SECTION: Polskie Horyzonty

What is province? From the very beginning, the "Heimatfilm" has found its place in international cinema as something between a romance of the ideal world and a pointed social parable. In Poland, many films are currently dealing with the challenges and opportunities of "country life," discussing the contradiction between "idyllic country life" and "Provincial Frustration" - between self-liberation and pressure to conform, landscape description and socio-critical metaphor. Despite all the gains in mobility, the apparent contrast between urban and rural lifestyles is becoming entrenched. But isn't the province, aren't smaller towns and villages meanwhile more urban than their reputation? Or are they not? The series of current films from Poland, some of them German-Polish co-productions, shows that contradictions do not only lead to creative energy in big cities, that diversity is also a characteristic of the provinces and thus questions common urban-rural images.