To quote the late Terry Patchett (1948 - 2015) who once said: "It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.", and it is here, within the celluloid walls of Prognoza pogody that we see exactly this; A tale of Life.
This is early nineteen-eighties Poland, where the old and infirm are seemingly cast aside within the confounds of an old-peoples' home, it is with these same elderly inhabitants' that have experience of the worst atrocities for both country and its war-generation; this is a country that has been in the cross-fire of major political and social reforms for many decades which has seen its people suffer from the likes of Nazi rule, Communist regime, the "Polish road to socialism" and its, in the later years, workers' protests in the nineteen-seventies. Writer Marek Nowakowski (1935 - 2014) and director Antoni Krauze (1940 - 2018) have bought the tale of Polish history up-to-date in this 1983 film Prognoza pogody.
In the onset of a harsh winter, a somewhat dilapidated building is housing a bleak and grey group of meek senior citizens that fear the worst when they witness a collection of coffins being delivered to their abode in under the cover of darkness. On this premise of certain death, they flee in the night and set-off for dear-life into a world of uncertainty. This fleeing to uncertain safety is more than a contradiction in itself, but a pure and simple reflection on life and the tide of death that waits for no man. Prognoza pogody is a life affirming experience and this bizarre, and at times surreal, journey of life is a road trip that turns the tide of foreboding and brings about a spiritual transcendence of nostalgia and deeper thoughts of achievement and regret. The wilderness of the Polish landscape brings memories of youthful times and the loving reflective escapade of bygone years brings the viewer feeling empathy with these older generation of Polish history. Their zeal for rejection of the final curtain is tantamount to what they have craved and fought for during their lifetimes.
The unique sound of an old eastern European soundtrack is given by Mr. Zbigniew Preisner and with the Cinematography of Mr. Krzysztof Pakulski and the film being shot entirely in an environment of rough fields, cold streams and hostile waiters and heroin addicts, and more importantly, a growing and rebirth of a new Poland that contrives and sets the old against the new that gives this self-efficient troupe a charming respect for a Polish heritage that still, after its varied and illustrious background, holds onto the flow of life's qualities flashing before their eyes.
