Austeria

Galicia, the first day of the First World War. Refugees fleeing a Cossack pogrom seek shelter in a Jewish inn – the titular austeria – run by the old and wise Tag (magnificently played by Franciszek Pieczka). Among them are aristocrats, wealthy Jews from the nearby town, and Hasidim – mystics barely aware of the catastrophe unfolding around them. Tag gradually begins to sense that disaster is drawing near. One of Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s most celebrated films, Austeria is a masterful adaptation of Juliusz Stryjkowski’s novel, with Tadeusz Konwicki contributing to the screenplay. Censored following an intervention by the Soviet embassy, the film immerses the viewer from its very first frames in a world of Jewish culture that has vanished forever. As Kawalerowicz once said in an interview: “It always seemed to me that only in Poland could a truly representative film on this subject be made. There are still people here who remember that lost world, artists who still carry in their eyes the visual shape of a murdered civilisation, who can still hear the sounds and melodies of those times”.

Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1922–2007) – Polish film director and screenwriter. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and completed a course in the rudiments of filming in Kraków. As a student, he worked as an assistant director on the first Polish post-war films, including Forbidden Songs by Leonard Buczkowski (1946). From 1951 he worked as an independent director. His feature debut, The Village Mill (1951), received a special award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which enabled him to continue making feature films. In 1966 his Pharaoh was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Kawalerowicz’s work is marked by exceptional directorial precision and a strong sensitivity to visual composition. In his films he explores human nature and the individual’s place in a world shaped by psychological and political forces. Today, his films are regarded as classics of Polish cinema.

7th New Horizons IFF Catalogue

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