Westerplatte is a small peninsula at the entry to the Gdańsk Harbour. Before World War II, it functioned as a Polish ammunition depot in the Free City of Danzig. Its crew consisted of one infantry company and a group of civilians, 182 people in total. It was the only Polish guard-post at the mouth of the Vistula River, with as little as five sentries, one field cannon, two anti-armour guns and four mortars. The first shots of World War II were fired there. This film tells the story of Westerplatte's courageous defenders.
Three women, ex-prisoners of a Nazi death camp, decide to live together after the war.
Three separate stories depicting the tense everyday life during occupation, as seen through the eyes of children. In “On the Road,” the two main protagonists are lost in the September’s strife: a young boy, and a soldier transporting the valueless documents of his broken unit. In “Letter from the Concentration Camp” the story’s protagonists are young boys who help their mother during the hardships of the occupation. Their treasure is an officer uniform belonging their father who is being held in a prisoner of war camp. In “Blood Drop,” the Germans find a set of typical Aryan characteristics in this story’s protagonist – a Jewish girl, hiding in an orphanage.
After the end of World War 2 a division of female soldiers settles down at Recovered Territories and make an oath to never enter into relationships with men, which may prove difficult, because male soldiers have also made their home nearby.
Middle-aged woman tries to cope with the passage of time and aging, as seen by her daughter.
This drama follows a lawyer who, averse to the sound of a barrel organ, changes his outlook upon meeting a blind girl. Based on the short story by Bolesław Prus.
The heroic struggle of Polish post office workers in Gdańsk on the first day of World War II.
Roman Jacenko, a local photographer tries to turn his fortunes around and rob a bank transport.
Set in the time of Napoleon wars, shows how the wars swept over the unfortunate Polish country at the beginning of the XIX-th century. Story revolves around the Polish legion under command of General Dabrowski, who then fought on Napoleon's side with the hopes of Poland's revival.
A lonely Border Guard officer, with a girl and a former villain, has to face a local corrupt Militia commandant and his people in wild Bieszczady Mountains in the Polish East.
A former resistance fighter returns to his hometown after being imprisoned, bent on enacting revenge on the man that sent him behind bars.
The strain of German persecution causes a mental breakdown in a young Jew, which prompts his wife to take desperate measures.
It seems that nothing can ruin Henryk’s (Wieńczysław Gliński) happy life. He’s a respected lawyer with a loving son and wife. One day, he receives a letter from the prosecutor’s office. He’s accused of collaborating with the Gestapo. It’s an echo of his past under occupation.
Szymek, a young man at clash with his home village takes up a job as a geologist and marries a girl whose parents dissaprove of him.
In 1912, Szczebieniew, a rich and ailing old man, comes to Italy with his young wife, Zinaida. Bored with his company, she looks for amusement and casual affairs.
A disqualified trainer of water jumpers starts work in the province, where he discovers Majka's talent.
The dark drama of a peasant family from the second half of the 19th century: Seduced by a municipal clerk (in exchange for a promise to release her husband from military service), the woman dies at the hands of her jealous husband.
The story concerns a succesful writer at the height of his career. He is in a state of crisis, unable to forget the girl he had a brief affair in the 40's. At the promotion of his new book he meets her after the years and reminisces about the past, when he was on a government mission to recover a missing art treasure, a triptych. After the years the girl, now married, barely remembers the whole thing, while he re-examines the affair which he has so much romanticized.
Rumsza, the elderly railwayman, leading a sedate life with his wife, misses his only remaining son (two older boys were killed in the war). Joziuk finally returns from the military in the first scene but with the pregnant Zosia, while Rumsza expected him to marry Celinka, the daughter of Krywka, his only friend and neighbour. The hero will not accept the new situation; he throws his son and Zosia out of his house. Celinka is distressed but she still harbours hope for Joziuk. The birth of the child changes the situation: Rumsza accepts his son's relationship but Celinka decides to leave.
Five short stories.