Spring Film Festival 2015 Preview: ScreenAnarchy's Top Picks

Patryk Czekaj, Contributing Writer; Tokyo, Japan (@patrykczekaj)

April 7 2015, 4:00 AM

Now in its 21st edition, Spring Film Festival (Wiosna Filmów), traditionally known as Summer Film Festival, marks the beginning of the festival season in Poland.

One of the country's oldest and most celebrated events dedicated to promoting awareness of international film culture, Spring Film Festival originally took place in August in the lovely city of Kazimierz Dolny, but in recent years both the date and the location have been changed. The annual festival moved up north in 2013 to Warsaw to allow more people to attend. Obviously the name also had to be changed to as to fit the festival's date (early Spring) better.

Showcasing the best in contemporary world cinema, Spring Film Festival offers Poland-based cinephiles an extraordinary chance to catch some of the most outstanding local and international films. It will take place in Kino Praha and Kino Apolonia, two beautiful and modern art house cinemas, between 10-19 April.

The diverse line-up, divided into eleven sections, features award-winning pictures that cover a myriad of genres, themes and topics. The festival will open with Roy Andersson's Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014 Venice Golden Lion Winner) and close with Alberto Rodríguez's Marshland (Winner of 10 Goya Awards in 2014). Both films will have their Polish premiers.

This year the festival will put a a special focus on Hungarian cinema with eight films taking center stage, including Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky's The Turin Horse and Kornél Mundruczó's White God. It will also pay tribute to Romanian director Radu Jude in its special retrospective section by screening four of his features, including Aferim!, for which he won the Silver Bear at this year's Berlinale.

Scroll through the gallery below to find out our top picks of the festival.

Spring Film Festival's website: www.wiosnafilmow.pl

The Tribe

Filmed primarily in long takes with no score and no verbal dialogue, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy's stunning and bizarre boarding school-set drama packs an uncompromising and thrilling punch. The Tribe is not only the most decorated film by a Ukrainian director ever, but also the most talked-about Ukrainian film since the country's independence.

Check out Ben Croll's review.

Timbuktu

Abderrahmane Sissako's passionate and visually beautiful picture offers an unflinching and harrowing look at the horrors of daily life during the occupation of Timbuktu. A timelessly brilliant drama with a powerful message, Timbuktu was Mauritania's first ever film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Check out Dustin Chang's review. Check out Jason Gorber's review.

Fires on the Plain

Ōka Shōhei's award-winning 1951 anti-war novel has already been turned into a powerful film by the master director Ichikawa Kon more than 50 years ago. Tetsuo director Tsukamoto Shinya tries to reinvent the classic tale in his blood-soaked, graphic, and insanely violent horror film.

Check out Pierce Conran's review.

Mommy

Xavier Dolan's Cannes favorite film is a challenging, but ultimately rewarding experience in an unusual aspect ratio. Filled with beautiful and poignant moments, Mommy proves to be a provocative and intriguing glimpse into a dysfunctional relationship between a single mother and her ADHD-stricken son.

Check out Jason Gorber's review.

Force Majeure

Ruben Östlund's sharp-edged and meticulously realized marital drama is also a hilariously uncomfortable tale about discovering the inner self. The location - a posh ski resort in the Alpes - surprisingly gives the film a marvelously claustrophobic feeling.

Check out Ryland Aldrich's review.