A train from Paris to Moscow arrives at Brest-Litovsk, a border crossing between Poland and the former Soviet Union. Since Soviet rails are 89 mm wider than European ones, Belarusian railway workers must lift the cars and change the wheels so the train can continue eastward. Nominated for an Oscar in 1995 and winner of numerous awards worldwide, 89 mm od Europy shows the gap that still exists between the countries of the East and the West.
Tag: POLAND
A Polityka journalist visits a young girl in the countryside who devotes every free moment to high culture. Her main job, however, is to look after the farm and her old mother. Conversations between two women from different backgrounds are the axis of Marcel Łoziński’s film.
A poetic folk ballad set around the dramatic events of the Second Silesian Uprising of August 1920 – the story of the family of an old miner whose sons fight for the Polish identity of their land. The film does not reconstruct the course of the uprising – it recreates its atmosphere and creates a collective portrait of the Silesian people.
Horror, but with a comedic twist? Tadeusz Wilkosz decided to tell the story of abandoned objects from the attic. The titular sack goes on a rampage of destruction and begins to devour the numerous junks gathered there. Will the red beast devour all the things scattered in the attic? Puppet animation made at the Studio Małych Form Filmowych “Se-Ma-For” in Łódź.
A young man in his twenties leaves prison after a three-year sentence. He wants to start a new life in a place where he is not known and dreams only of a job, a wife and a family. He succeeds partially in fulfilling these dreams, but then runs into a conflict on a construction job between the corrupt boss and fellow workers secretly planning a strike. He becomes a pawn in one camp while remaining true to his ideals in the other. The unavoidable conflict destroys him.
The residents of an old people’s home anxiously watch television weather forecasts that predict a hard winter. When a huge transport of coffins arrives in the same night, the old people start to suspect that someone is preparing a mass death for them. In solidarity, they decide to escape and… go out to the country. They are followed by a police chase, which at times resembles a manhunt. The film, made in 1981/82 but released a year later, unexpectedly became a metaphor for the Polish history of the time.
Loosely adapted from a short story by Andrzej Pastuszak. A film about refusal to compromise. Takes place in 1968, following the events of Polish political crisis in March of that year. The protagonist, student, Józef Moneta is trying to intervene after his friends are expelled from school. He gets expelled himself. He looses his chance for a better life, is forced to do physical labor. He tries his hand as a writer. Here he’s also expected to compromise (rewrite a piece), to which he doesn’t want to agree. His girlfriend calls it a lack of humility towards the world. Everybody around him accepts the rules of the game, settle, but not Moneta. In the end it turns out that for the younger generation, his uncompromising attitude is not enough.
A film set in a small Polish village in the ’60s that deals with a young girl’s awakening sexuality. Mala, about 13, lives with her unmarried mother and has a boyfriend of her own age. The village is sent into a turmoil by the arrival of the clan of Gypsies, who set up camp in the field. Gypsies are ostracized and damned as ‘devils’ by the conservative villagers. Mala is attracted to the Gypsies…