Polish Film Festival: The Pianist at the Oak Park Arms

The Polish Film Festival series continues with the Academy Award-winning film, “The Pianist,” at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The film will be viewed and reviewed with radio announcer Dan Kane.

This 2002 film is a historical drama directed by Roman Polanski. Scripted by Ronald Harwood and starring Adrien Brody, the film is based on the autobiographical World War II memoir, “The Pianist,” by a Polish-Jewish pianist and composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman, and is a co-production between the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland.

The family is deported to Treblinka extermination camp in 1942, but Szpilman survives thanks to a friend’s intervention and instead becomes a slave laborer where he helped smuggle weapons into the ghetto as part of a future Jewish revolt. Eventually he manages to escape and go into hiding.

The film received significant critical praise and multiple awards such as the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA Award for Best Film and BAFTA Award for Best Direction in 2003. In addition, “The Pianist” won Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor at the 75th Academy Awards.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay - a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 708-386-4040 or visit http://www.oakparkarms.com.