Review by Gary Tooze

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• Making Of... (20:41)

Other extras without English subtitles - (21:12) (12:51)

The cover, booklet and extras are in all Polish only (unknown)

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Description: One of the biggest Polish production in recent years, watched by over 1.7 million cinema goers! Director Jan Komasa realized Miasto 44 with a flourish - a universal story about love, courage and sacrifice set during the Warsaw Uprising. Stefan (Jozef Pawlowski) and Ladybug (Sophia Wichłacz) meet and fall in love at first sight. But it is not given to them long to enjoy your relationship. August 1st, 1944, along with friends placed under the command of a charismatic Cobra (Tomasz Schuchardt). Stefan and Ladybug are brave and believe in the cause, as they journey past bloody trails of fire, and the face of horror and cruelty of war, in an apocalyptic setting their burning city. Miasto 44 is not a film about politics. It is a film about love, youth and courage. Miasto 44 has been honored with awards at the 39th Film Festival in Gdynia in the following categories: Best Leading Actress, Best Special Effects and Best Sound. Audio for the deaf has prepared Foundation for Culture Without Barriers.

 

 

Miasto 44 tells the story of young Poles destined to enter adulthood in the cruel days of German occupation. Despite the war raging around them, they are full of life, passionate and impatient, living as though each day was their last.

The main protagonist, Stefan (played by Józef Pawłowski) looks after his mother and younger brother after his father, a Polish Army officer, died during the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Stefan works in the Wedel chocolate factory and finds it increasingly difficult to bear the humiliation he suffers at the hands of the Nazis at every turn. When the opportunity presents itself, he joins the underground Polish Home Army, encouraged by Kama (Anna Próchniak), a childhood friend and next-door neighbor. Kama is secretly in love with Stefan. But it is a subtle and sensitive girl named Biedronka (played by Zofia Wichłacz) who becomes Stefan’s first love. But then the Warsaw Uprising breaks out.

The uprising was staged by the underground Polish Home Army in an attempt to drive German forces out of Warsaw before the approaching Red Army entered the city. During the fighting, which lasted for 63 days, about 16,000 Polish soldiers were killed or went missing, 20,000 were wounded and 15,000 were taken prisoner. As a result of air raids and artillery shelling as well as harsh living conditions and massacres staged by German troops, anywhere between 150,000 and 200,000 civilians died.

Although it takes place in a city during a war, Miasto 44 tells the story of people, not of armies or barricades. The filmmakers say the movie is not intended as an argument in the ongoing debate in Poland about whether or not the decision to stage the uprising was the right one. “The film aims to convey emotion and not weigh up arguments or reveal the secret workings of decisions made 70 years ago,” the filmmakers say. “That’s the job of historians… Miasto 44 is not a film about politics. It is a movie about love, youth and battle.”

Excerpt from The Warsaw Voice located HERE

Despite not being a masterpiece, the film is worth spending two hours to watch it. You may be captivated by it or not, but it does a great job of giving testimony of one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the history of mankind without resorting to disproportionate martyrdom. And finally, although during the last thirty minutes the depiction of carnage is grisly, the last scene, with special effects falling into place, makes up for all previous flaws of the film and renders without a glitch how the last days of the Warsaw Uprising looked like. As my grandparents confirm, the glow of burning capital was visible in late September 1944 even thirty kilometres away from the blaze.

Excerpt from Student-SGH Blog located HERE

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