The Mighty Angel (Pod mocnym aniołem; literally “under a strong angel”) is a 2014 Polish romance/drama film. It is a film version of the novel of the same name by Jerzy Pilch, which won the Nike, the preeminent Polish literary award, in 2001. An English-language translation was released in 2009. The film version was directed […]

Stones for the Rampart (Kamienie na szaniec) is a Polish film from 2014 loosely based on the 1943 historical novel of the same name by Aleksandr Kamiński. The book was extremely popular even when it was released, though it was only circulated by an underground press, and it is still widely read in Poland. An […]

Warsaw ’44 (Miasto 44; literally “city 44”) is a Polish drama from 2014 about the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. The Warsaw Uprising was an effort by the Polish resistance to take back the city from the Nazis. The leaders had hoped that the Soviets would arrive in the city during the uprising, but […]

In Darkness (W ciemności) is a 2011 Polish drama. It is based on the 1990 book In the Sewers of Lvov by Robert Marshall, which tells the story of a group of Jews who hid in the sewers of Lvov for more than two years while the Nazis occupied Poland during World War Two. The film […]

Bad Dogs (Złe Psy) is a Polish rock band that’s been around since 1999. The name apparently refers to American pit bulls, for which Andrzej Nowak, its founder, has a certain fondness. Nowak also sings vocals and plays guitar in the band TSA. TSA, Nowak’s first major project, is a hard rock/heavy metal band that […]

Cree is a Polish blues/rock band that was formed in 1993. Its name comes from the Cree, a First Nations tribe in Canada. The founder was Sebastian Riedel (guitar, vocals, harmonica)—incidentally the son of Ryszard Riedel, the lead singer of the legendary group Jam (Dżam)—and he was joined by Sylwester Kramek (guitar) and Adrian Fuchs […]

IRA is a Polish rock band that was founded in 1987 and still exists today. Its original members were Kuba Płucisz (guitar), Artur Gadowski (vocals), Wojtek Owczarek (drums), Darek Grudzień (bass), and Grzegorz Wawrzeńczyk (keyboards), who on one fine day agreed that they would become rock stars, according to the band’s website. In fact, that […]

The Boys of Paul Street (Chłopcy z Placu Broni) is a Polish classic rock band formed in 1987 in Krákow by Bogdan Łyszkiewicz. The name of the band is a reference to a Hungarian classic children’s novel about two groups of boys who end up in a territiorial war with one another. Łyszkiewicz was the […]