Jan Józef Szczepanski Movies

Premiering on American television on December 29, 1981, From a Far Country: Pope John Paul II was originally an Italian/British coproduction, made in cooperation with Film Polski. Actually, we see very little of the Pope -- in fact, John Paul II (played by Cezary Morawski) is not yet in his papal robes when we first meet him as a Polish youth of the 1930s named Karol Wojtyla. Director Krzysztof Zanussi adopts a liquid style that is part Ashes and Diamonds, part Citizen Kane. The maturation of Karol during the Nazi occupation is for the most part relayed through the reminiscences of his friends and family (played by an international cast). For its American TV showing, 40 of the film's original 140 minutes were trimmed. Through an unforeseeable coincidence, From a Far Country: Pope John Paul II was first telecast the same week in 1981 that a major political crisis broke out in Poland. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This three-episode drama chronicles the exploits of Americans in Poland. In the first, the hero plays a womanizing young businessman on a trip who stops by to visit his uncle. His father has been sending money to the old man for years. The hero discovers that the man is in a rest home and that his father's money has been supporting the uncle's son and his wife. In the second story, a widower from Indiana visits his father's village birthplace to look for a bride. All the village mothers are most eager to marry their daughters off to the Yankee and they treat him royally. One night he gets really drunk and marries the village tramp. In the third episode, an American entrepreneur endeavors to buy dirt from famous battlegrounds to sell in Chicago. The eager Poles are more than happy to oblige him. The happy businessman loads his dirt into a ship and sails happily for his home. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi