17.
01.
2025.
Others
Others
The film’s director and cinematographer is Arjun Talwar, a graduate of our Cinematography Department, and its producer is our lecturer, Jarosław Wszędybył.
The Polish-German documentary co-production LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET has been announced as one of the documentaries qualified for this year's Berlinale. The film was directed and shot by Arjun Talwar, a graduate of our Cinematography Department, and produced by our lecturer, Jarosław Wszędybył and his company UNI-SOLO Studio. It is worth noting that in the 75-year history of BERLINALE, this is the fifth Polish documentary to be selected for one of the most important film festivals in the world.
A street in downtown Warsaw is the focus of this witty and personal portrait of Poland. Arjun Talwar emigrated here a decade ago but still has trouble fitting in. “Wilcza Street” doesn’t make it easy for him. In an attempt to speed up his integration, the director begins filming his neighbours, testing his relationships with them while seeking ways to overcome his own alienation.
With the help of another immigrant, his friend from his student days Mo, Arjun uncovers the hidden secrets of Wilcza, revealing a network of charming characters. He finds people like himself who live between the past and the present, between an imaginary and a real homeland. Among them are: Feras, an exile from Damascus who builds a replica of his hometown, a traveling brass band of Romanian Roma, and a distinguished expert on Wilcza, the postman Piotr, who delivers a cure for loneliness with letters. The street, like an invisible thread, connects them all, offering solace from the melancholy of everyday life. From the long street, an image of contemporary Europe emerges, revealing a kaleidoscope of contradictions and anxieties, and Poland, often perceived as homogeneous, hostile and right-wing country, faces a mirror held up by a foreign filmmaker.
Arjun Talwar and Jarosław Wszędybył are not the only representatives of ours who co-created this unique documentary odyssey. The sound engineer and one of the leading characters in the film is Mo Tan, a graduate of our Directing Department, and in the editing team, under the leadership of Bigna Tomschin, worked Sabina Filipowicz, a graduate of our Editing Department.
The film was made as a Polish-German co-production; the main Polish producers are: Karolina Śmigiel and Jarosław Wszędybył from UNI-SOLO Studio. The German co-producers of LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET are: Inslefilm, ZDF and ARTE television and MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. The partners from the Polish side are: the Polish Film Institute and the Mazovian and Warsaw Film Fund.
In the long, 75-year history of BERLINALE, only five Polish documentaries have been included in the official selection of the festival. In addition, LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET will also be the first Polish documentary film to be shown in the Panorama section, one of the most important segments of the BERLINALE programme, apart from the Main Competition. Traditionally, it is the most popular with the audience, who take on the role of jurors awarding the Audience Award. Berlinale, one of the most important film festivals in the world, will run from 13 to 23 February.
Congratulations and fingers crossed!
Film on the festival website: berlinale.de/en/2025/programme
A street in downtown Warsaw is the focus of this witty and personal portrait of Poland. Arjun Talwar emigrated here a decade ago but still has trouble fitting in. “Wilcza Street” doesn’t make it easy for him. In an attempt to speed up his integration, the director begins filming his neighbours, testing his relationships with them while seeking ways to overcome his own alienation.
With the help of another immigrant, his friend from his student days Mo, Arjun uncovers the hidden secrets of Wilcza, revealing a network of charming characters. He finds people like himself who live between the past and the present, between an imaginary and a real homeland. Among them are: Feras, an exile from Damascus who builds a replica of his hometown, a traveling brass band of Romanian Roma, and a distinguished expert on Wilcza, the postman Piotr, who delivers a cure for loneliness with letters. The street, like an invisible thread, connects them all, offering solace from the melancholy of everyday life. From the long street, an image of contemporary Europe emerges, revealing a kaleidoscope of contradictions and anxieties, and Poland, often perceived as homogeneous, hostile and right-wing country, faces a mirror held up by a foreign filmmaker.
Arjun Talwar and Jarosław Wszędybył are not the only representatives of ours who co-created this unique documentary odyssey. The sound engineer and one of the leading characters in the film is Mo Tan, a graduate of our Directing Department, and in the editing team, under the leadership of Bigna Tomschin, worked Sabina Filipowicz, a graduate of our Editing Department.
The film was made as a Polish-German co-production; the main Polish producers are: Karolina Śmigiel and Jarosław Wszędybył from UNI-SOLO Studio. The German co-producers of LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET are: Inslefilm, ZDF and ARTE television and MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. The partners from the Polish side are: the Polish Film Institute and the Mazovian and Warsaw Film Fund.
In the long, 75-year history of BERLINALE, only five Polish documentaries have been included in the official selection of the festival. In addition, LETTERS FROM WOLF STREET will also be the first Polish documentary film to be shown in the Panorama section, one of the most important segments of the BERLINALE programme, apart from the Main Competition. Traditionally, it is the most popular with the audience, who take on the role of jurors awarding the Audience Award. Berlinale, one of the most important film festivals in the world, will run from 13 to 23 February.
Congratulations and fingers crossed!
Film on the festival website: berlinale.de/en/2025/programme