''Filip'' is a 2023

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, directed by Michał Kwieciński. It is based on the

semi-biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fiction ...

of the same name by

Leopold Tyrmand Leopold Tyrmand (May 16, 1920 – March 19, 1985) was a Polish novelist, writer, and editor. Tyrmand emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1966, and five years later married an American, Mary Ellen Fox. He served as editor of an anti-com ...

(''Filip'', 1961).

Plot

In 1943, Filip, a young Polish Jew, escapes the massacre of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

. Disguised as a French Gentile, Filip works as a waiter in a restaurant in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

in an exclusive hotel and carelessly enjoys all the charms of life surrounded by luxury, beautiful women, and friends from all over Europe. However, when the war begins to take a bloody toll on those closest to him, the intricately built world that surrounds him crumbles like a house of cards.

Cast

* Eryk Kulm Jr. as Filip * Victor Meutelet as Pierre * as Lisa * Zoë Straub as Blanka * Sandra Drzymalska as Marlena * Maja Szopa as Sara * as Baumuller * Bohdan Graczyk as Eissler * Werner Biermeier as Brutsch * Ondrej Kraus as Bohumil * Joseph Altamura as Francesco * Tom van Kessel as Lucas * Mateusz Rzeźniczak as Laszlo * Karol Biskup as Artur * Nicolas Przygoda as Ilie * Philip Günsch as Jupp *

Robert Więckiewicz Robert Więckiewicz (born 30 June 1967) is a Polish film and television actor from Nowa Ruda, Poland. In 2013, he received Best Actor Award at the Chicago International Film Festival for his role in film ''Walesa: Man of Hope''. Selected filmogra ...

as Staszek * Julian Świeżewski as Kazik * Jürg Plüss as Gukst * Nicolo Pasetti as Karl * Christine Detmers as Elsa * Anke Sabrina Beerman as Greta * Zofia Cybul as Annemarie * Ada Szczepaniak as Marta * Hanna Śleszyńska as Diva * Edyta Torhan as Filip's mother *

Robert Gonera Robert Gonera is a Polish film, stage and television actor. He played leading roles in Krzysztof Krauze's political drama ''Street Games'' and the thriller '' The Debt'', for which he received Best Actor at the Polish Film Awards:Eagles. He bec ...

as Filip's father

Reception

The film was first shown at the

Gdynia Film Festival The Gdynia Film Festival (until 2011: Polish Film Festival, Polish: ''Festiwal Polskich Filmów Fabularnych w Gdyni'') is an annual film festival first held in Gdańsk (1974–1986), now held in Gdynia, Poland. It has taken place every year sinc ...

in September 2022, where it won the Silver Lion, and also awards to Michał Sobociński for cinematography and to Dariusz Krysiak for characterization. The actor playing the lead role, Erik Kulm Jr. received the

Zbyszek Cybulski Award The Zbigniew Cybulski Award (Polish: ''Nagroda im. Zbyszka Cybulskiego'') is a Polish annual film award given to best young Polish actors. It was established in 1969 on the initiative of Wiesława Czapińska and named to commemorate Zbigniew Cybul ...

for a young actor of outstanding individuality in December 2022. The film was also presented at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2023, which was its international premiere. ''Filip'' also received the highest award (Platinum Gorget) on March 1, 2023 during the III Festival of National Culture "Pamięć i Tożsamość" in Warsaw. In his review, Jakub Majmurek appreciates the skill of the filmmakers in telling a full-blooded story in a modern style, as well as focusing, which is rare in Polish historical cinema, on the personal experience of a particular character rather than a grand narrative. Majmurek emphasizes the biopolitical nature of the story. The Nazi authorities in the film are mainly interested in the sexual morality of German women, while Philip is "a Jew who, in the midst of the Holocaust, refuses to die" and decides to enjoy life. Of the film's drawbacks, he mentions that at times it reverberates with misogynistic tones, and that it "lacks the closure that would have made a truly weighty and important work out of a good film offering a fresh look at a historical subject with an outstanding title role by Erik Kulm."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=15460742, title=Filip 2023 war drama films 2020s French-language films 2020s German-language films 2020s Polish-language films Yiddish-language films Holocaust films Polish war drama films Polish World War II films Films based on autobiographical novels Films based on Polish novels Films set in Frankfurt