Family Life (1971) - Krzysztof Zanussi

A brilliant film from a brilliant director. The crumbling of a former oligarchy during the communist regime. The son is in denial of his bourgeois roots, but can't really escape who he is. Excellent performances by two giants of Polish cinema - Daniel Olbrychski and Maja Komorowska as the son and daughter of the oligarch.

Persona non grata (2005) - Krzysztof Zanussi

A brilliant late Zanussi.

Knife in the Water (1962) - Roman Polanski

“What I like is a realistic situation where things don’t quite fit in. I like to begin with a mood, an atmosphere. I begin to people the atmosphere with characters. When I thought of Knife in the Water, I thought, first, of the north of Poland where I used to sail and of a theme that wouldn’t involve large numbers of characters.”

Roman Polanski to the New York Times Magazine, 1971.

Some links:

Essay by Peter Cowie accompanying the Criterion DVD
Wikipedia entry