Witold Holtz
Sylvia cannot have children, and she convinces married Jewish woman Irene to have a child and then give the child to her for adoption. The plan works but it also backfires. The way in which the child was adopted causes friction between Sylvia and her husband, and to make matters worse, Sylvia's husband falls in love with Irene. A crisis looms when he asks his jealous wife to give Irene her identity papers because Jews are being deported and Irene will die without their help.
A pastor studying folklore in remote parts of 19th century Estonia is invited to stay with a young nobleman. His mother is sequestered and mad. It seems she has been attacked by a bear as a young wife and local peasants whisper the young man may be the son of a bear. A doctor, who treats the mother with old-fashioned remedies, reveals this to the pastor. Young nobleman's wife is found with a bite and the man has disappeared into the woods.
Retired police captain tells a reporter about his latest action - carried on their own investigation into the mysterious death of the girl. Captain MO, Gray, conducts her own investigation into the death of Eve Salm, called Princess. She was a witness in a process in which the defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Gray has doubts and risked their lives seeking to apprehend the real killer.
After completing a project, a shipbuilder grows restless and travels the country on his motorcycle. He leaves behind his wife, a woman of virtue and responsibility, as he goes off on his amorous drunken escapades. He is part of a lost generation whose economic and vocational prospects have been severely limited in the decades following World War II. His summer cabin on the Baltic beach is torn apart by drunken revelers to feed a bonfire in this brooding and often depressing film.
Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
