Leslaw Zurek Movies
- 2008
Prominent cinematographer Christopher Doyle continues to hone his talents as a director with this thriller set in Eastern Europe and inspired by the as-yet-unsolved murder of a Polish politician in 2001. A young prostitute (Anna Przybylska) is spending the evening with a prominent Polish official when he's suddenly assassinated in Warsaw. In the aftermath of the hit, the triggerman takes the prostitute to an apartment and subjects her to a complex personality replacement program designed to wipe out any memories she may have retained about the evening's events. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Przybylska, Leslaw Zurek, (more)
- 2008
Passion and politics become strange bedfellows in this romantic drama from Polish filmmaker Waldemar Krzystek. In the mid-1960's, Legnica was a city in Southwest Poland that was home to Soviet troops stationed in the country. The relationship between the Russian military and Polish civilians was often difficult; Soviet troops were not allowed to fraternize with Poles or even enter their homes, but living in close proximity with one another, it was almost inevitable that friendships and even romance would grow between them. Michal (Leslaw Zurek), was a Polish military officer who worked side-by side with the Russians, and Vera (Svetlana Khodchenkova) was the lovely wife of Yuri (Dmitrij Ulianov), a Soviet pilot who was one of Michal's colleagues. A mutual attraction led to a forbidden love affair between Michal and Vera, and three decades later, Yuri is still trying to determine if he or Michal is the true father of his daughter (also played by Khodchenkova). Mala Moskwa (aka Little Moscow) was honored as Best Picture at Poland's 2008 Gdynia Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Svetlana Khodchenkova, Leslaw Zurek, (more)
With a central trope that recalls Jerzy Skolimowski's Moonlighting (1982), Palme d'Or winner Ken Loach's ironically titled social-consciousness drama It's a Free World... dissects the problem of exploited immigrant labor from the perspective of one taking advantage. Actress Kierston Wareing stars as Angie, a native of London's East End who works for a shady and sketchy employment agency that predominantly hires illegal Eastern European immigrants. Unceremoniously fired from that outfit, she cooks up the scheme of establishing her own such agency with the help of a roommate, Rose (Juliet Ellis); Angie begins scouting the local factories to recruit cheap labor, while Rose puts up a website and mission statement to give the operation a distinct veneer of class and idealism. As Angie flaunts her body and unabashedly uses the lure of sex to attract new clients and business, she ignorantly fails to acknowledge warnings that she may be headed for dangerous waters. Meanwhile, family problems erupt when Angie's extremely dysfunctional and misguided 11-year-old son, Jamie (Joe Siffleet), gets in trouble for severely beating a classmate, and Angie's unionist father grows utterly horrified when he learns of his daughter's activities. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kierston Wareing, Juliet Ellis, (more)
- 2006
Three graduates of the L'ódz' Film School team to tell three tales of the new, post-Communist generation in this socially-conscious drama that took home the Special Jury Prize at the Polish Film Week in Gdynia, Poland. Upon returning home from London in hopes of picking up her life where she had left off, Silesia-born Aga finds that industrial conflict and inertia preventing her from accomplishing her modest goal. Meanwhile, in Warsaw, aspiring rapper Peras enters a local radio competition only to find his ambitious dreams for the future set off balance by his unstable relationship with a love interest who just doesn't possess the will-power to break free of her powerful father's grip. The third and final segment finds a man named Wiktor returning to his coastal hometown of Pomerania, only to discover that the perspectives of his parents seem to have been warped by television and that his boss seems unable or unwilling to pay him for services rendered. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malgorzata Buczkowska, Dorota Pomukala, (more)
