Movie to Watch: UCIECZKA Z KINA WOLNOŚĆ by Wojciech Marczewski (1990) Comedy/Drama/Fantasy 92 minutes

Because of the pandemic our Polish movie screenings are no longer possible. So instead, for every month we miss, a movie suggestion to watch from home. This is episode 4 of the series, our June replacement.

Ucieczka z kina Wolność (Escape from the Liberty Cinema), available on Netflix and Amazon Prime
This absurdist black comedy, a winner of several Polish Film Festival awards, follows the state censor, played by Janusz Gajos, and his daily life of altering press statements or modifying film dialogues. He appreciates the cat-and-mouse game of trying to suppress anything forbidden in the face of steady efforts to sneak something past him. To him, "Censorship is necessary. Censorship is an art. A good censor should be an artist." However, one day at the Liberty Cinema, a commercial movie theater near his offices, the characters on the movie screen start speaking out of character and refuse to speak the lines written for them. They are even joined by Tom Baxter, a character from Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), who ends up on the screen because of a mash-up in the projection room. Escape from the Liberty Cinema is a film about the boundaries between the reality and fiction and about the freedom of expression: "This was a mutiny of matter. People have stopped revolting and so the rebellion has moved to matter." If you are interested to read more before watching, this is probably the best movie review I have found: https://eefb.org/retrospectives/wojciech-marczewskis-escape-from-the-liberty-cinema-ucieczka-z-kina-wolnosc-1990/

(https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_escape_from_the_liberty_cinema, http://thegeekshow.co.uk/2016/01/11/escape-from-liberty-cinema/, https://eefb.org/retrospectives/wojciech-marczewskis-escape-from-the-liberty-cinema-ucieczka-z-kina-wolnosc-1990/)

Cast: Janusz Gajos, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Piotr Fronczewski, Teresa Marczewska, Władysław Kowalski

Trailer: