This event is run and organized by a third-party, taking place at The Little. The Little is not the organizer or programmer for this event. Please note that Little Theatre discounts, passes, and member benefits do not apply.

When Gośka meets Grzesiek online, she is sure she has finally found Mr. Right. He is crazy about her, showers her with flowers, and proposes in Venice. This must be love, right? But the perfect picture soon starts to crack, and their home becomes the most dangerous place in Gośka’s life. A film about the limits of love that you will not be able to forget.

Wojciech Smarzowski is one of Poland’s most uncompromising filmmakers, known for unflinching portraits of the country’s darker side in films such as The Dark House, Clergy, and The Wedding. In Home Sweet Home he turns to domestic violence, telling the story of a young woman and an older man who holds political influence in their small town. Critics praised the film’s power and Agata Turkot’s lead performance, which moves between reality and nightmare and still leaves room for hope.

Home Sweet Home premiered in the main competition of the 50th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in 2025. It was the highest-grossing Polish film of 2025, with more than 2.3 million admissions in Polish cinemas.

Awards

• Polish Academy Award (Eagle) for Best Actress: Agata Turkot, 2026
• Special Jury Award for Agata Turkot and Tomasz Schuchardt, Warsaw Film Festival 2025
• Don Quixote Award of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs, 50th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia
• Best Film, Polish Film Festival Prague 2025
• Hollywood Award for Best Feature Film, Polish Film Festival in North America 2025
• Amber Lions Award for the highest box office in Polish cinemas, 2025–2026 season

Content note: the film depicts domestic violence.

It is 1939, and the world is descending into chaos. Thousands of eminent Poles are sent to Soviet prisons, where they become targets of a large-scale plan of indoctrination. An ambitious enemy agent makes it a point of honor to break one of them: a young, world-renowned pianist respected by his fellow prisoners. His surrender could lead many others to defect. Is a musician, a loving father and husband, strong enough to win a duel against an agent backed by the might and treachery of the Soviet system? A stealthy game of manipulation, threats, and promises begins. Some captives believe they will soon return home. Others plan a deadly escape.

This large-scale World War II thriller brings together leading Polish actors, including Bogusław Linda and Tomasz Kot, with Irish actor Aidan Gillen, known for Game of Thrones. The film is dedicated to all victims of Russian barbarism.

Awards

• Audience Award, Two Riversides Film and Art Festival, Kazimierz Dolny, 2026

Fed up with the indifference of adults and the Church toward injustice around them, four teenage altar boys launch their own unusual plan of moral renewal. Armed with teenage rebellion and their own reading of Scripture, they wire a confessional to learn their neighbors’ secrets. Masked like Zorro and as ambitious as Robin Hood, they set out to help those in need and punish those who have sinned. But their mission turns into a dangerous game, and the boys find themselves walking a fine line between good and evil. Their heroes wear surplices, not capes.

The Altar Boys was the big winner of the 50th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, taking home eight awards, including the Golden Lions for Best Film. Full of warmth and comedy, it is a coming-of-age story, a smart comedy, and a film about faith as a source of strength for doing good. Critics called it the feel-good Polish film audiences had long been waiting for, praising its young cast and Piotr Sobociński Jr.’s cinematography.

Awards

At the 50th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 2025:

• Golden Lions for Best Film
• Best Screenplay: Piotr Domalewski
• Best Editing: Agnieszka Glińska
• Audience Award
• Award of Polish Film Festivals and Screenings Abroad
• Golden Kangaroo Award
• Art House Cinemas Association Award
• Radio Gdańsk “Golden Clapper” for the longest applause

Ukrainian Day is a tradition the Skalny Center established to honor the remarkable courage and sacrifice of the Ukrainian people in defending their nation. This year’s program is devoted to children whose lives were changed by the war: a short Polish documentary about a refugee family in Warsaw, followed by an award-winning documentary by Oscar-nominated director Evgeny Afineevsky. It is the only evening of the festival with a panel discussion.

Panel discussion and audience Q&A

Following the films:

• Evgeny Afineevsky, director of Ash and Crayons
• Prof. Krzysztof Kopczyński, director of Inga, University of Warsaw
• Michael Sawkiw, President, Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
• Prof. Olena Prokopovych, Nazareth University
• Prof. Randall Stone, Director, Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, University of Rochester

INGA

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. On that same day, Inga, from the village of Bilohorodka near Kyiv, turned five. The film is a portrait of her family, who fled to Warsaw with their cats and a dog and made a new home there. Inga lives on Daedalus Street, named after the mythical architect who escaped the labyrinth on wings of wax. She loves blowing out birthday candles because then she gets to make a wish. Her parents are blind, and Inga often guides them, but she cannot go with her father when he returns to Ukraine to take care of unfinished affairs.

Krzysztof Kopczyński is a documentary director and producer and a professor at the Institute of Applied Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw.

ASH AND CRAYONS

Ash and Crayons follows Ukrainian children whose lives were upended by war, occupation, and illegal deportation. They survived bombings, displacement, and loss, and still speak of music, school, and dreams. Through a blend of animation and live footage, the film shows them rebuilding their lives through art, sports, and friendship. The title is a metaphor for resilience: like the saying “broken crayons still color,” it suggests that even amid destruction, one can still create.

The film received the AMADE Prize and the Jury Special Prize in the News & Documentaries category at the 64th Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2025.

At the darkest time of Stalinist terror in Poland, two young people fall in love. Wiesia and Jerzy are political prisoners held in neighboring cells. They begin to communicate in Morse code, and those conversations become their only escape from the brutality of prison. Without ever seeing each other, they fall in love and fight to be together.

The film is based on a true story. In 1947, Wiesława Pajdak was arrested for anti-communist activity and held in the Rakowiecka Street prison in Warsaw. Jerzy Śmiechowski was placed in the next cell, and the two began tapping messages through the wall. Years later they married and spent more than half a century together. The director avoids melodrama and keeps the camera almost entirely on Wiesia, while Jerzy remains unseen behind the wall. The result is a story about the deeply human need for closeness to another person.

Awards

At the 51st Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 2026:

• Golden Lions for Best Film
• Best Cinematography: Jolanta Dylewska
• Journalists’ Award
• Art House Cinemas Association Award
• Don Quixote Award of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs
• Award of Polish Film Festivals and Screenings Abroad

Closing Reception

After the film, join us for a closing reception with Polish food prepared by Izabela and Janusz Tarłowski of Polska Chata in Rochester. Everyone is welcome.