Wladyslaw Kowalski 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, Rovi

The Double Life of Véronique is the story of two young women who are -- in some mysterious and irresolvable way -- the same woman leading two different yet interconnected lives. Those familiar with Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's later "Three Colors" trilogy of Blue, White, and Red will recognize his fascination with accidental happenings and chance encounters, as well as Irène Jacob (from Red) whose performance as both Veronika and Veronique won the 1991 Cannes Film Festival award for best actress. Veronika and Véronique are born on the same day in 1966, one in Poland, the other in France. They grow up separately, unaware of each other's existence, but with the vague and rarely expressed feeling that they are "not alone." The story begins in Poland, where Veronika (like Véronique) is a talented vocalist and music student who wins a prestigious singing competition and is given the chance to perform with a local symphony. On the night of the concert, while singing a duet onstage, Veronika loses consciousness and dies. Véronique is emotionally wounded by the loss of her double and decides to end her singing career. The film charts the effect of Veronika's death on Véronique and on her dispassionate and unsatisfying relationships with men, especially her father. She is led to puppeteer and children's book author Alexandre Fabbri (Philippe Volter), whose puppet shows and stories are dramatic variants on her own mysterious problem. While looking through photographs of Véronique's trip to Poland, Fabbri discovers a picture of Veronika walking through a student demonstration in Kracow. He shows the picture to Véronique, who intuits the significance of Veronika's perfect likeness to herself. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi

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, Rovi

In a deliberately slow-paced, introverted story with many long periods of total silence, a Jewish industrial advisor, Jacob Rosenberg (Wladyslaw Kowakski) goes through the long process of resigning himself to his eventual deportation to a concentration camp. The setting is World War II in Poland, and Jacob has just been taken out of his job and forced to work cleaning the streets. As he goes the rounds of home and work, his daily encounters seem surreal, and his life is palpably charged with an overriding sense of doom. There is no escape for him, he knows it, and all he can do is prepare for the final ride in the railroad car. Both the intentionally slow pace and restricted dialogue in this film, as well as the subject matter, may leave some viewers feeling frustrated -- perhaps that is the intention of the director, Waldemar Dziki. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Within this culturally-centered tale of a Polish star-gazer obsessed with finding a new planet on the outskirts of the universe, lie allusions to the socio-political situation in Poland in the early 1980s that only a Pole at the time might fully understand. The story evolves around a tailor who is hospitalized for kidney problems and during a brief coma becomes convinced he was somehow joined to the distant stars. After he emerges from the hospital he talks the villagers into helping him build a major telescope, and his enthusiasm is contagious. For some reason, no one questions the fact that he has no training and no degree in astronomy -- until he starts getting a little static from the town elders when the Soviet Union does not like anyone outside of their space program taking unauthorized photos with a telescope (the first Sputnik was just sent up). The rude awakening will come when the tailor heads off to his first major astronomy conference, facing professionals for the first time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This pessimistic Polish film stars Tomasz Hudziec as a boy whose father is arrested by the Stalinist police. To quell Hudziec's potential rebelliousness, the authorities ship him off to a Pioneer Camp, where he will be "re-educated." Camp life is horrible, but Hudziec goes with the program in order to impress a counselor (Teresa Marczewska) with whom he has become smitten. Eventually Hudziec becomes an ardent Stalinist, so much so that he is barely recognizable to his own father. Shivers there are indeed in Shivers, but not the sort engendered by a fictional horror film; the scariest aspect of the story is its utter plausibility. The film, based on director Wojciech Marczewski's own childhood experiences, was made with full government approval--only to be suppressed when martial law was declared in Poland in 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The tough, iron-willed determination of a young female reporter to make top grade in her profession fuels the drama in this tale directed by Barbara Sass. Novice reporter Ewa Bracka (Dorota Stalinska) is on the rebound from a failed romance with an Italian, but she is not wallowing in self-pity. She takes judo lessons, spends time with her baby daughter, and has a few dalliances that might help further her career. Otherwise, she tracks down stories about corruption in the medical profession and a pursues a lead on a scandalous local brothel. As she juggles her private and professional life, she is not necessarily aware of the pitfalls that lie ahead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A loving young couple in this drama find that their hopes and wishes for life are not being fulfilled. The young man cannot find work which suits him, and he turns to robbery to pay his debts. The girl, a nurse, is too fastidious for her job and is unable to continue when asked to take a dead baby's body to the morgue. In a parallel story, a homeless man living in a junkyard tries to get rid of a dog which has attached itself to him, and he winds up killing both himself and the dog. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This symbolic drama follows a young man after he leaves his village. Believing he has killed a man in an auto accident, he skips town and takes a job in a power plant where he meets a variety of characters. Old war veterans use their experiences as excuses not to work. Free-spirited dancing girls turn on the charm until a richer man comes along. A dying man befriends the younger man for personally selfish reasons. The young man gets a belly full of the adult world, complete with the lying, pettiness and general distrust of his fellow so-called human beings. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

As the last shots of World War II echo across the globe, an ageing railroad worker and his young assistant pilot a train filled with explosives to the Western front. The journey won't be an easy one either, because along the way this brave pair will be forced to contend with fierce German soldiers, despondent deserters, and roving gangs in search of some quick cash. Acclaimed director Bohdan Poreba takes the helm for this tense Polish period drama starring Kazimierz Opalinski and Adam Paslikowski. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi