’s “The Queen and the Smokehouse”, as well as five short films: Monika Kotecka’s “Hidden”, Paweł Chorzępa’s “The Tuners”, Michał Toczek’s “Spiritus Sanctus”, Alexandra Kutsen’s “They Were All Named Anzhelika”, and Janina Księska’s animated short “Horde”. The festival will take place from 9 to 25 October.
CinEast, the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, has been held annually since 2008 and is dedicated to cinema from Central and Eastern Europe. Its programme brings together fiction, documentary and animated films, accompanied by meetings with filmmakers, debates, concerts, exhibitions and other special events. This year marks the festival’s 19th edition.
Among the Polish feature-length documentaries in the programme is “Silver” by Natalia Koniarz. The film takes viewers deep into one of Bolivia’s oldest silver mines, exploring its underground world through the perspectives of a boy, an elderly miner and a woman. Their stories become a starting point for a broader reflection on colonial legacy, exploitation and the memory embedded in both the place itself and the lives of those connected to it. The screening will be followed by a Screenings for the Planet debate attended by the director.
The second Polish feature-length documentary presented at CinEast is “The Queen and the Smokehouse” by Iga Lis. The film follows Miecia, known locally as the “Queen of Łeba”, who has spent four decades running a smokehouse that has become an important part of the seaside town and its community. When health problems force her to slow down, the future of the business she has built is suddenly called into question. Beyond the portrait of its protagonist, the film explores ambition, work, sacrifice and identity shaped by the legacy of Poland’s post-communist transformation. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Polish cinema will also have a strong presence in the festival’s short film programme. Two documentaries will be presented as part of the Short Documentary Films Marathon.
“Hidden” by Monika Kotecka is an intimate film essay exploring fear and the ways in which this emotion becomes embedded in the body, memory and everyday experience. Personal accounts from the film’s protagonists are interwoven with archival footage from the Educational Film Studio in Łódź and staged imagery, creating a polyphonic reflection on both the individual and collective dimensions of fear.
The protagonists of “The Tuners” by Paweł Chorzępa are highly skilled professionals working behind the scenes of one of the world’s most important piano competitions. For a month, they strive to achieve the perfect sound, hoping that the eventual winner of the competition will perform on the instrument they have prepared.
As part of the Short Fiction Films Marathon – North, two short fiction films will be presented. The first is “Spiritus Sanctus”, directed by Michał Toczek. It tells the story of Bogdan, who plans to buy alcohol for his wife’s 50th birthday. However, due to the Pope’s visit to Poland and the prohibition introduced on that occasion, an ordinary trip to the store turns into a metaphysical odyssey.
The second short fiction film is “They Were All Names Anzhelika”, directed by Alexandra Kutsen and produced by the Warsaw Film School. The film follows Anzhelika, who works as a manicurist in a kitschy beauty salon. Her everyday life is thrown into disarray when she discovers that she is pregnant, loses her job and her place to sleep, as well as the sense of stability that allowed her to make decisions about her future.
The Short Animated Films Marathon will feature “Horde” by Janina Księska. The animation follows a crowd inexplicably drawn to a mysterious tower standing in the middle of a wasteland. Once inside, they find themselves unable to stop moving and dancing, unknowingly becoming part of a strange ritual orchestrated by a creature at the top of the tower. Amid the collective frenzy, one disoriented figure remains strangely untouched by the mania surrounding them.
All three Polish short films presented in the festival’s marathon programmes will be competing for the Audience Awards.
The presence of Polish cinema at CinEast extends beyond the competitive selection of short and documentary films. This year’s edition will feature a retrospective of films by Andrzej Wajda, organised as part of the Year of Wajda. The programme will also include several Polish feature films, including Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland”, which will open the festival, “Tell Me What You Feel” by Łukasz Ronduda, and “No Ghosts on Good Street” by Emi Buchwald.