An Evening with Krzysztof Rogulski
The director of the cult classic The Big Picnic and an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Krzysztof Rogulski will be a guest of Timeless Film Festival Warsaw. As part of An Evening with Krzysztof Rogulski, we will present not only his story of two young men wandering through Warsaw with a bag full of cash to the sound of Maanam, but also the rarely screened documentary In Search of “Taboo”, in which the director returns to Poland and follows the trail of his student short film, confiscated in 1970. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Krzysztof Rogulski and film critic and Polish cinema enthusiast Maciej Kędziora, moderated by Patrycja Mucha, curator at the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute.
Krzysztof Rogulski (b. 1945) is a Polish director and screenwriter, and a graduate of the Directing Department at the Łódź Film School. He has made dozens of short and feature-length documentaries, including films devoted to athletes as well as major figures from the worlds of culture and the arts. Made in 1981, the cult The Big Picnic was the second feature film of his career.
Maciej Kędziora is a doctoral candidate at the Doctoral School of the University of Silesia and is affiliated with the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School. He is also a film critic specialising in both the history of Polish cinema and its contemporary landscape. He is a regular contributor to “Ekrany” magazine and Polish Radio 2, and also writes for “Kino” monthly and Filmweb. He has worked as a program selector for Animator and the Warsaw Film Festival.
Patrycja Mucha holds a PhD in the humanities from the University of Silesia. She is a curator at the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute and a film critic. She is the creator of the video essay series on Polish cinema “Na wyrywki”, and was co-creator and artistic director of the first edition of Timeless Film Festival Warsaw. She is also associated with the classic film distributor Past Perfect.
screening co-organizer
Tytuł angielski: An Evening with Krzysztof Rogulski
Sekcja: Pokazy specjalne
Czas trwania: 114 min
Język: polski
Dekada: 1980., 2000.
Edycja: TFFW 2026
The Big Picnic, reż. Krzysztof Rogulski, 86 min
In Search of “Taboo”, reż. Krzysztof Rogulski, 28 min
The Big Picnic
The Big Picnic
The Big Picnic
The Big Picnic
The Big Picnic
The Big Picnic
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. Sixteen-year-old Rysiek (Zbigniew Zamachowski, in his screen debut), a resident of a children’s home, slips away under cover of night. Before heading to Warsaw, he decides to break into the home of a local meat transporter and grab something to eat for the journey. But in the fridge, alongside the gherkins and sausage, he finds a plastic bag stuffed with cash. At Warsaw Central Station, Rysiek meets Julek (Jan Piechociński), a firefighter framed in a financial scam. Neither of them has ever handled that kind of money before, so they decide to do what any young lads in their position might do: spend the lot. The Big Picnic is a boyhood fantasy shaped by the limits of life in the Polish People’s Republic. Warsaw becomes a city where Rysiek and Julek can buy a smart suit and spend a few nights at the Victoria Hotel, but also one where they soon fall prey to swindlers. Rainy, grey and anything but welcoming, this 1980s city pulses with the bittersweet sound of Maanam, as its two young heroes wander the streets dreaming of a sweet, carefree life in defiance of the surrounding stagnation – if only for a few bold days of their great May adventure.
Patrycja Mucha
Tytuł angielski: The Big Picnic
Tytuł oryginalny: Wielka majówka
Reżyseria: Krzysztof Rogulski
Czas trwania: 86 min
Rok produkcji: 1981
Kraj produkcji: Polska
Właściciel praw: WFDiF
Producenci_tki: Michał J. Zabłocki
Produkcja: Zespół Filmowy Silesia
Obsada: Jan Piechociński, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Anna Moczkowska, Ewa Wiśniewska, Grażyna Szapołowska
Scenariusz: Krzysztof Rogulski, Marek Rymuszko
Zdjęcia: Jacek Prosiński
Montaż: Krzysztof Osiecki
Muzyka: Marek Jackowski
Kostiumy: Barbara Minkiewicz
Scenografia: Teresa Barska
In Search of “Taboo”
It is 2001, the early years of post-transformation stability. After a decade of systemic change – marked by both successes and failures in the economic, social and moral spheres – the time has come to reckon with communism and its behind-the-scenes interventions in the arts. Krzysztof Rogulski, the director of the cult classic The Big Picnic, returns to Poland after twenty years in Paris to search for the student short film confiscated from him in 1970. Tabu lasted just nine minutes, yet it triggered an institutional uproar; shortly afterwards, its supervisor, Wanda Jakubowska, was dismissed from the Łódź Film School
In Search of “Taboo” tells not only the very concrete story of searching through archives and registry books for traces of a censored student film, but also captures a moment of distinct historical uncertainty. On the faces of Rogulski’s interlocutors, one can see a lingering fear of the consequences of their own words – words that, only a decade earlier, might have led to prosecution. Is it finally possible to hold former party officials to account? Should names be named? Can a system that has worked its way into bodies and behaviours really be gone for good?
Patrycja Mucha
Tytuł angielski: In Search of “Taboo”
Tytuł oryginalny: W poszukiwaniu „Tabu”
Reżyseria: Krzysztof Rogulski
Czas trwania: 28 min
Rok produkcji: 2001
Kraj produkcji: Polska
Właściciel praw: TVP
Produkcja: J.J. Film Studio
Scenariusz: Krzysztof Rogulski
Zdjęcia: Jacek Prosiński
Montaż: Sebastian Korwin-Kulesza
Muzyka: Piotr Wierzejski