15th FKipCŚ: Zenon Wojtas: In the wildest heart of Europe + premiere of the film Wild Carpathians

As part of the Festival of Culture and Travel CURIOUS OF THE WORLD, we invite you to a meeting with Zenon Wojtas and the Polish premiere of the film Wild Carpathians

October 23, 2026

18:00 — Zenon Wojtas meeting: In the wildest heart of Europe

19:00 — premiere of the film Wild Carpathians (19:00 — Winter, 20:00 — Spring, 21:00 — Summer, 22:00 — Autumn)

Forum Cinema, 5 Legionowa Street

ticket: PLN 25 (for meeting and film screening)

Meeting leader: Paweł Średziński

The film “Wild Carpathians” directed by Erik Baláž is a unique journey through Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania!

The Arch of the Carpathians, stretching from Slovakia and Poland in the west, to Ukraine in the east and Romania in the south, is still the wildest stretch of Europe today. It is here that the big three largest European predators - the bear, the wolf and the lynx - have survived. On a stretch of more than 1500 kilometers we will find not only traces of wild animals, but also the last sections of pralas. This is where we will find ourselves in the thickets of old bushes. We will find fragments of the former Carpathian Forest. In the highest parts of the Carpathians we will also meet relics from the former ice age — chamois and marmots.

There is no such second place in Europe. So vast, so wild. It is even inferior to the Alps. Although human pressure on this remarkable ecosystem has accelerated in recent centuries, there is still something to protect in the Carpathians.

The film “Wild Carpathians” takes us on a journey through this land. From the highest peaks to the valleys rising from the mountains. We will also arrive where man does not appear. “Wild Carpathians” is a story that will tell us about the four seasons, about how the inhabitants of the wildest heart of Europe cope in the harsh mountain conditions. We will follow the trail of bear, wolf, lynx, goats, marmots, bison and deer. We will soar over the Carpathians and together with the golden eagles, the hazel grouse, the woodpeckers and the Ural woodpecker, we will see this unique world from the sky.

It is a story about a world that operates according to its own rules, about animals adapted to extreme conditions and about the delicate balance of an ecosystem that is increasingly under the pressure of human activity. It is also a reflection on how people's decisions affect one of Europe's most valuable natural areas.

The film “Wild Carpathians” was made for four years. It was executed in the most ethical way, without luring wild animals, out of hiding, and preparing photos for one shot often meant waiting for that one scene for a long time. In the rain, snow and cold. The film consists of four parts.

A team of Slovak naturalists and filmmakers, authors of films such as “Wolf Mountains”, “Life of the River” and “Life in the Clouds” was responsible for its realization. The director of the series “Wild Carpathians” is Erik Balaž — Slovak filmmaker, ecologist and photographer, who has been documenting the wild life in the Carpathians for more than two decades. He graduated in the field of forest ecology, and his scientific work and filmmaking focus on the functioning of natural mountain ecosystems and the protection of large predators. He is the author and co-author of numerous documentaries and publications devoted to the nature of the Carpathians, presented and awarded at international nature film festivals.

Among the authors of the film is Karol Kaliský, a Slovak documentary filmmaker, cinematographer and nature photographer who has been working for years in the Carpathians and Tatras. Co-creator of documentaries dedicated to them. In addition to film activities, he is involved in nature conservation and popularization of knowledge about large predators and Carpathian ecosystems.

The special guest of the show will be Zenon Wojtas, a biologist and specialist in nature conservation in the Magurski National Park. For years he has been involved in the monitoring and protection of large predators in the Carpathians, especially wolves. He collaborated on a story about winter in the series “Wild Carpathians”. Thanks to him, it was possible to realize unique materials with the participation of wolves.

The meeting will be hosted by Paweł Średziński, publicist, author of books devoted to nature. For several years he worked as part of the projects carried out in the Carpathians by the Natural Heritage Foundation, for the establishment of the Turnica National Park and the protection of large predators.

Zenon Wojtas is a man who has been following the trail of Carpathian predators for years! Biologist, naturalist and specialist in nature conservation in the Magurian National Park. Beskid Niski is not just a place of work for him — it is a space he has known for years and where he observes wild animals, especially wolves, lynxes and bears.

Hours spent in the field, tracking, monitoring and direct observation of nature allow him to look at the Carpathians from a perspective inaccessible to most of us. It is a world written in tracks, traces left in snow and mud, recordings from photo traps and brief encounters with animals that have learned to live very close to man and at the same time effectively avoid him.

In the film “Wild Carpathians”, this long-standing acquaintance with nature becomes a story about the unusual world of large predators and about the fragile relationship between wild nature and human activity.

The wild animals living in the Low Beskids are permanently suspended between a safe, forested home and a world of people who do not forgive mistakes. Every attempt to protect them collides with different needs and interests. Therefore, the legal status of the species alone is not enough.

“Wild Carpathians” is a reminder that effective conservation of nature requires not only regulations, but also knowledge, empathy and a willingness to leave wild animals space to live.

It is a film about wolves, lynxes, bears and other inhabitants of the Carpathians, but also about our responsibility to ensure that this unique world survives.

Zenon Wojtas

Photo in the event: Arolla Film