Recent Polish History and Cinema: Solidarity on Film, 1980-2006

The paper will deal with ten films whose crux is the significance and legacy of Solidarity. These films may be said to serve as an index of the social and political changes that have taken place in Poland since the rise of the movement in 1980, and coincidently reflects the vicissitudes of the Polish cinema industry in its transformation from a state monopoly into an enterprise largely funded by private investment. I distinguish three phases of development: the first (to some extent ‘heroic’) stage comprises works produced under the old regime, which were by definition usually oppositionist to the communist authorities but whose criticism was necessarily oblique; the second, immediate post-communist phase, includes works that were more openly critical of the former regime but also reflected scepticism about the pretensions of the post-Solidarity factions vying to appropriate the ethos of the movement; in more recent films, coinciding with the 20^th/25^th anniversary of the creation of Solidarity, a more reflective, even elegiac, tone may be detected suggesting the redundancy of the ethos itself.

The euphoria of the early days of Solidarity, along with intimations of threats to its existence, was captured most fully in Andrzej Wajda’s pseudo-documentary feature Człowiek z żelaza (Man of Iron, 1981), which was awarded a special prize at Cannes in May that year. Its uneasy blend of historic figures (Wałęsa) and fictional characters in many respects serves as a template that subsequent directors would explicitly and implicitly reject. Prior to the collapse of communism in Poland, another major film dealing with Solidarity that saw (delayed) public release was Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Bez końca (No End, 1984), which presented a more individualized and pessimistic view of the impact of the mass movement on people’s lives. These largely pro-Solidarity films will be contrasted with two pro-regime features: Godność (Dignity, 1984) and Czas nadziei (A Time of Hope, 1987) by the documentary film-maker, Roman Wionczek.

The demise of the communist system enabled further developments in the presentation of Solidarity: the comedic, evident in Sylwester Chęciński’s Rozmowy kontrolowane (Tapped Conversations, 1991) and Konrad Szołajski’s Człowiek z (Man of …, 1993), and the martyrological, epitomised by Kazimierz Kutz’s neo-documentary Śmierć jak kromka chleba (Death like a Slice of Bread, 1993). Szołajski’s film takes direct issue with Wajda, underlining the essential misogyny of Man of Iron, whose key female character Agnieszka was relegated to a traditional supporting role. By contrast, Kutz recasts the events at the Wujek mine in December 1981 as a foundation myth for the post-1989 democracy.

The final two films I analyse, Jerzy Stuhr’s Pogoda na jutro (Tomorrow’s Weather, 2003) and Krzysztof Zanussi’s Persona non grata (2004), further problematise the legacy of Solidarity. Their main characters remain trapped by events and attitudes of twenty years earlier and their adherence to the ethos ultimately proves catastrophic in the present. The paper will therefore examine the reinvention of Poland through the cinematic construction and deconstruction of Solidarity and its myths.

1. The Films:

Człowiek z żelaza (Man of Iron) dir. Andrzej Wajda (1981)

Bez końca (No End) dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski (1984)

Godność (Dignity) dir. Roman Wionczek (1984)

Czas nadziei (A Time of Hope) dir. Roman Wionczek (1987)

Śmierć jak kromka chleba (Death as a Slice of Bread) dir. Kazimierz Kutz (1994)

Rozmowy kontrolowane (Tapped Conversations) dir. Sylwester Chęciński (1991)

Człowiek z … (Man of …) dir. Konrad Szołajski (1993)

Zawrócony (The One Turned Back) dir. Kazimierz Kutz (1994)

Pogoda na jutro (Tomorrow’s Weather) dir. Jerzy Stuhr (2003)

Persona non grata dir. Krzysztof Zanussi (2005)

Solidarność, Solidarność, dir. various (2006)

2. Selected Scenes:

1. Strike action: Death as a Slice of Bread

Miodek: Was that how it was?

Grzegorz: Yes.

Miodek: Those who were at the mine left, assembled, voted, and decided that we have to oppose this and remain at the mine until Ludwiczak {chairman of local Solidarity} comes back. Now it’s your turn, now you have to answer the question: do we go down the pit or do we go on strike? We don’t know what this Martial Law means, but everything has been declared illegal and strikes are forbidden. So your decision can’t be made in haste. But it’s also a question, perhaps above all, of our dignity, the dignity of all and of each of us individually. All our rights have been taken from us, they beat our workmates, and they treat our chairman like a dog. It can’t go on like this. So I ask you: can we allow ourselves to put up with such abuses? Do you have the will to defend a man whom you chose as your leader?

2. Conspiracy: Tapped Conversations

(a) Jaruzelski (on television) Honesty requires me to put the question: did it have to come to this? In taking the post of prime minister I believed ...

Ryszard’s Aunt: That’s the third time I’ve heard this and I don’t understand it. Who’s attacked us, is it war?

Halina: The men in uniform have attacked the reservists and civilians.

(b) Aunt: During the war I had a pseudonym in the underground, I should probably have one now.

Aunt: Let’s ask Leon. He was a colonel in the Home Army.

Halina: Just in case, I’m Roe-deer.

Aunt: And mine is Partridge. Will you remember it: fridge?

Halina: Fridge or partridge?

Aunt: Partridge. But when you say it like that, it’s easier to remember: fridge-partridge.

3. Ordeal: The One Turned Back

Tomasz Siwek, party member, flees the ZOMO (Motorized Police Units) after a Solidarity demo.

4. A Question of Principles: Tomorrow’s Weather

(a) Cichocki: I interrupted you. So tell us about this future of yours.

Marcin Kozioł: My plan is simple. If things go well, we win the election and I’ll go into politics. Next to you I won’t go wrong. But if we lose, then my best friend wins. We’ll set up a firm, Shitshifters, we’ll clean septic tanks. He’s in the commission, signs all the invoices and, obviously, administers the community funds for cleaning septic tanks in the whole district. […]

Only then I’d have to change parties.

Cichocki: Well, that’s tough. But if I understand you, if things don’t work out for this mate of yours, and we’re in power, then we’ll have to help him out?

Marcin: Yes, we will - in a spirit of solidarity.

Józef Kozioł: There’s a noise coming from the right wheel. Can I stop for a moment? Marcin, you give me a hand.

Marcin: What’s up?

Józef: Nothing. I can’t drive any further. Marcin, that was a ghastly joke, wasn’t it?

Marcin: What are you on about? What I said? No, I was being serious.

Józef: That was the last straw.

Marcin: What do you mean?

Józef: Marcin! You simply don’t know what an obscenity you’ve come up with. What cynicism. And dragging Solidarity into some criminal shit. No, I’ve had enough! You’ve got to have some principles in life.

Marcin: What principles? What the f**k are you on about? You should have brought us up and not fought for your country and only prayed for us.

5. Influence: Persona non grata

Waldemar: I don’t know how to thank you.

Witek: For what? For letting you stay in the empty guest-room? It’s nothing.

Wald: It isn’t that.

Witek: Then what?

Wald: For your support. Without it I’d never have come here.

Witek: Why not?

Wald: You know I’m an outsider. I don’t know the right people.

Witek: Why not? Why didn’t you make the effort? You could have tried.

Wald: What could I do? I’m a provincial. I didn’t go to the right university.

Witek: Really? What do you mean?

Wald: I don’t have to tell you. I studied in Moscow when it was no longer politically correct. I brought back a Russian wife, which wasn’t the right thing to do either.

Witek: Once it was. Many of our future Polish diplomats brought back Russian wives who then worked for the Soviet Union.

Waldemar: Luckily that doesn’t apply to us. It’s fantastic there are people like you.

Witek: Really? Why?

Waldemar: It means that sometimes right still prevails.

Witek: You don’t understand anything. I sometimes prevail due to what remains of my influence. But it isn’t right.

Wald: You earned your influence.

Witek: On behalf of a lost cause.

Wald: Lost? Why?

Witek: Because so little has changed. You were promoted not on merit, but because I could pull strings.

Wald: But you did so because I’m good.

Witek: True. I’d like to believe it, but it’s a subjective. There ought to be a mechanism.

Wlad: So why isn’t there?

Witek: Because we didn’t set one up.

Oxana: But it’s the same everywhere. Croneyism rules in France and Italy, I’ve heard.

Witek: That’s your whole Eastern mentality: you see things only in black and white. It’s a question of degree. There’s evil everywhere, sometimes more, sometimes less. Helena always prayed that there’d be a little less.

3. Select Bibliography:

Coates, Paul. (2004) The Red and the White: the Cinema of People’s Poland. London: Wallflower Press.

Falkowska, Janina, and Marek Haltof, eds. (2003) The New Polish Cinema. Trowbridge: Flicks Books.

Haltof, Marek. (2002) Polish National Cinema. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Iordanova, Dina (2003) Cinema of the Other Europe. The Industry and Artistry of East Central European Film. London, New York: Wallflower Press.

Mazierska, Ewa (2007) Polish Postcommunist Cinema: From Pavement Level. Oxford, New York: Peter Lang.