Zdzisław Mrożewski
1909 - 2002Birth Certificate
Stanisław Różewicz
Henryk Hryniewicz, Beata Barszczewska
Three separate stories depicting the tense everyday life during occupation, as seen through the eyes of children. In “On the Road,” the two main protagonists are lost in the September’s strife: a young boy, and a soldier transporting the valueless documents of his broken unit. In “Letter from the Concentration Camp” the story’s protagonists are young boys who help their mother during the hardships of the occupation. Their treasure is an officer uniform belonging their father who is being held in a prisoner of war camp. In “Blood Drop,” the Germans find a set of typical Aryan characteristics in this story’s protagonist – a Jewish girl, hiding in an orphanage.
Birth Certificate
Nights and Days
Jerzy Antczak
Jadwiga Barańska, Jerzy Bińczycki
Nights and Days is a family saga of Barbara Ostrzenska-Niechcic, (played by Jadwiga Baranska) and Bogumil Niechcic, (played by Jerzy Binczycki) against the backdrop of the January Uprising of 1863 and World War I. The film is a rather straightforward and faithful adaptation of a novel by Maria Dabrowska with the same title. The plot is woven around the changing fortunes of a noble (upper-class) Niechcic family in the pre-WWI Poland. There are two main crossing threads: a social history one and an existential one. The cinematographic version is a condensation of the 12 part award winning TV serial of the same title and using the same cast and producers.
Nights and Days
Pożegnania
Wojciech Has
Maria Wachowiak, Tadeusz Janczar
The story takes place before World War II and centers on Pawel, a member of a conservative, middle-class family, and his love for Lidka, a taxi dancer. Social conventions and the lovers' inability to defy those forces Pawel and Lidka benefit. Times change, war breaks out, leading to Pawel sent to Auschwitz while Lidka marry his cousin. Their love has survived and conventions are no longer the issue.
Farewells
Death of a President
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Zdzisław Mrożewski, Marek Walczewski
After Poland won freedom from of its long overlordship by Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, it took a further four years for its National Assembly to elect Gabriel Narutowicz as its first president. Narutowicz was a professor who until his election had been living in Switzerland. Those were chaotic times, and shortly after his election, he was assassinated by right-wing fanatics. This epic Polish film chronicles the circumstances of Narutowicz's election and assassination.
Death of a President
The Gorgon Case
Janusz Majewski
Ewa Dałkowska, Aleksander Bardini
In 1931, just before the New Year, in a house of architect Henryk Zaremba scream rips the night. The daughter of Zaremba is found killed in her bedroom, obviously killed with a pickaxe. The police arrives and starts the investigation. Rita Gorgonova, the governess of the girl and also lover of Zaremba becomes the main suspect. Film based on real events - investigation and court trials of the most famous pre-war Polish murder case. Despite being historically accurate the movie is both involving and entertaining since the case was simple on the surface, but very complicated in details.
The Gorgon Case
Westerplatte Resists
Stanisław Różewicz
Zygmunt Hübner, Arkadiusz Bazak
Westerplatte is a small peninsula at the entry to the Gdansk Harbour. Before World War II, it functioned as a Polish ammunition depot in the Free City of Danzig/Gdansk. Its crew consisted of one infantry company and a group of civilians, 182 people in total. It was the only Polish guard-post at the mouth of the Vistula River, with as little as five sentries, one field cannon, two anti-armour guns and four mortars. It was the first obstacle to Hitler's predatory march across Europe. The first shots of World War II were fired here. This film tells the story of Westerplatte's courageous defenders.
Westerplatte Resists
The Voice from Beyond
Stanisław Różewicz
Bogusz Bilewski, Tatiana Czechowska
Krakow in the sixties. A doctor, though not having finished his studies, earns a living providing medical advice. A former nurse enters the stage, saying she hears voices from "the other world". At first, they can exploit gullible victims without problems, but soon the authorities start to show interest in these quacks.
The Voice from Beyond
Zofia
Ryszard Czekala
Andrzej Balcerzak, Antonina Barczewska
Zofia is an elderly woman living in an retirement home. Separate from the rest, she talks seldom and then only about visiting her daughter's family for Christmas. When she comes to her daughter's home unannounced, her stay is spoiled by the damage to her son-in-law doctorate bookmarks which she removed unknowingly during dusting. She then spends Christmas in an empty restaurant, surrounded by waiters and musicians waiting to be tipped.
Zofia
Dzieje grzechu
Walerian Borowczyk
Grażyna Długołęcka, Mieczysław Voit
A beautiful Polish girl whose lover has gone to Rome to seek a divorce from his previous wife travels around Europe in search of him and suffers a variety of tragic adventures as the men around her try to fit her into their own selfish schemes.
The Story of Sin
