Cinema
Eroica
Andrzej Munk · 1958
Synopsis
Two war stories. In the first, during the Warsaw Uprising, Dzidziuś Górkiewicz, a resourceful coward who has fled the city, finds himself against his will an intermediary between the Polish command and Hungarian officers stationed near Warsaw, ready under certain conditions to help the insurgents. In the second, Polish officers imprisoned in a camp at the foot of the Alps live by their pre-war hierarchy and by the legend of Lieutenant Zawistowski, the only one who has escaped.
Context
Written by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński from his own stories, photographed by Jerzy Wójcik, the film bears the subtitle “heroic symphony in two parts”, Scherzo alla polacca and Ostinato lugubre, an ironic allusion to Beethoven's third symphony. Shot in 1957 and released at the beginning of 1958, it provoked a lively debate in the press, part of the critics reproaching its author for calling the heroic attitude into question. It received the international critics' prize at Mar del Plata in 1959 and was released in France on 26 September 1990.
Who it is for
About eighty minutes in Polish, in two distinct parts: a caustic comedy, then a dark narrative.
Prizes and reception
A classic of the Polish film school, and one of the most biting satires of national heroism.
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