Jeden dzieñ w PRL . One Day in People's Poland

Duration: 00:52:00 September 27, 1962. An ordinary day in Poland. 1600 babies are born, 600 people die and the weather is neither good nor bad. And yet, something of note happens everywhere in the country. The police arrest a suspect, the neighbor buys some salt and a man is openly reprimanded for w...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Drygas, Maciej
Institution:Open Society Archives at Central European University
Language:Polish
Published: Debs, Jasques ; Drygas, Maciej ; Talczewski, Krysztof 2005
Poland
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:7978ed12-6281-4152-a842-7c27b81ad741
Description
Summary:Duration: 00:52:00 September 27, 1962. An ordinary day in Poland. 1600 babies are born, 600 people die and the weather is neither good nor bad. And yet, something of note happens everywhere in the country. The police arrest a suspect, the neighbor buys some salt and a man is openly reprimanded for wearing a beret. Creating a complex collage of footage from Polish archives and sound bites of radio recordings along with read-out documents ranging from police reports to citizens' complaints to the authorities, the director presents a nuanced image of everyday life in communist Poland. Now and then, sound and image seem to fit perfectly, and sometimes a striking combination of the two produces a new reality. A police officer reports his experiences of the day; a wife reads a letter to her husband in prison, begging for any sign of life; peasants don gas masks for an atomic alert exercise. Are these fragments 'authentic' historical documents? How much should one believe the tranquil images of life? When does the ordinary become historical? The fragments, following each other in a seemingly arbitrary order, lend the film a rhythm that ripples on, falters and fluctuates again. Just like life itself.
Published:2005