Maja Komorowska Movies

Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda takes the helm for this Oscar-nominated drama detailing the harrowing events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. A unique blend of conventional narrative and documentary-style filmmaking, Katyn opens in the spring of 1940, just as the Soviet Secret police execute a group of Polish officers. On September 1, 1939, Germen forces had descended upon Poland, paving the way for the Red Army to occupy east Poland as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact. As the Red Army assumed control of east Poland, all officers in the Polish army were placed in Soviet custody. Determined to remain loyal to the army despite the growing danger, Polish officer Andrzej refuses to flee with his wife, Anna. It isn't long before invading forces begin arresting professors in Cracow, and as the detainees languish in prison camps, their families start to fear that they'll never see their loved ones again. Flash forward to April 1943, and the Germans announce the discovery of mass graves. While Anna is relieved not to hear her husband's name on the list of bodies discovered, countless others are left to grieve their losses with no explanation or consolation. January 18, 1945: Cracow is liberated by the Red Army, and propagandist newsreels from the Soviet Union blame German forces for the massacre at Katyn. It is at that point that the fine line between collaboration and resistance within the People's Republic of Poland becomes exceptionally blurred. As the details surrounding the massacre gradually begin to emerge, Wajda reveals precisely how this horrifying massacre unfolded by flashing back to the spring of 1940 for an extended sequence in which Polish officer internees are transported by railroad to Smolensk and methodically dispatched before being casually buried in a mass grave. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Set in the 1950s when Stalin was in power, this thoughtful Polish story is an autobiographical account of filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi's childhood. Hubert is a normal young boy living with his mother in the country. His father has been living in England since the war's end. As a result, the Communists frequently harass them to the point that Hubert's mother sends him to his eccentric Aunt Ida in Warsaw to insure that he gets an education. Ida welcomes her nephew and to help him get along teaches him the art of outwardly toeing the Communist Party line to survive. Ida is shrewd, charming and manipulative, qualities she uses to deftly exploit the government at every turn. The title refers to horseback riding, an activity that both Ida and Hubert enjoy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tomek (Arthur Zmijewski) is one of those rare people who follow their best instincts and get away with it. In this story, Tomek has made the acquaintance of Julia (Krystyna Janda), a very depressed, neurotic older woman. He invites her to stay with his devoutly Catholic mother (Maja Komorowska) and himself, and the two of them then try to deal with her hysteria and neediness. When it becomes clear that she needs treatment for her condition, Tomek goes to West Germany and, refusing the easy money his father (who is living there) offers him, takes a job in order to make enough money. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This Polish political melodrama examines the days leading up to the German invasion of Poland and centers upon two newlyweds. The husband is Uruguayan and comes from German-English parents. The woman is British. They have come to Poland to do some family business and end up visiting a good friend's country estate. There the woman is thrown from a horse and is critically wounded. Though her body heals, her mind is damaged. Her husband's cruelty toward her makes matters worse. The husband then learns that his factory is working with Germany as it plans a Polish invasion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television courtroom drama, a modern Bluebeard with multiple lovers has been charged with the murder of one of them, a prostitute. He pleads not guilty, and then one witness after the other gives so much evidence out of sequence that it is a probable cause for swearing off jury duty for the rest of one's life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Two brothers of German heritage live in the Polish town of Poznan, not that far from the western border with Germany. Michal (Michal Bajor) is the sensitive, artistic brother who likes literature, Andrzej (Piotr Bajor) is the daredevil with no intellectual bent, and between the two of them, they steal the German consul's Daimler-Benz limousine, on a lark. When they are caught by the police, the German consul unexpectedly forgives them their prank -- but in the meantime, the episode has put the brothers in touch with a Nazi underground group who want to prepare the way for the pending German invasion (set to occur within a matter of days). Andrej helps the group kill the German consul and then they blame the death on the Poles -- giving the Germans an excuse to cross the border. Not only the consul, but "artistic" types like Michal are also killed for the same reasons. After these murders, Michal realizes his brother is no better than the group he joined, and decides to set his own course in the face of the rising threat of invasion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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

Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda directs the psychological drama Panny z Wilka (released in the U.S. as The Young Girls of Wilko), based on the book by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz. Set in the 1920s, WWI veteran Wiktor Ruben (Daniel Olbrychski) returns to the town where he had spent his childhood summers before the war. He stays with his aunt (Zofia Jaroszewska) and uncle (Tadeusz Bialoszczynski). He also reunites with a family of women: Julcia (Anna Seniuk), Jola (Maja Komorowska), Zosia (Stanislawa Celinska), Kazia (Krystyna Zachwatowicz), and Tunia (Christine Pascal). Panny z Wilka was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the 1980 Academy Awards. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Hungarian director Istvan Szabó's 1976 feature Budapest Tales (AKA Budapesti mesék) unfolds in a purely allegorical, dreamlike realm, rich with indigenous symbolism. Following some great catastrophic onslaught - its exact nature unknown - a number of individuals emerge from hiding and discover a dilapidated old trolley car awash on a river bank. They instinctively begin loading all of their worldly goods onto the vehicle and pushing it along its tracks, destination unknown. In time, even the concept of a destination becomes secondary to the trek itself, and a number of key events befall the passenger/participants: a few lose all energy and fall by the wayside; the travelers run headfirst into a river that runs across a section of track, and must break the trolley down and move the pieces across, one at a time; occasional accidents and calamities arise, including the arrival of brigands. The life cycle, however, continues unabated: while one of the passengers dies, sacrificing his own life to ensure the continuation of the journey, a woman on board gives birth to twins. In time, the passengers (who have painted the trolley yellow and designated it with the number '1') enter the vicinity of a massive city, and discover that theirs is only one of a large number of indistinguishable trolleys approaching the metropolis. Many critics read Budapest Tales as a metaphor for the post-WWII history of Hungary; its overall reception was somewhat poor. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Krzysztof Zanussi's 1974 feature Bilans Kwartalny (aka The Quarterly Balance) represented the filmmaker's first attempt to return to highbrow, intellectual fare in his native Poland, following his disastrous studio experience making the genre heist picture The Catamount Killing. This quiet, low-key character study observes a period in the life of Marta Sieminska (Maja Komorowska), a resolute but utterly unsatisfied 40-year-old Polish housewife who attempts to find self-fulfillment in an extramarital affair with a stranger but encounters only despair, suffering, and pain as her innocence is brutally ripped away. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Krzysztof Zanussi's Za Sciana (Behind the Wall), a short feature made for Polish television, concerns the unlikely romance between Jan, an established professor of biochemistry, and Anna, an emotionally unstable young woman who applies for a job under his aegis. Both are sensitive to the idea of being vulnerable in a relationship, and although they sense mutual attraction and interest, the partners ultimately withdraw from each other out of fear. Soon after, Anna makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, but passing through the act unscathed imparts to her a level of self-assurance and confidence that she lacked prior to it. The roles in the relationship are suddenly reversed, with Jan evincing neurosis and need, and Anna self-sufficient. Za Sciana took the Grand Prix and won the Best Actress prize for Maja Komorowska at the 1971 San Remo Film Festival. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide