War films triumph at Chicago Polish Film Festival

In Darkness - publicity material

Holland's film, which is Poland's candidate for the 2012 Academy Awards, tells the true life story of Leopold Socha, a petty criminal who saves a group of Jews from the Holocaust by concealing them in the sewers of Lwow (today Lviv, Ukraine).

In Darkness won both the Golden Teeth award for most interesting feature film, as well as the Genius award for outstanding performance, the latter going to Robert Wieckiewicz, who played the role of Socha.

A similarly-themed WWII film, Felik's Falk's Joanna, which deals with a Pole who shelters a Jewish girl, won the Chicago Film Critics Award for most outstanding feature film.

Meanwhile, Wojciech Smarzowski's Rose (Roza), which focuses on the plight of a widow who must contend with the coming of the Red Army in 1945, won the Special Jury Prize.

Yet another war movie, in this case Jerzy Hoffman's The Battle For Warsaw 1920 (Bitwa Warsawska 1920), a lavish 3D confection, won the Polish Film Festival's President's Award for the most universal and innovative film.

It wasn't all war though, with Wieslaw Saniewski's The Winner (Wygrany), about a brilliant young pianist in search of fulfilment, taking the “Startech” Audience Award for most popular film.

The two-week festival is the largest annual review of Polish movies outside Poland itself. (nh/pg)