Bozena Dykiel Movies
- 2006
Award-winning Polish director Marek Koterski takes an unflinching look at the pathological effects of severe alcoholism on familial relationships in the no-holds-barred drama We're All Christs (Wszyscy jestes'my Chrystusami). The story concerns Adas (played at ages 33 and 55 by Andrzej Chyra, and Marek Kondrat, respectively), a father caught in the web of alcohol addiction passed down from the generations before him. The disease once threatened to destroy his own relationship with his young son. Now, after admitting his own problem and experiencing therapy and rehabilitation, Adas takes the first steps toward a challenging reconnection with his family and attempts to rebuild long-decimated bonds. As a lapsed Roman Catholic, he begins to turn toward the faith that he shunned as a youth, and recognizes the necessity of turning away from the evil, abusive legacy of his father on earth and toward his Heavenly Father as a far-superior alternative. In the end, his Catholicization will partially entail turning to Christ as a role model by assuming responsibility for his own earthly burdens (and thus, taking up his cross). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marek Kondrat, Michal Koterski, (more)
- 1996
Andrzej Wajda, the most acclaimed Polish filmmaker of the post-WWII era, returned from exile to make films again in Poland in the 1990s, including this saga based on the novel by Jerzy Andrzjewski. The English translation is Holy Week, and the film is set during the week before Easter in WWII Poland. Irena Lilien (Beata Fudalej), a young Jewish woman, escapes from the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis are persecuting Jews and sending them off to extermination. She seeks out her former lover, Jan Malecki (Wojciech Malajkat). Jan and his wife Anna (Magdalena Warzecha), a Catholic who hates the Germans, agree to shelter Irena from the authorities, though in so doing, they are risking their own lives. Jan's younger brother leaves the house and joins the Resistance. Irena chafes at her virtual house arrest and soon attracts the attention of neighbors and a local black-market businesswoman, whose husband tries to rape Irena. Eventually, the leaders of the neighborhood call for Irena to be turned over to the Nazis. The situation boils over, pitting neighbor against neighbor and illustrating how the Nazis drove rifts in the Polish community. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- 1993
This Polish slice-of-life film, set in pre-WW II, offers a glimpse of life in a small resort where two social classes converge. On one hand there is the elite class of bourgeoisie tourists who come there to paint, write, and reflect upon their deserved fortune. On the other, there are the peasants who are at the mercy of the tourists. In one scene a tourist woman marches into a peasant home and begins talking art off the walls. In another, an aspiring artiste demands a peasant child pose barefoot in polluted water. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
When Majka (Maja Barelkowska) gets tired of pretending that her illegitimate daughter is her sister, she kidnaps the girl and takes on her mother, who has been posing as the child's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Polony, Maja Barelkowska, (more)
- 1988
This political drama is taken from the classic story from Feodor Dostoyevsky, but liberties have been taken and many secondary characters eliminated. The author's condemnation of a godless society and his disdain of those who follow blindly to popular political causes remains intact. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Isabelle Huppert, (more)
- 1986
Two lovers who meet again six years after World War II suffer at the hands of Stalinist oppression in this thrilling political drama. Anna (Krysyna Janda) hides the fugitive Marcel (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) when he receives a death sentence for his role in the Home Army. For five years, Anna hides him from the authorities, and her invalid mother is unaware of his presence for years. She summons a doctor when Marcel suffers from pneumonia, and she later has his child out of wedlock. The changing political climate allows Marcel to emerge from the underground, but he is arrested once again. He is freed at his rehabilitation trial when the court admits to "previous mistakes." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, (more)
- 1985
This intriguing comedy-drama centers on the 60-year-old Andzia (Ewa Dalkowska) and her strong, deep-rooted provincial morality as she reminisces about her childhood, her marriage, and her grown son and daughter. Andzia's strict upbringing instills a sense of veneration for her community and the people in it, while the honesty of her parents serves as a model for her own behavior. When she marries (after a comic wedding night), she and her quite compatible husband start a family -- and then tragedy strikes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewa Dalkowska, Katarzyna Rubacha, (more)
- 1982
Originally titled Przesluchanie, the Polish The Interrogation is rough sledding for anyone looking for an "easy" film about political oppression. Cabaret entertainer Krystyna Jadna has a habit of dallying sexually with high-ranking military officers. As a result, she is imprisoned and subject to a vicious interrogation by the secret police, who are convinced that Jadna's brief affair with an army major has fomented an anti-government movement. For 158 grueling minutes, we are shown the lengths to which Jadna's questioners will go to extract their notion of the truth-and the lengths to which the woman will go to cling on to her remaining shreds of dignity. Filmed in 1982, The Interrogation was almost immediately banned in Poland. It was not given an international release until 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krystyna Janda, Janusz Gajos, (more)
- 1981
This Polish sci-fier is set in the year 1999. Roman Wilhemi plays a TV reporter who witnesses the Martian invasion of Earth. He tries to spread the news, but the public considers his bulletin a mere replay of the 1938 Orson Welles hoax. The government knows the truth, but publicly derides Wilhemi as a madman so as to avoid widespread panic. This cynical slice of speculative fiction was originally released in Poland as Wojna Swiatow--Nastepne Stulecie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roman Wilhelmi, Krystyna Janda, (more)
- 1981
Hanka Ordonowna (Dorota Sialinska) was a famous cabaret singer in Poland in the 1930s, and this film is a dramatized rendering of her adult life. Her husband was an officer in the Polish army, serving in the North African campaigns with the Allied troops. Hanka herself was handling a career that went from being a chorus girl to singing to appearing in movies. Her rise from poverty to stardom was not without its own amount of suffering, as she fought consumption at one point, and the occupying Nazis at another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorota Stalinska, Stanislawa Celinska, (more)
- 1980
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, but this matters not at all to their tradition-bound families. At the last minute, the bride balks. Only slightly nonplused, the groom's father, a status-seeking doctor, decides to go ahead with the expensive reception anyway. Polish director Krzysz Zanussi uses this scenario to stick it to capitalist corruption, and to society's destruction of the individual spirit. Leslie Caron, the one recognizable member of the cast, is outstanding as a wealthy, over-the-hill ballerina who happens to be a kleptomaniac. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Caron, Maja Komorowska, (more)
