Henryk Talar Movies
- 1991
In this look at one moment at the end of World War II in Poland, director Tadeusz Kijanski has set the time as September, 1944. The place is the right bank of the Vistula River just at the point where the German army is withdrawing from the city. The brutality of the Germans as they destroy the city and rape women is presented in all its horror. Then the Resistance fighters come along and a disabled war veteran tries to find a way to help their cause. Finally, Polish officers arrive on the scene, ready to welcome the Russians when they cross the Vistula. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henryk Talar, Ewa Borowik, (more)
- 1990
This symbol-laden political drama follows the travails of Janek (Wojchiech Malajkat), an actor in a theatrical troupe, who has been given a mysterious briefcase to look after. As a result of his taking receipt of the briefcase (the contents of which are never divulged), he goes to prison not once, but two times. He is strongly encouraged (that is to say tortured) to name his fellow conspirators. The actor's family history is deeply marked by the history of repressions in Poland between the end of World War Two and 1981, when the story takes place. The Janek himself does not know what is going on, only that he is being used by the state system as a pawn in a game of betrayal and counter-betrayal. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henryk Talar
The labyrinthine plot deals with a group of space researchers who left the Earth to find freedom. Their spaceship crashes and they land on the dark side of the Moon. They all die except one and leave a lot of children who eventually turn to shamanism and fire worship. They call the last survivor the Old Man and simultaneously loathe and revere him. Finally, the Old Man retreats to the mountains, puts his video diary into a small rocket and sends it to Earth. The rocket reaches its destination and the notes fall into the hands of another group of researchers. One of them, Marek, journeys to the Old Man's planet and lands in the mountains. When he emerges from the hills, the aboriginal inhabitants mistake him for the long-awaited reincarnation of the Old Man and look to him to deliver them from the dreaded sherns -- strange, winged mutants. The making of this film in 1978 was brutally interrupted by the Polish Ministry of Culture. When about 80% of the shooting was complete, they ordered the filmmakers to destroy all related materials. This decision caused director Andrzej Zulawski to leave his homeland for France, where he spent the next ten years. During the democratization of the Polish political regime in 1986-1987, Zulawski returned to the country to finish the picture. Having lost the sets, costumes, actors, and momentum, the director chose to complete the film from the spared footage, adding a voiceover for the missing episodes and utilizing other actors to dub the original actors who were no longer available. Even in this mutilated form, the film appears as a highly ambitious, if overwrought, sci-fi epic that draws upon philosophical concepts rather than special effects. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrzej Seweryn, Grazyna Dylag, (more)
- 1985
Dluznicy Smierci is set at the end of World War II, when rural Poland was plagued by bandits. The hero, Tomasz Zaliwski, is a poor soul who is the only person able to identify the bandit chief to the authorities. Militia leader Krzysztof Kolbasiuk does his best to shield Zaliwski from reprisals, shunting him from one location to another throughout the countryside. The criminals are swift and clever, but Kolbasiuk is swifter and cleverer. Director Wlodzimierz Golaszewski shows up in a cameo as a poet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krzysztof Kolbasiuk, Tomasz Zaliwski, (more)
- 1985
This fairly routine wartime spy drama was scripted by M.H. Gromar, who also wrote the original novel. Set at a pivotal point of World War II (1939 in Poland just before the Germans invade in the late summer), the story of spies and counterspies starts with Adam Iwinski (Henryk Talar) who has just been stripped of his officer's rank. A Polish military tribunal suspects Adam has been collaborating with an enemy agent, but the civilian government turns around and recruits him to go to Gdansk (aka: Danzig) to identify and capture or eliminate the elusive spy known as "Wotan." Wotan works for the German Secret Service but is not German by nationality. Adam sets forth and after a few misadventures realizes that Wotan has links to the very men who stripped him of his officer's rank. As his personal situation goes from dangerous to hopeless, the Germans begin their attack on the city. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henryk Talar, Ewa Szykulska, (more)
- 1981
Based on the 1969 novel by Jerzy Putrament, Boldyn is about a General of that name who heads some of the Polish partisan forces in WW II. The more time that Boldyn spends leading his men, the more arrogant and self-aggrandizing he becomes -- a prime example of how power corrupts, and how "absolute power corrupts absolutely." In the end, Boldyn almost destroys his men and his cause by his egomaniacal behavior. Debate surged over this character in the novel -- was he a symbol of the abuse of power? -- or of Stalin? -- or of the worst aspects of the partisan movement? Viewers will have to draw their own conclusions at the end of this psychological study of misguided leadership. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tomasz Zaliwski
