![]() Brzozowa Street
Ulica Brzozowa
Poland
1947
/ 9’
A documentary impression with a commentary by Jerzy Piórkowski, describing the reconstruction of Warsaw, destroyed during the war. At the beginning of the film, we see the dynamic images so typical of the Polish Newsreel (streets with lots of cars and passers-by, cafes and shops), then they turn into a poetic presentation of the world of ruins, of the world beyond world, of the world of the title Brzozowa Street. In this film, too, the favourite motifs of Has’s later films are present: a lonely character wandering through empty spaces or the peculiar stage design of ruined houses. Piotr Litka ![]() First Harvest
Pierwszy plon
Poland
1950
/ 21’
A documentary recording the first harvest campaign at the Watchfulness Production Cooperative in Kolnica. In July 1950, a sort of race against time started there. The first harvest campaign was supposed to prove that the newly-established state-owned farm could, on the one hand, manage this immense task, and on the other, convince hesitant farmers (and audiences) to work in a collective. Despite its ideological message The First Harvest remains a film story about a collective effort crowned with a happy ending. Piotr Litka ![]() Harmony
Harmonia
Poland
1947
/ 11’
Medium-length feature debut of Wojciech Jerzy Has and a poetic parable about childhood. Even in this film, one can find the world of objects-symbols so characteristic of the director’s later work: a window or an antiquarian bookshop reminding of an attic with dreams and the motif of the violent collision of imagination and dream with reality. Harmony was not distributed in Polish cinemas. The director was accused of formalism then. The film premiered only in 1981. Piotr Litka ![]() My Town
Moje miasto
Poland
1950
/ 7’
'Cracow – the city of my childhood and my youth. I can see it through the fog of my memories, I can see it as it used to be' this is the beginning of the commentary by Tadeusz Makarczyński to the impression My Town – a nostalgic film return of Wojciech Jerzy Has to places and people from the past. Ghostly, unreal images of Cracow are skilfully combined with feature-like scenes, a story about the city of history, about discovering the world of the past, about an artist maturing. Piotr Litka ![]() Scouts at a Rally
Harcerze na zlocie
Poland
1952
/ 20’
Warsaw. Summer of 1952. Udarniks’ reunion. Has presents the everyday life in a town of tents. He registers preparations for a gymnastics show and the performance itself. The film’s poetics resembles somehow a transmission of a sports event. It is also an interesting record of the Stalinist reality in Poland before the Thaw of October 1956. Piotr Litka ![]() Steam Locomotive PT 47
Parowóz Pt 47
Poland
1949
/ 8’
A report about the Hipolit Cegielski factory in Poznań. Stage by stage, Has shows the construction of a new Pt 47 steam engine. From the designers through various workshops to the finished machine, made in the Poznań factory in only three days. Typical for the 1950s, the report shows the hard labour by the Polish worker and the fruits of his effort. Piotr Litka |
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