Films on East Central European History and Culture

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (Polish: Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie, "The Manuscript found in Zaragoza") is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story containing gothic, picaresque and erotic elements. In a deserted house during the Napoleonic Wars, two officers from opposing sides find a manuscript, which tells the tale of the Spanish officer's grandfather, Alphonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski). Van Worden travelled in the region many years before, being plagued by evil spirits, and meeting such figures as a Qabalist, a sultan and a Romani person, who tell him further stories, many of which intertwine and interrelate with one another. The film was a relative success in Poland and other parts of socialist eastern Europe upon its release. It later also achieved a level of critical success in the United States, when filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola rediscovered it and encouraged its propagation. In the 2015 poll conducted by Polish Museum of Cinematography in Łódź, The Saragossa Manuscript came second on the list of the greatest Polish films of all time. PLOT: During a battle in the Aragonese town of Saragossa (Zaragoza) during the Napoleonic Wars, an officer retreats to the second floor of an inn. He finds a large book with drawings of two men hanging on a gallows and two women in a bed. An enemy officer tries to arrest him but ends up translating the book for him; the second officer recognizes its author as his own grandfather, who was a captain in the Walloon Guard. A flashback then recounts the tale of the ancestor, Alfonso van Worden, who appears with two servants, seeking the shortest route through the Sierra Morena Mountains. The two men warn him against taking his chosen route because it leads through haunted territory. At an apparently deserted inn, the Venta Quemada, he is invited to dine with two Moorish princesses, Emina and Zibelda, in a secret inner room. They inform the captain that they are his cousins and, as the last of the Gomelez line, he must marry them both to provide heirs. However, he must convert to Islam. He jokingly calls them ghosts, despite having told his servants with great bravado that ghosts do not exist. Then they seduce him and give him a skull goblet to drink from. He wakes and finds himself back in the desolate countryside, lying next to a heap of skulls under a gallows. He meets a hermit priest who is trying to cure a possessed man; the latter tells his story, which also involves two sisters and a different kind of forbidden love. Alfonso sleeps in the hermitage's chapel, hearing strange voices at night. When he wakes and rides off, he is captured by the Spanish Inquisition. He is rescued by the two princesses, aided by the gang of the Zoto brothers (two of whom had appeared dead on the ground near the gallows). Back in the inner room, the two princesses become amorous with Alfonso but they are interrupted by Sheikh Gomelez, who forces the captain at sword point to drink from the skull goblet. Again Alfonso awakens at the gallows, but this time a cabalist is lying next to him. As they ride to the Cabalist's castle, they are joined by a skeptical mathematician, who remarks, "The human mind is ready to accept anything, if it is used knowingly." This ends part 1 of the film. Part 2 is primarily filled with the nested tales told by the leader of a band of gypsies who visit the castle. "Frame story" or "tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale" only begins to describe the complexity, because some of the inner tales intertwine, so that later tales shed new light on earlier experiences recounted by other characters. Multiple viewings of the film are recommended in order to comprehend the plot, as well as identify the appearance of certain characters before they are "introduced" by the gypsy raconteur to tell their own tales. Finally, Alfonso is told to return to the Venta Quemada, where he meets the two princesses. They bid him farewell and the Sheikh gives him the large book so that he can write the end of his own story. The Sheikh explains that the whole adventure was a "game" designed to test Alfonso's character. Alfonso wakes under the gallows again, but his two servants are nearby – it is as if they are about to begin the journey that he has just "dreamed". At the small inn in Saragossa, he writes in the large book until someone tells him that the two princesses are waiting for him. He flings the book aside and it lands on the table where his descendant's enemy found it at the beginning of the film.

Kanał (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkanaw], Sewer) is a 1957 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a company of Home Army resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers. The film is adapted from the story “They Loved Life” by Jerzy Stefan Stawinski. Kanał is the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by A Generation and followed by Ashes and Diamonds. The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. PLOT It is 25 September 1944, during the last days of the Warsaw Uprising. Lieutenant Zadra leads a unit of 43 soldiers and civilians to a new position amidst the ruins of the now isolated southern Mokotów district of Warsaw. The composer Michał manages to telephone his wife and child in another part of the city that is being overrun by the Germans. After a few words, she tells him that the Germans are clearing the building and that they are coming for her. Then the line goes dead. The next morning, 23-year-old Officer Cadet Korab apologizes after walking into a room to find the second in command, Lieutenant Mądry, and messenger girl Halinka in bed together (Halinka later reveals that Mądry is her first lover). A German attack is stopped, but Korab is wounded while disabling a Goliath tracked mine. Surrounded by the enemy, Zadra is ordered to retreat through the sewers to the city centre. Now down to 27 fit to travel, including Korab, they slog through the filth. Daisy, their guide, asks Zadra to let her help Korab, claiming that the others can find their way easily enough. Zadra consents. However, the pair fall further and further behind. When they reach the designated exit at Wilcza Street, Korab is too weak to climb the upward sloping tunnel, so they rest for a while. He notices some graffiti on the opposite wall, but cannot quite make it out. Daisy tells him it says "I love Janek", when the name is actually Jacek, Korab's first name. She decides that they should head in the direction of the river, which is only a short distance away and drives him on, not letting him stop. Finally, they see sunlight. By this time, Korab is half blind and at the end of his strength. He cannot see that the exit is closed off by metal bars. Daisy finally reveals her feelings for him, kissing him before telling him that he can rest for a while. The main group follows Zadra for a while, but they become lost without Daisy. Finally, when Zadra tells Sergeant Kula to order them onward after a brief rest, they remain where they are. Kula lies and tells Zadra they are following in order to get him to keep going. Eventually, the only remaining soldier following Zadra and Kula is the mechanic Smukły. Meanwhile, Mądry, Halinka and Michał are also lost. Eventually, Michał loses his mind and wanders away, playing an ocarina. Upon reaching a dead end, Mądry cries out that he has somebody to live for. When Halinka asks who, he tells her that he has a wife and child. She asks him to turn off his flashlight, and then shoots herself. Mądry finds an exit, but as soon as he has climbed out of the sewer he is disarmed by a German soldier and placed into the courtyard along with others who have come through the same manhole. Despondent, he kneels beside the bodies of others who have already been executed. Zadra, Kula and Smukły miss the exit at Wilcza Street but find another - however it is booby trapped. Smukły disarms two German grenades, but is killed by the third and last. Zadra and Kula emerge from the sewer to find themselves in a deserted part of the ruined city. When Zadra tells Kula to bring up the rest of the men, Kula admits he lied and that they left them behind a long time ago. Enraged, Zadra shoots Kula and reluctantly heads back down into the sewer to search for his men. By the mid-1950s, two fundamental perceptions had become established among Poles regarding the event. One was a popular romantic image of gallant young martyrs who died defending the homeland. The second was official skepticism as to the purity of the high-command’s motives in committing men and women patriots to a doomed endeavor.[30] Kanal provoked widespread controversy and debate among Poles as to its merits. Two critics remarked that “the film was not received favorably in Poland. The futile death of the uprising’s heroes, covered in dirt and excrement, did not correspond to the idealized picture of the nation’s martyrs.”[ The historical subject that Wajda addressed in Kanal was one of the most politically and socially charged topics in post-war Poland. Like the other films in his war trilogy, Kanal was “an honest and valuable attempt to portray the complexity of Polish contemporary history and politics.” Wajda, responding to these dual social outlooks, attempted to synthesis these in Kanal. One critic commented on the contrasting “heroic dimensions” of the characters in Kanal and the “latent skepticism” concerning the 1944 uprising

THE RED AND THE WHITE is a 1967 drama film directed by Miklós Jancsó and dealing with the Russian Civil War. The original Hungarian title, Csillagosok, katonák, can be translated as "Stars on their Caps" (literally "Stars, soldiers"), which, as with a number of Jancsó film titles, is a quote from a song. The film was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was canceled due to the events of May 1968 in France. It was voted as "Best Foreign Film of 1969" by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. The film, a Soviet-Hungarian co-production, was originally commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia in which the Bolsheviks seized power. However, Jancsó chose to set the action two years later in 1919 and showed Hungarian irregulars supporting the Communist "Reds" in fighting the Tsarist "Whites" as the two sides battled for control in the hills overlooking the Volga river. As well as deviating on the required setting, Jancsó also chose to use a radically different approach to the film than that expected.[citation needed] Rather than shooting a hagiographic account of the birth of Soviet Communism, Jancsó produced a profoundly anti-heroic film that depicts the senseless brutality of the Russian Civil War specifically and all armed combat in general. PLOT The film tells the story of the Hungarian branch of the soldiers who, during World War I ended up in Russian captivity. When the revolution breaks out and begins a civil war in Russia, the soldiers are on the side of the Bolsheviks. Some are hoping that this will make it easier to come home. Others feed on sympathy for the ideology of communism. Some have to fight with an army of White Guards, who tend to be very cruel. The film was not well received in the Soviet Union, where it was first re-edited to put a more heroic spin on the war for its premiere. The film had a theatrical release in the USSR November 7, 1967, with a circulation of 112 film copies. The picture was watched by 2,6 million viewers. In Hungary and the West it was favourably received and it had a theatrical release in many countries (opening in the United States on 20 September 1968). It remains one of Jancsó's most widely seen and admired films, although audiences often find it exceedingly difficult to follow. The film's difficulty stems from its lack of central characters and defiant rejection of war film conventions: for example, key moments of action, such as the deaths of certain characters are sometimes shot with a long lens from a distance rather than in close-up, making it unclear what has happened or to whom it has happened. Supporters of the film point out that the hard-to-follow plot merely reflects the confused and meaningless nature of war itself and that Jancsó's aim is to prevent us from emotionally identifying with any one side in the battle of ideologies. For this reason, detractors (and even supporters) often find the film to be "cold" and "mechanical". However, the film's defenders contrast this approach with more conventional anti-war films, which often paradoxically adopt the same visual language and narrative conventions as heroic war films.

THE CONFESSON (French: L'aveu) is a 1970 French-Italian film directed by Costa-Gavras starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret. It is based on the true story of the Czechoslovak communist committed leftist Artur London, a defendant in the Slánský trial. Gavras did not intend the film as an anti-communist film but as a plea against totalitarianism and Stalinism. PLOT Artur Ludvik, alias Gerard, is a loyal communist and hero of WWII who serves as the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia in 1951. He realizes he is being watched and followed, and meets to discuss this with a group of his friends who have also attained top government positions. They realize they are all being watched, even the chief of the StB, the very secret police force that is carrying out the surveillance. One day, Artur is arrested and jailed by an organization that declares itself "above the ruling party", and put in solitary confinement for months without being told the reason why. His wife Lise and their children are kept in the dark by the government and told to cooperate for their own good; Lise is later removed from her job as a prominent radio news announcer and forced to work in a factory by the party. Though she believes in her husband, she is equally certain in the wisdom and ultimate goodness of the party. Through brainwashing techniques, including sleep deprivation and being forced to walk back and forth all the time, Artur is slowly pressured into confessing imaginary crimes, including treason, and baited with the prospect of leniency at sentencing if he cooperates. He also learns that his friends have been arrested as well and are implicating him in crimes against the state. Upon finally confessing to his alleged crimes, Artur is then groomed for a public "trial", which will be broadcast live on radio and shown in cinemas. While his captors coach him to memorize prepared answers by rote, he is given robust meals, vitamin injections, and a sunlamp to improve his appearance after years of wasting. At the trial, Artur and his colleagues faithfully play their parts. Lise, to her shame, is forced to make a recorded statement disavowing her husband and praising the party which airs during the trial. The prisoners are variously sentenced to either death or life imprisonment, with Artur given the latter. When their interrogators do not return to them, the prisoners panic and threaten to appeal, but are told by their court-appointed lawyers that the sentences are only for the party's benefit and will not be enforced if they do not appeal. The convicted men appear in court one final time to accept their sentences and waive their right to appeal. Afterwards, Artur and some of his colleagues are gradually freed and rehabilitated between 1956 and 1963. However, the rest are executed and cremated, with their ashes scattered along a road. At the same time, a number of the officials behind the ordeal end up facing their own persecutions, including Kohoutek, Artur's own interrogator. Artur later encounters the demoted Kohoutek, who tries to downplay his role in Artur's torment by claiming he only followed orders and never understood what the party wanted. In 1968, Artur completes his memoirs of his experiences in captivity and returns to Czechoslovakia to have them published. By then, amidst the Prague Spring, the Stalinist elements who had orchestrated the entire affair had been pushed out of power by the party, and Artur believed that the party now desired to expose the truth of what happened during those years as much as Artur himself did. Unfortunately, he arrives in Prague just as the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia begins.

PAN WOLODYJOWSKI is a 1969 Polish historical drama film directed by Jerzy Hoffman. The film is based on the 1887 novel of the same name in the Polish trilogy written by writer and Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz. Strange to notice that this book is the last in the trilogy but was filmed first. The first novel was adapted in 1997, 28 years later by Hoffman. The film follows the further adventures of Polish colonel Michael Wolodyjowski, who is an important character in the two previous episodes of the trilogy. He recalled to active duty from a monastery and takes charge of Poland’s eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies in 1668–1672. It was entered in the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, where Tadeusz Łomnicki won the award for Best Actor. The film was also serialized on Polish television, as The Adventures of Sir Michael (Polish: Przygody pana Michała).

THE DELUGE (Polish: Potop) is a 1974 Polish historical drama film directed by Jerzy Hoffman, based on the 1886 novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 47th Academy Awards, but lost to Amarcord. It is the third-most popular film in the history of Polish cinema, with more than 27.6 million tickets sold in its native country by 1987, and 30.5 million sold in the Soviet Union. It is considered to be one of the best-ever Polish films, and of having the best depiction of sword fights in history of cinema. The film is set in the 17th century during the Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the years 1655 to 1658, known as The Deluge, which was eventually thwarted by Polish-Lithuanian forces. However, a quarter of the Polish-Lithuanian population died from the war and plague, and the country's economy was devastated. Based on the massive second volume of Henryk Sienkiewicz's Polish Trilogy, Potop follows the crimes, tribulations, and redemption of the nobleman Andrei Kmicic, set against the backdrop of the Swedish Invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Though its four-hour runtime will probably repel most American viewers, Potop does contain at least one showstopper sequence that earns its place in film history and cult-movie fandom: this is the sword-fight between the desperate Kmicic and the knight Pan Wolodyjowski. The scene only lasts around 5 minutes, but is such a carefully choreographed, Kurosawan wonder (the actors are visibly using real swords) that it is rightfully considered one of film's all-time greatest sword fights.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD (Polish: Ogniem i Mieczem; Ukrainian: Вогнем і Мечем, Vohnem i Mechem) is a 1999 Polish historical drama film directed by Jerzy Hoffman. The film is based on the first part of The Trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz. At the time of its filming, it was the most expensive Polish film ever made. The story is set in Ukrainian lands of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of the mid-17th century. A Polish noble, Skrzetuski, and a Cossack otaman Bohun, both fall in love with the same woman, Helena. Their rivalry unfolds against the backdrop of a Cossack uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aimed at reclaiming control of the land from the hands of the Polish nobles. Historic events form a framework for an action and character driven plot, and fictional characters mingle with historic ones. The movie, as the book, culminates with the savage siege of Zbarazh. The original novel is often deemed to be nationalistic and Ukrainophobic, especially in Ukraine. The movie, on the other hand, has been praised for its depiction of Ukraine and Ukrainians as "vivid rather than monochromatic; they are multi-dimensional, eliciting more than one feeling of, say, fascination or dislike". However, some Polish reviewers felt that the movie emphasized the Cossacks' traits but diminished those of the Poles in the spirit of "political correctness."

AN ANCIENT TALE: WHEN THE SUN WAS A GOD (Polish title: Stara baśń: Kiedy słońce było bogiem) is a 2003 Polish film, directed by Jerzy Hoffman. The film is based on an 1876 novel, Stara baśń, by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. It is a Polish historical action fantasy based on the 19th century novel by Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski. In 9th-century pre-Christian Poland, the rustic natives have lived peacefully for centuries, tending their land and worshipping the sun god. But when the power-hungry Prince Popiel brings in the Viking army to establish a barbarous and bloodthirsty regime of terror, it is up to one lone warrior, the famed archer Ziemowit (Michal Zebrowski), to lead a peasant uprising and put an end to the bloodshed.+

This is Part 2 of a 1960 Polish historical epic film adapted from a 1900 novel by Nobel laureate, Henryk Sienkiewicz. Directed by Aleksander Ford, it is one of the most successful movies in the cinema of Poland. In the 15th century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is facing a hard struggle against the neighboring Teutonic Order. Frequent clashes between the two powers finally culminate in 1410 with the Battle of Grunwald. It includes a tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights

This is Part 1 of a 1960 Polish historical epic film adapted from a 1900 novel by Nobel laureate, Henryk Sienkiewicz. Directed by Aleksander Ford, it is one of the most successful movies in the cinema of Poland. The plot is situated in late-14th century and early-15th century Poland and centers on the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War and the climactic Battle of Grunwald in 1410. For the battle scenes, 15,000 extras were hired. The release date of 15 July 1960 was also the battle's 550th anniversary. The film attracted huge audiences: it sold 14 million tickets in its first four years of release and had more than thirty million viewers as of 2000, making it the most popular film ever screened in Poland. It was later exported to 46 foreign countries, selling 29.6 million tickets in the Soviet Union and a further 2.6 million tickets in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was the most successful Polish film internationally[9] and a Polish submission to the 33rd Academy Awards.

This film recounts the battle of Warsaw, the high watermark of Soviet expansion during the Polish-Soviet War. After regaining independence in 1920, Poland is now seeking to stabilize the situation on the border. Marshal Józef Piłsudski (Daniel Olbrychski) wants to create federations of independent states in the east. Polish authorities announce mobilization. Jan Krynicki (Borys Szyc), a young poet with leftist views, returns to the army. On the day of leaving for the war, he marries Ola (Natasza Urbańska), a beautiful actress from the revue theater. Soon Poles manage to conquer Kiev. Shortly thereafter, Jan, stationed in Ukraine, is accused of Bolshevik agitation and sentenced to death. He is unexpectedly saved from shooting by an attack by the Bolsheviks, who take him captive. After conversations with Commissioner Bykowski (Adam Ferency), Jan finally sees the real calculations of the Red Revolution. In Warsaw, meanwhile, Ola is disturbed by Captain Kostrzewa (Jerzy Bończak). She decides to join the army to help defend the capital against the Bolsheviks constantly pushing west

Szegénylegények means "outlaws" or "Poor young men". This film depicts the aftermath of Lajos Kossuth's 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule in Hungary, when prison camps were set up for people suspected of being Kossuth's supporters. Around 20 years later, some members of highwayman Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band, believed to be some of Kossuth's last supporters, are known to be interned among the prisoners in a camp. The prison staff try to identify the rebels and find out if Sándor is among them using various means of mental and physical torture and trickery. When one of the guerrillas, János Gajdar, is identified as a murderer by an old woman, he starts aiding his captors by acting as an informant. Gajdar is told that if he can show his captors a man who has killed more people than himself, he will be spared. Fearing for his life, he turns in several people his captors have been looking for by name but unable to identify among the prisoners. Eventually Gajdar becomes an outcast among the prisoners, and is murdered at night by some of his fellow inmates while in solitary confinement. The prison guards easily discover suspects, people whose cells had been left unlocked for the night, and start interrogating them in the hope of finding Sándor himself. The suspects are tricked into revealing the remaining guerrillas when they are given a chance to form a new military unit out of former bandits and informed that Sándor, who was not among the prisoners, has been pardoned. However, the celebrating guerrillas are then told that those who previously fought under him will still face execution.