GENERATION

English description

English title : A GENERATION Original title : POKOLENIE Directed by : Andrzej Wajda With : Tadeusz Lomnicki, Urszula Modzrynska, Tadeusz Janczar, Roman Polanski Poland, 1954, PAL, 1.66 - 90 mn zone 2, black and white, mono Restored numerical master Original polish version, with french subtitles A GENERATION is set in Wola, a working-class section of Warsaw, in 1942 and tells the stories of two young men at odds with the Nazi occupation of Poland. The young protagonist, Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki), is living in squalor on the outskirts of the city and carrying out wayward acts of theft and rebellion. After a friend is killed attempting to heist coal from a German supply train, he finds work as an apprentice at a workshop, where he becomes involved in an underground communist resistance cell guided first by friendly journeyman there who in turn introduces Stach to the beautiful Dorota (Urszula Modrzynska). An outsider, Jasio Krone (Tadeusz Janczar), the temperamental son of an elderly veteran, is initially reluctant to join the struggle but finally commits himself, running relief operations in the Jewish ghetto during the uprising there. On its face, the film is a coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, delivering a brutal portrait of the human cost of war. But as with all of Wajda's films, Polish history and the individual's struggle in the face of crushing political circumstances are just below the surface. In A GENERATION, as in ASHES AND DIAMONDS, the conflict between the communists and the nationalist Home Army, each representing a diametrically opposed view of Poland's future, are set on a collision course. For Stach, his work for the resistance is part of a larger class war and the struggle for communism. It is based on the novel "Pokolenie" by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by KANAL and ASHES AND DIAMONDS. With A GENERATION (1955), Wajda poured out his disillusionment over jingoism, using as his alter ego a young, James Dean-style antihero played by Zbigniew Cybulski, 20-year-old Roman Polanski also featured.