The Birch Wood

Film of a state of soul. a man, his brother, his illniss, a piano, a woman. the death. all as a large circle . and the motif for ignore the story for admire images as poem. because it is the picture of a struggle. for define. for feel. for understand. for give sense and name to life. for be, out of rules, expectations, in the most simple way. it is a film who must see. because it escapes to a review. because, in essence, all is so familiar. the performance of Olgierd Lukasziewicz, the look of Daniel Olbrychsky, the imposible love story, the birch wood.as answers to profound desires. so, a remarkable film. about few people. and their manner to build the sense of freedom.

The main character of this movie is Death. Not the impersonated Death, as seen in Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" or in Foss's "All That Jazz", but rather the sorrowful consciousness of human frailty. The main character, a Polish musician (because, as you've already seen, Wajda is Polish) on the threshold of death, tries to find his inner peace in a cottage within the woods. Don't expect action or hype. This is mainly an artsy, European-style movie, whose image and birch forests are strongly reminding of Tarkovsky, especially "Ivan's Childhood". Among all them frantic movies, this movie is a strong, artistic memento mori.