Polish Language Blog

Two of the best films on the Holocaust, “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg and “The Pianist” by Roman Polański, both feature exceptional Germans performing noble actions during the second world war. In a similar vein, “In Darkness”, directed by Agnieszka Holland, and Poland’s nominee for the 2012 Oscars, tells the story of a Polish Catholic sewer-maintenance worker who first out of greed, and then out of a newfound sense of duty, saves a group of Jews in the sewage of Lviv. Both films are based on historical facts–with some Hollywood icing.

A new Polish film, “Pokłosie” (Consequences), released few months ago, is different. There is no hero, however unlikely, battling the forces of Nazi evil. And the plot is only vaguely based on the historical facts of a pogrom that took place in Jedwabne in North Eastern Poland in July 1941, when several hundred Jews were burnt in a barn by their Polish neighbours.

The film’s director, Władysław Pasikowski, calls it a thriller, though this does not seem to be the right category for the film. Perhaps its working title, “Kaddish”, the Jewish prayer read by mourners at funerals, would have been a more apposite choice for the title and description of its narrative.

The film describes the attempt made by two brothers, Jozek (Maciej Stuhr) and Franciszek, to break the conspiracy of silence among the residents of the village where the massacre against their Jewish neighbours had taken place. As they progress with their research about the past, the majority of villagers turn against them.

Pokłosie may be the most controversial Polish film ever made, for it touches a raw nerve among Poles: that of past anti-Semitism in Poland and its persistence today. Within days of the film’s release, two Polish weeklies ran covers showing the film’s lead actor, Mr Stuhr. Angora, one of the weeklies ran a photo of the actor with ‘Stuhr you Jew!’ scrawled across it. The headline for the incendiary photo read: “They are attacking Maciej Stuhr for playing the role of the honest Pole”. The front page of Wprost, another weekly, showed Mr Stuhr with a star of David superimposed on his face. The magazine was thus also illustrating the widespread reaction in Poland to the film: that of turning against the actor for personifying a Pole who “sided with Jews” by uncovering what Poles did to them.

Such a type of cover could have appeared in magazines in other countries. In 2008 The New Yorker (disclosure: the author was once a staff writer at The New Yorker) had Barack Obama, the American president, portrayed as a terrorist and his wife Michele as a mujahedeen. The cover provoked strong reactions. But because in Poland political opponents scrawl this sort of graffiti on centrist and left politicians’ electoral posters the message is at best of bad taste.

A third weekly splashed an explicit cartoon on its cover, in which a group of people push the Polish coat-of-arms’ white eagle to the abyss, a stone hanging from the bird’s neck. “This is how Polish memory is destroyed”, explains the headline. “Films such as Pokłosie make the Polish-Jewish dialogue more difficult,” adds a subtitle.

A discussion about the film could be cathartic, but some comments (mostly about the history of Polish-Jewish relations, not about the film itself) in the articles of the three magazines are abominable: “Many [Polish] peasants had nothing to eat during the [Nazi] occupation so stealing from a wandering Jew who often had jewels or cash was a way to enrich themselves.” They even come close to denying the historical facts established about the role of Poles in the massacre that serves as inspiration for Pokłosie: “Until today, who knows what happened in that barn in Jedwabne? The film Pokłosie shows only one version, the most vicious and toughest for us, Poles.”

The attacks on Mr Stuhr relate to the film’s narrative, which is about contemporary attitudes towards past crimes whose factual veracity is not put in doubt by historians of the Holocaust. Anna Bikont, the author of a book “We, from Jedwabne”, wrote a pertinent comparison between the dialogue in Pokłosie and some utterings she heard during her research.

The film’s premier led to a huge wave of internet activity with strong doses of anti-Semitism, mostly pointing to the presence of Jews in the state security apparatus of Communist Poland (the suggestion being that there were good reasons to be anti-Semitic). Many labeled the film “anti-Polish” and therefore refused to see it. The head of the conservative Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński, seemed to agree when he said: “I have not seen Pokłosie and do not intend to see it.”

Even so, some newspapers and magazines published serious discussions of the film, praising the director for having the courage to approach such subject matter and the actor for playing the role. Andrzej Wajda, a famous Polish film director, endorsed it. A company monitoring the web (www.sentione.pl) found that when anonymous commentators post their opinions about Mr Stuhr they are overwhelmingly (78%) negative, while on Facebook and Twitter (where authors identify themselves) the same subject attracts 72% of positive chatter. In other words, anti-Semitism still exists, but by and large anti-Semites are not showing their ugly faces in public.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

I remember this cartoon from my childhood! The two characters – that children all around Poland know and whose stories they read and watch – have been created in Bielsko-Biała. Of all the animated series, “Bolek and Lolek” was number one among all-time favorite animated cartoons long time ago.

The names of the two characters comes from real Polish names – and are simply theirs abbreviation. Bolek stands for Bolesław, while Lolek stands for Karol. As probably it would be very hard to remember these abroad, the cartoon was distributed as Jym & Jam and Bennie & Lennie. The two characters were based on the sons of Władyslaw Nehrebecki (their real names: Jan and Roman). They were at first partially created by Alfred Ledwig to be developed by Nehrebecki himself together with Leszek Lorek. In the series Bolek and Lolek are simply two young brothers who experience silly adventures, spending a lot of times outdoors.

Bolek and Lolek appeared for the first time in animated film in 1964. Since then they entertained Polish kids. The movie was also displayed abroad where it gained popularity – for example it was one of few animated films broadcasted by Iranian television just after revolution in 1979.

Most of the episodes do not have any dialogues. On request of the audience there has been a new character added to the series – a girl named Tola that appeared in the total amount of 30 episodes.

There has been large quantity of toys, puzzles, postcards etc. produced with depiction of Bolek and Lolek. As the fashion for old movies comes back – especially that children that have been brought up on ‘Bolek and Lolek’ became parents and popularize the series among young generation – even small children nowadays watch or read stories of Bolek and Lolek.

What can I say about this series? Surely it would fit for your children as well. As it does not have the dialogues – in most of the cases – translation would not be needed. It might be not educational cartoon, such as there are created nowadays, but it has no violence and does not promote any bad habits. Bolek and Lolek are innocent – sometimes naughty though – kids from whom your own kids can learn how to have fun!

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

This year marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the death of one of cinemas most charismatic, glamorous and exotic actresses. Someone who, despite very humble beginnings in her birth country of Poland, rose to prominence and became a beloved icon worldwide: Miss Pola Negri.

She was born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec on January 3rd 1897 in Lipno. Her mother Elenora Kelczewska was the daughter of impoverished Polish royalty and her father was of Slovakian descent.

Pola was left an only child after the deaths of her two siblings and grew up very much a loner, preferring her own company to that of anyone else.

Her father, Jerzy was the owner of a factory that produced tin (which Elenora had used part of her inheritance to buy). However, his true cause lay with political activism, which eventually resulted in his imprisonment and abandonment of his family – something which Pola carried with her as a scar for the rest of her life.

After this horrible event life took a turn for the worse for Pola and her mother, two businesses that Elenora had plumbed the last of her money into failed to thrive and a move to Warsaw failed to help their fortunes either. They lacked money for food and for furnishing their home – let alone for fripperies like car warranties or fuel to run even the most rudimentary vehicle.

It was here that fate and luck played a part in helping them. Pola was a naturally graceful girl – and a very adept dancer. Whilst playing in the street one day she was spotted by two people who sang in the Polish Opera and they offered her the chance to try out for the Polish Imperial Ballet. Pola took the opportunity with both hands, though was incredibly nervous on her first audition, having to run out to be violently ill!

She made her debut in Tchaikovsky’s “SwanLake”, though poor health put an abrupt end to her life as a ballerina as she contracted tuberculosis. She knew though, that something in the arts was what she was destined for and made a vow she would carry on in some way no matter what.

Pola made her film debut in 1914, in a film which also happens to have the distinction of being the first feature film ever made in Poland, called “Niewolnica Zmyslow” (Slave to Her Senses). She worked for the Sphinx Film Company, owned by Alexander Hertz, and was purported to be working shooting scenes during the day and then rushing off to perform in the theater at night, such was her demand and talent.

By 1917 and at the tender age of nineteen she was taken to Germanyto work for the Deutsches Theater, and it was from here on in that her career really took off. During this time she met the film director Ernst Lubitsch who was working for a company called UFA who just happened to be Germany’s leading film studio. Lubitsch recognized something in Pola and she was cast in an opulent drama called “Die Augen Die Mumie Ma” (The Eyes of The Mummy) in 1918. Her most remembered film role from this time was in “Madame Du Barry”, a lesson in not only Pola’s talent but one that broke down social and political barriers. This was the motion picture that halted the ban on post war German films in Americaand made a star of her and Lubitsch across the world. By 1922 Pola was signed to Paramount Studio, and about to embark on a life of extreme public presence.

Of course, Pola wasn’t the only European star to be taken over to Hollywoodat this time. Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich are probably just the most widely known – with Pola more or less forgotten these days, despite her having the longest and some would say greater artistic career.

Unfortunately, very few of Pola’s silent films are online. However, this short clip from her film “A Woman Of The World” shows indeed what a beauty she posessed, and not only that, what an incredibly engaging, sultry performer she was.

This clip of her is from “A Woman Commands” and shows her in an early sound role from 1932. It seems strange to finally hear her in all her glory but at the same time it’s such a treat. She had an incredibly powerful voice, one that would have been very well suited to lieder and the ilk, as you can see from this clip:

While many other film stars from the silent and early sound era had faded and died, or disappeared into obscurity, Pola did not. She may not have been as well known by the 1960s, but she was still working hard and acting. At the age of sixty seven (as she was in this clip from a film she made with the British actress Hayley Mills called “The Moonspinners”) she still looked so very beautiful, poised and elegant.

Her romances and her private life were often talked about as much as her work in cinema and theater. She had two unsuccessful marriages, one to Count Eugieniusz Dambski which lasted from 1919 to 1922 and then to Prince Serge Mdivani from 1927 to 1931. The latter marriage more than likely came on the rebound from her very public and highly charged relationship with The Sheik himself, Mr Rudolph Valentino.

The two had, according to Pola, been engaged to be married – this was despite him still being married to his wife Natasha Rambova at the time. The one thing Pola is probably best remembered for outside of her film making is her very public display of grief at his funeral after his untimely death in 1926.

Pola never got the chance to be a mother despite becoming pregnant during her second marriage. The resulting miscarriage put an end to both the relationship and Pola’s dreams of becoming a parent.

She worked consistently through the 1930s and 1940s and made one last film in 1964, long after many other actresses of the silent era had fallen from grace. After that, she lived in peaceful retirement – though took some time to write her autobiography “Pola Negri – Memoirs of a Star”.

Pola died in 1987 in San Antonio, Texas at the ripe old age of 90 years old. A true Polish star, who should never be forgotten for all she did and who never forgot her roots.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)