EVENT: Special screenings of the new film, Zemsta (The Revenge), by Andrzej Wajda, renowned Polish filmmaker and Academy Award winner

The latest film by the grand master of Polish cinema, Andrzej Wajda, will be shown in Rochester for two special screenings at 3:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, at the Little Theatre. Zemsta (The Revenge) is an adaptation of a 19th-century Polish comedy of feuding families who both want control of the crumbling castle where they live. Love between two members of the rival clans complicates the plot and adds to the hilarity.

A director of more than 40 films, Wajda was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2000. He stands as a major figure in the Polish School of Film for the trilogy Generation (1955), Kanal (1957), and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). He also directed one of the most influential and politically significant films about Stalinism and the 1970s called Man of Marble in 1976.

Zemsta stars Polish actors who have won international acclaim, including Andrzej Seweryn, Janusz Gajos, Daniel Olbrychski, Katarzyna Figura, and Roman Polanski, the director well known to American audiences. The film is based on a text by Aleksander Fredro and was released last fall in Polish with English subtitles.

This special showing is sponsored by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies at the University of Rochester as part of its Skalny Lecture and Artist Series. The center supports research and teaching about the historical legacy and political and economic changes within Central Europe.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students with identification at the Little Theatre box office, 240 East Ave. For information, contact the Skalny Center at (585) 275-9898.