22nd Warsaw Jewish Film Festival

POLIN Museum is the main partner of the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival (WJFF), this year held between 4 and 10 November. The Festival offers a unique opportunity—often the only one—to watch international films on, broadly speaking, Jewish themes that have previously been shown and awarded at the most important film festivals. There’ll be a few premieres, too—among them the long-awaited Searchlight Pictures’ film directed by Jesse Eisenberg titled "A Real Pain."

Dwaj bohaterowie filmu "Prawdziwy ból" stoją przed budynkiem Muzeum POLIN.
Kadr z filmu "Prawdziwy ból", materiały prasowe
Kadr z filmu "Treasure" - trzy osoby jadą taksówką.
Kadr z filmu "Treasure", materiały WJFF
Kadr z filmu "Zamek mojego ojca". Ojciec i syn siedzą przy stole nakrytym obrusem.
Kadr z filmu "Zamek mojego ojca"
Kadr z filmu "Shoshana". Młoda para w objęciach.
Kadr z filmu "Shoshana"
Kadr z filmu "Siedem błogosławieństw". Panna młoda ubrana w białą suknię stoi w otoczeniu dwóch starszych kobiet.
Kadr z filmu "Siedem błogosławieństw"
Kadr z filmu "Wszystko o Lewkowiczach". Na podłodze siedzą starszy i młodszy mężczyzna, a pośrodku nich stoi mały chłopiec w rękawicach bokserskich.
Kadr z filmu "Wszystko o Lewkowiczach"
Kadr z filmu "Vishniac". Mężczyzna w kapeluszu idzie po brukowanej ulicy. Przechodzi obok trzech Żydów.
Kadr z filmu Vishniac, materiały WJFF
Czarno-biały kadr z filmu "Wśród sąsiadów". Uśmiechnięty chłopiec trzyma kierownicę roweru.
Kadr z filmu "Wśród sąsiadów", materiały WJFF
  • 4-10 November – film screenings at POLIN Museum and Muranów Cinema
  • 15-30 November – online edition

Program of the WJFF at POLIN Museum →

This year’s edition of the WJFF focuses primarily on Poland, on the history and culture of the Jewish diasporas as well as on individual experiences, often traumatic, both from the historical and contemporary perspective.

Together with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, we will set off on a journey across today’s Poland in search of the traces of ancestors and in search of identity. We will also accompany Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry during their visit to Poland in the early 1990s, the time when the war, the Holocaust and the traces left by Polish Jews were not as far removed as they are today ("Treasure").

We will also have a chance to watch, among others, a documentary on Roman Vishniac, the photographer of the world of pre-war shtetls. In 2015, POLIN Museum hosted an exhibition of his beautiful photos showing the world that is no more. Laura Bialis’ documentary, however, presents the portrait of the famed photographer from a new perspective, not widely known in Poland.

We will also ponder over the meaning of “post-Jewish”, over the issues that are at the same time very close and very difficult.

Debates and Q&As with the authors will follow selected film screenings.

Visit a website of the festival to learn more about 22nd edition →