Włodzimierz Kwaskowski
A film from the "Silhouettes of Polish Literature" series
Historical novel by Boleslaw Prus . The problem of the Polish population displacement from their land within the limits of the Prussian partition. Germans come to the village harassing a wealthy peasant Snail, leading to the tragedy. Slug's cottage burns, his wife dies. The peasant does not give up, defending his inheritance. He sticks on a patch of his Polish soil and protects it like a soldier his post.
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.
In the rugged mountain gorges and ravines of southeastern Poland, a new boss and his wife become a catalyst for violence.
Through the fate of the boy - whose hunger drives from his home village , and who receives a severe school of life , going through different social environments in order to become conscious , revolutionary activist - creators show a realistic panorama of conflicts in pre-WWII Poland.
With the second part of his Cellulose Diptych, award-winning director Jerzy Kawalerowicz returns to protagonist Szczesny, now a full-fledged, middle-aged communist militant in pre-war Poland. Based on the writings of Igor Newerly, Kawalerowicz's epic chronicles the romance between Szczesny and the charismatic Madzia, as the ill-fated pair fall in love amid the social and political upheaval of their homeland.
