22nd WJFF: "A Real Pain" – film premiere
Searchlight Pictures’ "A Real Pain" directed by Jesse Eisenberg will open the 22nd edition of the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival. The formal gala accompanying the premiere will be held on 4 November at POLIN Museum, the main partner of the Festival. "A Real Pain" will be shown for the first time to the public on 5 November. The film will open the Festival courtesy of The Walt Disney Company Poland.
- 5 November (Tuesday), POLIN Museum auditorium, 8PM, NO SEATS
- For the WJFF program please go to festival website →
After the screening on 5 November, we invite you to the meeting with the authors—producer Ewa Puszczyńska and cinematgrapher Michał Dymek. The meeting will be chaired by Anna Tatarska, film journalist.
"A Real Pain", dir. Jesse Eisenberg, USA, Poland, 2024, 90 mins
"A Real Pain" tells the story of the two cousins—David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) who travel to Poland to honour their beloved grandma. The trip takes an unexpected turn when old tensions between the cousins resurface against the background of their family history.
The film was written and directed by the Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network", "Zombieland"). It was inspired by a trip Eisenberg had once took to Poland—the author himself refers to the film as a "love letter to Poland."
It is no accident that the formal premiere of Eisenberg’s movie will be held at POLIN Museum. During their trip to Poland, "A Real Pain" protagonists arrive in Warsaw and visit Muranów—the once bustling pre-war Northern Quarter inhabited mainly by Jews. They want to see one of the most important sites on the map of Jewish Warsaw—the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. POLIN Museum stands right next to the Monument, at the very heart of the former Northern Quarter, thus making a clear statement that, despite the Holocaust, the history of Jews in Poland has not yet come to an end.
Interestingly, the POLIN Museum building itself, captured during the above-mentioned David and Benji’s visit to Muranów, forms a background on the poster promoting the film in Poland.
In the movie, Jesse Eisenberg stars next to the winner of Emmy and Golden Globe Kieran Culkin ("Succession", "Scott Pilgrim vs the World"). BAFTA Award winner and Emmy nominee Will Sharpe ("White Lotus"), Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Grey ("Dirty Dancing"), Kurt Egyiawan ("Beasts of No Nation"), Liza Sadovy ("A Small Light") and Daniel Oreskes ("Thomas Crown’s Affair", "Only Murders in the Building") are also among the cast.
Full information on the filmmakers →
At the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, "A Real Pain" won the Waldo Salt Award for the best screenplay in the US Dramatic Competition. Standing ovation followed the film screening at Sundance.
"A Real Pain" was entered in the ‘Kamera Davida’ main competition of the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival; the film will also compete for the GRAND-PRIX POLIN.
‘Kamera Dawida’ is the largest and oldest event of its kind in Poland and one of the first in Europe. The organizers present the Warsaw audience with the most intriguing contemporary productions on Jewish themes, as well as socially engaged productions addressing issues such as antisemitism, homophobia, and other forms of exclusion.
