The opening will be hosted by Szymon Paszek from Impro Silesia, and Mateusz Demski will lead the post-film discussion with Anka Sasnal and Wilhelm Sasnal.

THE ASSISTANT | dir. Anka Sasnal, Wilhelm Sasnal | POL, GBR 2025 | 124'

One of the most original creative duos on the Polish art scene, Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, return to Arsa after 11 years! In 2014, their film Huba won the Black Horse Film Award. This year's edition of the festival will open with their latest production: The Assistant, starring Piotr Trojan, Andrzej Konopka, and Agnieszka Żulewska, with music by The Advisory Circle and The Smiths, presented at the MOMA museum in New York and the Rotterdam Film Festival, among others.

An adaptation of a novel by Swiss modernist Robert Walser, it is a seemingly classic, historical costume drama about Joseph, an “everyman” who becomes the assistant to aspiring inventor Carl Tobler. In Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal's interpretation, the film pulsates with hidden meanings, subtle, absurd humor, and intriguing audiovisual solutions, perfectly balancing the coherence of content with the originality of form, always surprising with a fresh perspective.