Polish culture in London

What do Britons think of their new neighbors?Pawel Potoroczyn, head of the Institute of Polish Culture in London, said the views vary widely, with some Britons positive about Poles and others negative.That’s why a key focus of the institute is trying to build a good image of Poles in Britian.One way to do that is the Poland Street Festival. The 2007 version was last weekend in London, where 150,000 Poles live.

In the Vinyl Factory Gallery on Poland Street, festival-goers watched the world premiere of a computer game based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel Wiedzmin, a story about a professional monster killer named geralt.Sapkowski is one of the most popular and acclaimed Polish science fiction novelists.The computer game Wiedzmin is accompanied with the animations of artist Tomasz Baginski, whose animated story Cathedral was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003.

Another attraction was “Peter and the Wolf,” movie adapted by a british director Suzie Templeton, shot in Se-Ma-For Studio in Lodz, in cooperation with a Breakthru Films. It was named the best animated film this year at the film festival in Annecy, France.Music fans listened to The Poise Rite, the duo Aleks and the Drummer and other groups.Britons could see the quality of Polish design in the Vinyl Factory’s interior, which the Moho Design Group and other Poles created. Potoroczyn said Britons made up more than half the festival audience.

The magazine “Time Out” helped achieve that by naming the festival its second most interesting event of the week.Potoroczyn said he notices an increasing interest in Polish culture in Great Britain. His said his dream is to prove to Britons that Poland is cool.