Set before the first World War in part of Poland under Austrian occupation, the story of a young boy in primary school who later grows up to become a rebellious, poetic-minded teen in the same school when the national movement toward liberation is under way. The story of a country where church and state work together to suppress the human spirit.
Direction
Marczewski turns classrooms into psychological battlegrounds.
Cinematography
Shadows that feel like memory itself.
Director
Wojciech Marczewski
Hanna Skarżanka
Mikołaj's Grandmother
Maria Chwalibóg
Komendowa
Teresa Marczewska
Mother
Bronisław Pawlik
Michał Srebrny
Janusz Michałowski
Wacław Komenda
Wiktor Sadecki
Middle School Headmaster
Stanisław Igar
Ptaszycki
Michał Pawlicki
Catechist
Jan Nowicki
Chwostek
Henryk Boukołowski
Znamierowski
Bogdan Koca
Marecki
Piotr Probosz
Stukło
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Poland's communist era, the film's critique of Austrian occupation was a thinly veiled attack on Soviet control—audiences knew exactly what they were watching.
Director Wojciech Marczewski later became head of Poland's national film school, essentially returning to the system he so brutally depicted.
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