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Visions of the true winner. Tomasz Wolski Next he will focus on “A year in the life of the country.” Variety can exclusively reveal.
The Polish director, whose latest film “In Ukraine”, co-directed with Piotr Pawlus, premiered in Berlin, will explore the turbulent period of martial law, imposed on December 13, 1981 by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in communist Poland after a wave of strikes.
Anna Gawlita will produce for Kijora Film.
“It is an issue that we have not yet analyzed. These are very important stories, often tragic, and he was convinced that, unlike the case of ‘1970’ (his previous film about the brutal repression of workers’ protests), he would have almost too much material to work with. “I wasn’t wrong,” he says.
In the upcoming film, Wolski will depict the turmoil that followed, with soldiers controlling cities, imprisoning Solidarity members and officials trying to discredit Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa. He will also show the events that led to his introduction.
“For me, Poland’s martial law was intended to stop a revolution. It was like that old trick of gluing the spokes together, when this particular bike was on its way to freedom. People began to rebel and speak, it was the ‘Carnival of Solidarity’. And then everything stopped.”
“A year in the life of the country”
Courtesy of Tomasz Wolski
Once again drawing on archival material, Wolski, who recently joined the Jihlava panel Illuminating the Shadows of Everyday Life and Intimacy alongside Peter Forgacs and Lucie Králová, was not afraid to cover well-known events.
“I’ve always been ‘playing’ with files. In ‘An Ordinary Country’ I added new images, in ‘1970’: stop-motion animation. This time I wanted to treat the footage as if it were free jazz. The soundtrack will also reflect that,” he notes.
“I approach all my films in exactly the same way: I don’t know anything. It’s true: I was never interested in history, it bored me to death. I’m only now catching up, so everything surprises me.”
Including Jaruzelski’s infamous televised speech, which now also includes errors.
“It’s a shame that the people who were recording it started so late and then turned it off so quickly. Thanks to those small moments in which we see him confused or lost, he is no longer that inaccessible figure. He is just a man.”
“A year in the life of the country”
Courtesy of Tomasz Wolski
Making the film allowed Wolski to talk about “communist Poland in general,” he says.
“Apart from the fact that there was a curfew and you couldn’t drink vodka or walk down the street at night, I started looking for scenes that could convey the sadness of those times.”
Or its absurdity.
“In a way, it’s a comedy. To a certain point, because then it turns into horror. I wanted to make fun of that situation, make fun of the fact that suddenly, the military was everywhere. And then I found a scene where these ‘soldiers’ were together, watching a cartoon. “You couldn’t invent something like that.”
In addition to focusing on ridiculous situations (with concerned citizens stocking up on live chickens when faced with empty store shelves), Wolski will also show the brutality of that era.
“The whole last act of the film will be quite difficult. I allowed myself to include a long sequence in which you can see the cruel application of these laws. “If I was just sarcastic, I wouldn’t show the whole story.”
It is a story that will surely be very current, also after the recent elections in Poland. One of its protagonists was caught asking: “How do you see the future in Poland?”
“This question is always relevant,” says Wolski.
“This film is also about a divided Poland. About the people who supported what was happening and those who protested against it. I think it shows that we have been divided for many, many years. “Not just us, it’s happening everywhere.”
“I wanted to include this question because I felt no one would dare ask it back then. After the events I show here, we moved in the direction of democracy and no one could have imagined that this regime would return, this time with a different mask. So what will come next? It’s hard to know.”
