The Wedding

The Wedding (original title Wesele), written and directed by Wojciech Smarzowski as his feature debut, opened on October 15, 2004. The film is a satire following a father of the bride who gives the groom an expensive Audi as a gift, or bribe, because the bride is pregnant, as the family's hidden fortune and corrupt secrets, including bribes to police and officials, unravel over the course of the wedding. Smarzowski has said he made the film after asking himself what annoyed him most and concluding it was probably that money rules the world. The film swept the 2005 Orły (Polish Film Awards), winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Marian Dziędziel), Best Supporting Actress, Best Music, and the Audience Award; it also won the Journalists' Award and Special Jury Award at the Gdynia Film Festival and a Special Mention at Karlovy Vary. Who it's for: anyone curious about a Polish black comedy that swept its country's film awards in a director's feature debut, uncovering family secrets and corruption over one wedding night. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a warm, celebratory wedding film, since this turns the wedding into a satire of greed in Polish society.