2 Best Movies to Watch by Krzysztof Oleksyn

Staff & contributors

, 2023

War makes animals of men, and Filip is no exception. The film portrays a lone Jewish survivor who walks the streets of Frankfurt as if he doesn’t have anything to lose. He’s able to get away with it, with his work at a luxury hotel, but he’s unable to escape his trauma. He relieves this through trysts with the local women, treating them cruelly, the same way they would treat his people. It’s a uniquely stunning take on the ugly side of war, with its country club glamor and Filip’s lust for life. But it’s also a grim character study of an unlikeable, yet understandable protagonist, whose moral ambiguity comes purely from his own survival.

Genre: Drama, History, War

Actor: Caroline Hartig, Eryk Kulm, Eryk Kulm jr, Gabriel Raab, Hanna Śleszyńska, Julian Świeżewski, Jürg Plüss, Karol Biskup, Kinga Jasik, Krzysztof Oleksyn, Maja Szopa, Mateusz Rzeźniczak, Maurycy Popiel, Monika Kwiatkowska, Nicolas Przygoda, Nicolo Pasetti, Robert Więckiewicz, Sandra Drzymalska, Victor Meutelet, Werner Biermeier, Zoë Straub

Director: Michał Kwieciński

Rating: R

, 2023

Being made for free, fanfiction is free to play with controversial, less print-friendly concepts like gender-bending your favorite character. This freedom might go into strange territory, but most often than not, writers use fanfiction for escapism or for catharsis of their day-to-day lives. While the film doesn’t delve into fanfiction’s creative process, Polish drama Fanfic does recognize how the genre’s experimentation allows its writers to safely and freely explore different styles of expression, the same way teenage years hopefully do for its viewers. And as Tosiek goes through the trappings of coming-of-age self-discovery, it’s lovely and comforting and cathartic like the stories he writes.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Adam Cywka, Agnieszka Rajda, Alin Szewczyk, Anna Krotoska, Anna Wojnarowska, Dobromir Dymecki, Ewelina Starejki, Helena Sujecka, Ignacy Liss, Jakub Wróblewski, Jan Cięciara, Kaya Kołodziejczyk, Krzysztof Oleksyn, Maja Szopa, Marcin Perchuć, Mateusz Górski, Natalia Łągiewczyk, Oskar Rybaczek, Radosław Krzyżowski, Stanisław Cywka, Sylwia Achu, Wiktoria Kruszczyńska

Director: Marta Karwowska

Rating: NC-17