KINOTEKA, the annual Polish Film Festival, returns to London this month. Organised by the Polish Cultural Institute, the festival showcases the best of Polish cinema and culture, offering screenings, masterclasses and talks with filmmakers and actors at a variety of venues including the BFI, Barbican, the ICA and JW3. 

As part of its celebration of 100 years of Polish independence, KINOTEKA will be offering a selection of digitally restored silent films paired with live music performances. Yiddish cinema also forms part of the programme and there is the opportunity to see comedy musical, The Jester (1937). It tells the story of Getzel, a wanderer, who settles in a small village in Galicia and finds a job with the shoemaker. He falls in love with Esther, the shoemaker’s daughter, but complications soon ensue. 

 Other films of Jewish interest are The Reconciliation (2017) or Zgoda, which is about a love triangle in a former Nazi concentration camp. There is also an evening dedicated to Irena Sendler with a screening of The Warsaw Ghetto (2009) - also known as The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler.  Sendler was a heroic Polish Catholic social worker who saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children during the German occupation of Poland. Holocaust survivor, Lili Pohlmann will introduce the film.

The 16th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival runs 7-29 March 2018

kinoteka.org.uk