Ewa Wisniewska Movies

Adapted from a series of fantasy novels by author Andrzej Sapkowski, this tale of a warrior who takes on the evil forces and a series of fearsome monsters is sure to appeal to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien. Set in the far past, compassionate slayer Geralt continues to wages battle against the forces of darkness in a world where humans sometime seem equally menacing. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jan (Piotr Franczewski) is a mild-mannered college teacher who is fired from his job. He is continually distracted and worried about his wife Joanna (Ewa Wisneiwska), an older woman of beauty who has been plagued by mental problems throughout her life. After she is brought home from the mental hospital, Joanna takes an overdose of pills and dies. The sadistic Dr. Kramer (Olgierd Lukaszewicz) accuses Jan of driving his wife to her death. A court trial is held, and Jan is found morally responsible for Joanna's demise, losing the respect of his teenage children and neighbors. After Jan checks himself into the mental hospital, he is subjected to shock treatments administered by the twisted Dr. Kramer. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This visually opulent drama is based on an 18th century novel by James Hogg. A young man looks back on his life as he examines his divided soul and the push-and-pull between good and evil, purity and hypocrisy, and other concerns voiced in the writings of philosophers as disparate as de Sade and Goethe. The arguments are not always easy to follow and presuppose that the audience has a certain familiarity with the concepts and their meaning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In a poetic evocation of a land that produced creative talents like those of Marc Chagall, Lithuanian-born director Tadeusz Konwicki looks at his native country through a story based on a novel by fellow Lithuanian Czeslaw Milosz. The main protagonist -- aside from the haunting landscape and forests -- is young Tommy (Maciej Mazurkiewicz) who observes his valley beginning to deteriorate as social unrest grows in the 1920s. Tommy's fantasy life brings him in touch with "evil" forces and a doomed love affair, but the reality is that he lives on a wealthy estate near the Polish border and even though the war has ended, animosity has not. As dissention and antagonism grow, the shadows of a future war are already growing darker in the once-innocent valley. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Director Janusz Kijowski's Voices is an introspective journey into the nature of the mind as seen from the perspectives of a spiritual approach in opposition to a scientific approach. When a woman who teaches organic chemistry in high school begins to hear voices and receive "impulses" from space, she is examined by a psychiatric team that pronounces her normal -- they can find no personality disorders. A scientist is not quite convinced of their findings and decides to run some bioelectric tests on her. He comes away thinking that the psychologists were right -- she is normal, but there may, indeed, be external voices that she is perceiving. As the mystery of the voices begins to heat up, the scientists and others become more and more involved in solving the issue, and delving into the nature of communication and the mind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A Polish pilot returns home from Britain after the end of World War II in this anti-Stalinist political drama. He discovers that outlaws from the military are fighting against the new communist regime, and although he aligns himself with the communists, he is suspected of subversion and thrown in jail. A woman who tries to get the man his freedom is hounded by the authorities. The man is eventually released from jail after Stalin dies. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A lavish historical epic that (on a budget of $8.5 million) was the most expensive Polish film ever at the time of its release, Ogniem I Mieczem/With Fire and Sword is based on a classic Polish novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz concerning political and social turmoil from 1647 to 1649. Cossacks are waiting to strike Poland on the Eastern border that neighbors the Ukraine, the nearby Tartars and Turks are waiting for the opportunity to attack Europe, and the Polish ruling class is busy feuding among themselves. A daring Pole named Jan Skrzetuski (Michal Zebrowski), meanwhile, is vying for the hand of beautiful Helena Kurcewicz (Izabella Scorupco, best known for her role in the James Bond film Goldeneye), against heavy competition from Ukranian Bohun (Alexandr Domogarov), to whom she is already engaged. Helena's aunt and guardian, however, cancels the wedding plans, and an enraged Bohun attempts to kidnap her. One of Jan's associates, Zagloba (Krysztof Kowalewski), foils the plot and whisks her away to the Castle of Bar, but Bohun is not to be denied; he storms the castle, taking Helena and leaving Jan and his men to find her, just as the Cossacks and the Tartars have joined forces to sack the nation. Ogniem I Mieczem/With Fire and Sword was the first in a trilogy of novels by Sienkiewicz, but, ironically, was the last to be filmed by director Jerzy Hoffman. The final book in the series, Colonel Wolodyjowski, was adapted for the screen by Hoffman in 1969, while the second, The Deluge, appeared in 1974. A low-budget Italian version of With Fire and Sword was released in 1961. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi