Poland, during World War II. Martha Weiss, a Jewish woman, arrives at the Auschwitz extermination camp with her family. She is assigned the role of interpreter, but her loved ones are much less fortunate.
Set during the German occupation of Warsaw during WWII, this musical tells the story of several inhabitants of the same tenement house.
Unvanquished City (Polish: Robinson warszawski, Polish: Miasto nieujarzmione) is a 1950 Polish drama film directed by Jerzy Zarzycki. It was entered into the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.
A social drama that depicts a conflict between a young factory collective and a sympathetic but backward old specialist.
A young teacher educates the peasants and electrifies the village, which the local miller does not like.
Follows the lives of people shortly after World War 2 as they try to adjust to their new lives. Completed in 1946, it was banned from release by the communist government of Poland until 1957 in edited form.
In occupied Silesia, resistance is organizing. In close contact with the miners and led by an engineer, a group of partisans prepare the sabotage of the steel combine. The going will be tough as the place is closely guarded by the Nazis. But despite a denunciation from a traitor and several violent deaths, they get going and the operation is a success. But the Red Army is approaching and now the coal production must not be sabotaged anymore. On the contrary, the partisans must prevent the Germans from destroying the steel mill and the coal mine...
Basia and her aunt live in peace far away from war efforts. One day that peace is shattered when a concentration camp prisoner, a communist activist seeks refuge in their house.
Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko fights for the right to stage his opera "Halka".
Shot in the beautiful scenery of the Tatra Mountains, this sensational drama revolves around a thwarted smuggling of art pieces across the Polish-Czechoslovak border to the West. Highlander Jasiek used to be a smuggler, now he is a soldier of the Border Protection Forces, serving in his homeland, in the Tatra Mountains. Under the influence of the educational work of his superiors, as well as his love for Halka, he becomes a righteous citizen. He contributes to preventing the smuggling of valuable works of art abroad organized by a Polish aristocrat and carried out by a gang.
The first Polish post-war comedy. Witek and Krysia, a married couple, move to Warsaw and have nowhere to stay. They rent a room in a house with many other lodgers. Witek dreams of their own house and draws a sketch of their future home, marking the place where his wife will sleep with the word "treasure". The other lodgers find the draft and a frantic search for the treasure begins.
Battered Warsaw is getting back to life after the WW2 destruction. The ruins of the Old Town become homes once again.
The son of a poor shoemaker dreams of the titular accordion. He is ready to give up his shoes, jacket, and savings in order to get the instrument displayed in an antique shop. The short feature debut of Wojciech J. Has.
A mother is looking for her missing child, with whom she lost contact while in a concentration camp. The film was completed in 1948, but it was banned from distribution by the government, until finally releasing in 1991.
A war drama that tells the story of the discovery of the illegal AL printing works by the Nazis, showing the activities of the left-wing underground in the occupied capital.
Documentary about the hometown of Wojciech Has.
Preparations for a rural folk festival. The shop manager, GS Patyk, quietly resells the goods to a private shopkeeper.
A film dedicated to miners, showing the hardship and risk of working in a mine. Devoid of verbal commentary, it draws its impact from the form: suggestive cinematography close to the pre-war avant-garde, dynamic editing closely linked to music. Brzozowska was accused of formalism at the 1949 Congress of Filmmakers in Wisła, where socialist realism was proclaimed.