mpadjasek

The film "The First Circle" is an adaptation of the famous novel of the same title by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I myself come from Eastern Europe (Poland) and remember the times of communist dictatorship, so I liked the novel "The First Circle" very much. In my opinion, the film is not perfect and does not live up to the novel, but it is an important historical document of its era and is worth seeing. The problem of science that can serve authoritarian regimes and evil purposes is, after all, timeless. The film doesn't quite succeed in creating an authentic and claustrophobic atmosphere of the USSR, but the moral dilemmas are real. The international team of filmmakers can be considered a weakness that weakens the authenticity, but on the other hand, it is very interesting. For example, director Aleksander Ford is the author of the biggest hit in the history of Polish cinematography, "Knights of the Teutonic Order", and Elzbieta Czyzewska is a famous Polish star of the 1960s. They were both forced to leave Poland in 1968 as a result of a shameful and mindless campaign against Polish citizens of Jewish origin unleashed by the communist authorities, which brought irreparable losses to the country. For me, this fact gives the film "The First Circle" even more power as a protest against the authoritarian regime.

I really liked the movie "Scarborn", even though the events depicted there have nothing to do with the life of Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Tadeusz Kosciuszko is, of course, an American and Polish hero who, as a military engineer, rendered invaluable service to the American Revolution. On May 5, 1798, before leaving the United States for France (already after the collapse of the Polish Insurrection), he made a will. It clearly stated that all his American wealth was to be used to buy back Black slaves from bondage and provide them with an education so they could function independently in society as free people. He wanted them to receive tools and land. Not only did Kosciuszko lead the armed uprising against Tsarist Russia in Poland, but he was also a pioneer advocate for improving the status of peasants as a step towards equality for all classes. The film "Scarborn" is a gripping thriller, but it raises critical questions about our past and present, and not only in Poland. I myself am a descendant of peasants who were once treated in Poland in a similar way to Black slaves in America. I really liked the scene in which Ignac Sikora (Bartosz Bielenia) and Domingo (Jason Mitchell) show each other the scars on their backs. The film ends with the question of what happens next. Every country has its dark side in the past, but let's not judge people by the color of their skin, social class, or nationality. We can forget about what was bad in the past and work together to improve our lives. If we look around, neither the USA, Poland, nor the EU is the worst place in the world today.

I watched the Slovak film "The Red Captain" because of the main role played by Maciej Stuhr and because, as a Pole, Slovakia is a neighboring country where I sometimes spend my holidays. The film started very interestingly and was a bit like "Gorky Park" from 1983. The action of "The Red Captain" takes place in Bratislava in 1992, in the last months of the existence of Czechoslovakia. I liked the visual side of the film, in which everything looked shabby, which roughly corresponds to my memories of Poland from that period. The film's use of instability, chaos, and uncertainty about the future as a backdrop for the investigation also resonated with me. The acting was good in my opinion, and you could feel the influence of the Czech film school of the 1960s, so "Red Captain" clearly has ambition and is not typical thriller. The biggest weakness of the film for me was the complexity of the plot, and it was not exciting enough to keep me in suspense. The characters in the film also seemed too indistinct and lacking in individuality. But overall I think that "Red Captain" is an interesting and worth watching film.