Zygmunt Zintel
1911 - 1990
Pociag
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Lucyna Winnicka, Leon Niemczyk
Two strangers, Jerzy and Marta, accidentally end up holding tickets for the same sleeping chamber on an overnight train to the Baltic Sea coast. Also on board is Marta's spurned lover, who will not leave her alone. When the police enter the train in search of a murderer on the lam, rumors fly and everything seems to point toward one of the main characters as the culprit.
Night Train
Człowiek na torze
Andrzej Munk
Kazimierz Opaliński, Zygmunt Maciejewski
One night in 1950 a passenger train runs over a man, who turns out to be the veteran train engineer Władysław Orzechowski, knows for his old ways and stern demeanor. As the inquiry panel tries to deduce why would a man like Orzechowski jump in front of a moving train several of the people involved in the case are interrogated, each telling their own version of the story. Can the panel arrive at the truth in a world where workers unite, inferior coal is a badge of honor, and the old order is suspect?
Man on the Tracks
Birth 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
Pokolenie
Andrzej Wajda
Tadeusz Łomnicki, Urszula Modrzyńska
Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, A Generation delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.
A Generation
Little Dramas
Janusz Nasfeter
Wojciech Litynski, Andrzej Nasfeter
The film opposes the view that childhood is the happiest time of our lives. Childhood dramas are deeply etched in memory and leave a permanent imprint on our consciousness. The Carousel Part I. Little boys from a small town want to take a ride on the carousel but they have no money. They push the carousel for hours. They hope that the owner will eventually give them a free ride. In the evening, however, they are already too tired to take up his offer. They are allowed a ride, but they refuse. The Fall of a Millionaire Part II. A ten-year-old boy wants to impress his friends. He is feeble and shy, but he has a piggy bank, which becomes the object of desire for his peers. He tells the other boys that he will soon buy a bicycle from the accumulated savings. When the bank is broken into pieces, the myth of the millionaire is shattered. There are only banknotes painted by the little dreamer. Joanna Piątek, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
Little Dramas
Cień
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Zygmunt Kęstowicz, Adolf Chronicki
A man has been found dead after having been hurled from a train. As security agents, police and a medical examiner piece together his identity, three accounts emerge: one set during World War II, one in the immediate aftermath of the war, and one in contemporary Poland.
Shadow
Gdzie jest generał...
Tadeusz Chmielewski
Elżbieta Czyżewska, Jerzy Turek
Waclaw Orzeszko is unlucky soldier. Nobody from the platoon likes him. One day he decided to go away from platoon. At the castle he meet Russian soldier Marusia. At this time German forces came at the castle. They must hide. But there is also second problem. Waclaw's platoon had to find deserter. Polish Soldier close to the castle.
Where is the General?
Ocalenie
Edward Zebrowski
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Maja Komorowska
A biology professor, Adam, after several dizzy spells, enters a hospital for observation. He is a loner and a serious-minded man, who dislikes any display of emotions. He spends three months in the hospital while being tested. After observing patients and hospital routines around him from a distance, he learns that he will need a kidney transplant. Meanwhile his personal and professional life is falling apart: he refuses his wife's offer to donate the kidney for him; the scientific problem he was working on has been solved elsewhere. In the end Adam cracks under the prolonged pressure, waiting for the sound of an ambulance bringing a moribund patient whose kidney may be used for the transplant.
Salvation
Nikodem Dyzma
Jan Rybkowski
Adolf Dymsza, Urszula Modrzyńska
Nikodem Dyzma is a poor dancer who comes to Warsaw to find a job. The problem is that nobody wants to hire him. One day he finds an invitation to the party with very important people and decides to attend. A small accident at the party makes him the hero of the night and becomes the beginning of his career.
Nikodem Dyzma
Zimowy zmierzch
Stanisław Lenartowicz
Wlodzislaw Ziembinski, Maria Kierzkowa
Rumsza, the elderly railwayman, leading a sedate life with his wife, misses his only remaining son (two older boys were killed in the war). Joziuk finally returns from the military in the first scene but with the pregnant Zosia, while Rumsza expected him to marry Celinka, the daughter of Krywka, his only friend and neighbour. The hero will not accept the new situation; he throws his son and Zosia out of his house. Celinka is distressed but she still harbours hope for Joziuk. The birth of the child changes the situation: Rumsza accepts his son's relationship but Celinka decides to leave.
Winter Twilight
