Pokolenie (1955)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Andrzej Wajda

Writers:

Bohdan Czeszko (novel)
Bohdan Czeszko (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 January 1955 (Poland)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Story of youths during the German occupation of Poland in the World War II who come to adulthood through love and adversity.

Plot Keywords:

Youth | Nazi Occupation | Uprising | Suicide | Nazi Occupied Poland

Cast

Tadeusz Lomnicki	...	Stach Mazur
Urszula Modrzynska	...	Dorota
Tadeusz Janczar	...	Jasio Krone
Janusz Paluszkiewicz	...	Sekula
Ryszard Kotys	...	Jacek (as Ryszard Kotas)
Roman Polanski	...	Mundek
Ludwik Benoit	...	Grzesio
Zofia Czerwinska	...	Lola
Zbigniew Cybulski	...	Kostek
Tadeusz Fijewski	...	German Guard
Zygmunt Hobot	...	Abram
Cezary Julski	...	Coachman
Bronislaw Kassowski	...	Speculator
August Kowalczyk	...	Priest
Jerzy Krasowski	...	Wladek

Also Known As:

A Generation

Runtime:

83 min | Argentina:96 min

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Warsaw, Poland

Company:

Zespól Filmowy "Kadr"

Trivia:

Acclaimed British director Lindsay Anderson considered it his favorite film.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Andrzej Wajda: On Becoming a Filmmaker (2005) (V)

Surely not the viewing experience it once was

Hard not to view this film with the benefit of hindsight when - for example - the final image, of faces almost tangibly seeing the light of a new tomorrow, is apparently so straightforwardly propagandistic; scenes such as that in which the older workman talks reverently about the promise of Karl Marx now seem at best quaint. That's probably not an entirely fair prism through which to consider the film, but the theme of anti-Nazi resistance obviously becomes less stirring when one considers the limitations of what's being put forward as the alternative. Furthermore, although the movie's gritty, shadowy pace generally makes for entertaining viewing, there's a fairly consistent series of images which seem to push too hard - the heart-shaped photo slot at the fair through which we watch as she steps away from him; the Hitchcock-like fall through the well of the spiral staircase. The movie's pace and concentrated immersion in its time and place makes it engrossing, and the earnestness and deprivation are still touching, but it's surely no longer the viewing experience it once was.