Made by three young graduates of the L´ódz´ Film School collaborating on their first feature, Ode to Joy presents three separate stories that are linked when the protagonists all end up on a bus bound for London, where even menial work has more to offer than domestic realities. It's a sophisticated and compelling debut and a statement, as the directors suggest, from a new post-Communist generation. In Silesia, Aga returns home from London hoping to renew her life but finds a world of industrial conflict and inertia. In Warsaw, Peras is a rapper who enters a radio competition. Conflicting expectations and opportunities frustrate the development of normal relations with his girlfriend, who capitulates to the demands of her businessman father. In Pomerania, Wiktor returns to a coastal town, where he encounters the limited TV-oriented perspectives of his parents and a boss unable or unwilling to pay his wages. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Polish film week in Gdynia, this is a key film in a significant strand of social cinema (Hi, Tereska!, Edi) that has developed in Poland over recent years.