John and Yoko. A High-Profile Film at Artus Festival 2026
A screening of the acclaimed documentary about one of the world’s most iconic artistic couples will be among the final highlights of this year’s Artus Festival. The festival, held at Dwór Artusa in Toruń, is not only about music, but also features screenings of remarkable films.
Music dominates the programme of Artus Festival 2026, with rock concerts, folk, alternative music and singer-songwriter performances. The festival also includes a selection of intriguing film screenings.
On Thursday, 21 May, Artus Cinema will present the British documentary One to One: John & Yoko directed by Kevin Macdonald, telling the story of the iconic artistic duo John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “One to One” was the title of a charity concert held at Madison Square Garden in August 1972. Two performances by Lennon, Ono and accompanying musicians were attended by more than 40,000 people in total, raising over 1.5 million dollars to support children with intellectual disabilities. The New York concert – Lennon’s only full-length live stage performance after leaving The Beatles – forms the backbone of the film and serves as a starting point for portraying the atmosphere of the United States and the wider world in the early 1970s. The documentary also incorporates FBI-recorded phone conversations of the famous couple. Lennon, known for his outspoken political views and criticism of the American authorities, was under surveillance by U.S. intelligence services.
“As the film description states, the documentary raises questions about where privacy ends and public performance begins, and whether in the case of Lennon and Ono these two spheres can be separated at all.”
Director Kevin Macdonald won the Academy Award in 2000 for the documentary One Day in September, about the hostage massacre during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The screening begins at 5 p.m. Following the film, Artus Cinema will host a meeting with Anna Magalska, actress and creator of the monodrama “9 x John L.”, which qualified for the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York. The performance will be presented in October 2026 at Theatre Row on Off-Broadway. The play, created as a result of the author’s forty-year fascination with Lennon, is a ninefold attempt – through songs by The Beatles and John Lennon – to answer the question of the enduring phenomenon of the leader of the most popular band in the history of popular music.
In 2023, Magalska’s book Yoko Ono. Wyobraź sobie… wolność międzyludzką was published. The publication is under the patronage of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Regional Self-Government.
Książka „Yoko Ono. Wyobraź sobie… wolność międzyludzką”, materiały organizatora
Department of Promotion
Dariusz Czołgowski
21 May 2026