Polish films with Jewish themes

[Bonobo]

For the time being I am going to skip pre-war period when many directors, producers and actors were Jewish Poles. Let us focus on post war period.

The first Polish film which shows Jews is Forbidden Songs from 1946. There is a scene with a Jewish girl (played by Zofia Mrozowska) who sings a beautiful song to the residents of a Warsaw tenement house for a few coins. She needs money to buy food for her starving family in the ghetto.

This song is a beautiful ballad but extremely sad- even the Polish Blue policeman whose job was to apprehend Jews out of Ghetto is moved and does nothing, just listens.

[Bonobo]

The next film with Jewish motifs which comes to my mind is Zezowate Szczęście - Curved Luck - with amazing Bogumił Kobiela who plays a Pole suspected by others of being a Jew due to his hooked nose.

Jewish scenes:

-he is mistreated as a "Jew" during "bench ghetto" boycotte at a university before WW2 - watch at 9:30

- takes part in a mixed nationalist and antisemitic manifestation against his real intentions - 24.00

- during the Nazi occupation he is suspected of being a Jew by two Jew hunters who raid his house, however when they discover AK underground stuff in his bag, they leave coz they have come for a hiding Jew, not fighter - at 1:08:00

It is sad and funny at the same time coz the protagonist`s mate urges him to show his penis and thus prove he isn`t a Jew.




pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zezowate_szcz%C4%99%C5%9Bcie

Bad luck - Polish black and white comedy film ( comedy -drama ) [1] [2] from 1960, directed by Andrzej Munk , based on a script by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński [3] .

The protagonist of Zezowatego happiness is Jan Piszczyk ( Bogumił Kobiela ), a conformist trying to achieve public acceptance in the turbulent reality of a quarter of a century of Polish history, from the Sanacja regime to the Stalinist era .

The work of Munk and Stawiński, when it was released in cinemas, caused a stir among critics. On the one hand, the director and screenwriter were attacked for ridiculing the history of Poland, and on the other, the reviewers saw in Zezowaty happiness as a universal parable about the need to maintain one's own subjectivity. Interpretations pointing to Munk's inspiration - inter alia - with Charlie Chaplin's film style and the grotesque of Witold Gombrowicz , multiplied .

The plot

The main character of Zezowatego happiness is Jan Piszczyk. He confides in his past adventures to the warden of the prison he has ended up in and who he does not want to leave. Piszczyk's memories form a series of episodes.

The first episode shows Piszczyk's childhood, spent in the care of a strict father working in tailoring. Humiliated by his father, Jan tries to prove his worth when he starts attending school. It was then that he was promoted on the social ladder for the first time - he became a trumpeter in the scout team. It is also then that he experiences his first life failure, compromising himself during the parade [4] .

In the next episode of his life, Piszczyk becomes a student who is complex because of a prominent nose. By enrolling in a student pro-government organization, he or she gains the opportunity to provide tutoring, and thus also earns earnings enabling him to continue his education. As a tutor he works for a major major, teaching her daughter Jola. One night, however, having lost himself in a crowd of demonstrators - Sanation supporters on the one hand and anti-Semitic nationalists on the other - he starts shouting contradictory slogans. When he gives support to an old Jewish woman in the heat of a demonstration, he is mistaken for a Jew and battered, while losing the chance for further tutoring [5] .

Unable to study any further, Piszczyk tries to establish himself as a military man this time. Receives a vocation card for the cadet school in Zegrze - with the date of his appearance on September 30, 1939. Regardless of the danger posed by the occupant, he reaches Zegrze, where in the deserted barracks he finds a cadet uniform and puts it on. Then he is also captured by the Germans and sent to a prisoner of war camp. However, he is still trying to find himself in a new role, confabulating about his alleged achievements on the battlefield. When his lie is exposed, Piszczyk once again undergoes embarrassment in life [6] .

Disgraced Piszczyk gets a job in an ammunition factory, but is quickly dismissed due to poor health. He comes under the care of his former colleague, Jelonek, whom he once envied with his officer's spurs. Jelonek trades on the black market , drawing Piszczyk into illegal practice. However, Jan does not really find himself in the role of a speculator, so he puts on another mask - he becomes a conspirator in the Warsaw resistance movement. Soon he is unmasked by a friend from a prisoner of war camp and saves himself by escaping [7] .

After the war, Piszczyk got another job. In Krakow, by a twist of fate, he found a job in administration, zealously fulfilling his duties as an official. Climbing the ranks of the bureaucratic machine at the expense of his colleagues, due to their provocation, he is arrested by the Security Office and thrown into prison [8] .

This is where the memories of Piszczyk end, who is released from prison after a few years under the October amnesty . Jan, however, vehemently refuses to be released and is eventually forced out of the prison by force [9] .