Matthew's Days

In this the fourth episode, “Battle of Berlin,” the Soviets start their assault on Berlin, and Stalin negotiates with the other Allies.

A Polish priest arrives at a convent hoping to save the Mother Superior who is supposedly possessed by eight demons.

During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.

At the turn of the century, Lodz, Poland, was a quick-paced manufacturing center for textiles, replete with cutthroat industrialists and unsafe working conditions. Three young friends, a Pole, a Jew, and a German, pool their money together to build a factory.

The story of catholic saint Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Shortly after World War II an American soldier (Norman) and a Polish refugee (Emilia) fall in love. Eventually he will return to the U.S. and both expect that she will soon follow him with her mother. Emilia's mother is sick, but will recover with the right medicine. But the mother, and not Emilia, knows that there will only be one ticket...

In Berlin, Lieutenant Yartsev's infantry and Tzvetaev's battery fight their way in the U-Bahn. Captain Neustroev's company is selected to hoist the Victory Banner atop the Reichstag.

Set during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the story follows Michał, who witnesses the murder of his mother, wife and child and then is hurled into a life that is not his own; a surreal world littered with trapdoors, doppelgängers and wormholes.

A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights.

Three children strike a deep friendship after a chance encounter during World War 2.

Ancient Rome, during the time of Emperor Nero. Vinicius, a young patrician, falls in love with the beautiful Lygia, the daughter of a Barbarian commander who was killed in battle, and wants her for his concubine. For Lygia, a Christian, being a pagan's concubine is a severe sin and disgrace. However, when Vinicius is wounded, Lygia cares for him, and starts to reciprocate his feelings. Vinicius, in return, becomes interested in Christian learning and asks Apostle Peter to teach him. In the meantime, Emperor Nero accuses Christians of having started a great fire in Rome. He encourages the imprisonment, torture and murder of his Christian subjects.

A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.

Set at the turn of the century, the story concerns a Polish poet living in Cracow who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland's 100-year-long division under Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The bridegroom, a painter friend, and a journalist each in turn is confronted with spectres of Polish past.

The action-packed historical and revolutionary film about the struggle of the VCHK with the international conspiracy against the Soviet government in Russia in the beginning 20s. On the activities of Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the VCHK, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and at the same time Commissar of Railways. About the work on resuscitation of a collapsed industry, army, railways, to which the Iron Felix attracts (some by threats, some by persuasion) pre-revolutionary intellectuals.

This heroic story follows the life of Karol Wojtyla, a Polish Roman catholic who ascends the throne of St. Peter as Pope John Paul II. As a young boy, Karol is a bright and talented student. Archbishop Sapieha recognizes the very special, moving qualities Karol possesses and encourages him to consider the priesthood. Although determined to study Polish literature, Karol turns to the church; he is ordained and studies in Italy, France, and Belgium. Torn by fear and repression in post-Stalin Eastern Europe, Karol becomes a poisonous thorn in the communists' side. His deer reverence and commitment return him to Poland as Pope John Paul II.

Told in flashback as Mieszko lies feverish in his bed just before the Battle of Cedynia, Gniazdo recounts how the revered leader extended Poland's borders, formed an alliance with Emperor Otto I, and ultimately strengthened his country's autonomy by achieving victory during that crucial battle in the year 972.

A black-and-white adaptation of one of Bolesław Prus's most widely read short stories. The director faithfully portrays the protagonist against the backdrop of the struggle to reshape the image of the Polish countryside in the late 19th century. We follow the vicissitudes of a poor peasant child who allows himself to seize the opportunities of life.

Rose, an older woman living in Paris was born in Poland as a daughter of an aristocratic family. Her family house is now an impoverished home for the elderly.

Hamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.

In a bucolic Polish hamlet, the tense relationship between a father and son reaches a boiling point when the men lose their hearts to the same woman and vie for her affections. Based on Wladyslaw Reymont's Nobel Prize-winning book and helmed by Jan Rybkowski, this theatrical release (starring Krzystof Chamiec, Wladyslaw Hancza and Emilia Krakowska) was culled from a 13-episode miniseries that aired on Polish television in 1972.

Teenaged Beata, disgusted with hypocrisy around her, runs away from home.

Follows the lives of people shortly after World War 2 as they try to adjust to their new lives. Completed in 1946, it was banned from release by the communist government of Poland until 1957 in edited form.

Two zootechnics students, Jacek and Marek, come to the Bieszczady (it's the Polish "Wild West"). Looking for a holiday adventure and income, they become "cowboys" on local cattle grazing. Instead of the expected romantic adventures and the male, hard life, their boredom is becoming their share. Only when Jacek gets a stallion Szaga, things take a different turn.

A man is tried in court for failing to help his brother to avoid suicide.

"A Meeting in Bajka" tells a seemingly banal story of a marital triangle which bristles with intrigues and psychological nuances as a man, his wife and her lover rendezvous at the Bajce cafe.

A young, idealistic poet, turns his back on civilization and goes to small, backwood village, rents a bed in the house of an old woman, and decides to make his living as a lumberjack. Soon he realizes that the world around him is far from perfect.

Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives.

Set before the first World War in part of Poland under Austrian occupation, the story of a young boy in primary school who later grows up to become a rebellious, poetic-minded teen in the same school when the national movement toward liberation is under way. The story of a country where church and state work together to suppress the human spirit.

The story takes place before World War II and centers on Pawel, a member of a conservative, middle-class family, and his love for Lidka, a taxi dancer. Social conventions and the lovers' inability to defy those forces Pawel and Lidka benefit. Times change, war breaks out, leading to Pawel sent to Auschwitz while Lidka marry his cousin. Their love has survived and conventions are no longer the issue.

In war-ravaged Warsaw, five juvenile delinquents are given probation for stealing, to rehabilitate themselves, but remain under the influence of their profiteer-boss.

Michał, a mature man and father, is full of bitterness, regret, and longing for unfulfilled youthful dreams of true love. He reminisces about all his past lovers. With his first, Asia, he went on a seaside camping trip. He was 19 at the time, and she was two years younger. Despite his unambiguous advances, the girl resisted for a long time. Eventually, however, she gave in. For Michał, it was the proverbial pebble that caused an avalanche.

During the Swedish invasion of Poland, the brave warrior Andrzej Kmicic, considered a traitor to the nation, fights for a country, redemption and love across the 17th-century Polish territories.

En route to London, Bear discovers at the border checkpoint that his passport is missing a few pages, which may prevent him from traveling to the city with the sports team he manages.

Set in Poland in the 1970s, the main character half-heartedly goes about his job as a censor at the state run television station, whilst conducting affairs with nurses, airline pilots, etc. Interesting scene where main character must illegally emigrate to his own country.

Following the emotions associated with entrance examinations to the faculty of pedagogy, Catherine Solska returns to his native village. And here she will surprise - the family without their knowledge to begin preparations for engagement with a rich neighbor Kolasa. Girl falls into despair, tries to oppose the decision of the parents, but is closed in his room. On visits to her fiance and flees out the window calling mail to the university. Receives misleading information and is convinced that was not accepted to college. Resigned returns home and agrees to the wedding. Meanwhile, on the eve of the wedding the postman brings the notice of acceptance to the university.

The Italian soldier Giuseppe Santucci, on his way home from the Russian front has his machine gun stolen in Warsaw. Afraid of consequences, he stays in Warsaw and occupies a flat of the Polish girl Maria, whom he suspects of stealing weapon. Maria indeed is an active member of the Polish resistance, contrary to her brother, Staszek, a painter, who only wants a calm living. In a course of events Giuseppe falls in love and, along with Staszek, becomes a hero of the Polish resistance.

Tadeusz Krzakoski, the director of a failing state-owned company, is married with problems. His mistress, the daughter of a Communist party bigwig, says she's pregnant and Tadeusz knows he'll have to marry her to save his reputation and his job. But divorce is never simple and Bareja's screwball comedies are never boring.

Detective thriller about a killer loose in the crowds. The film follows a sniper on his rounds looking for victims, while a police inspector, with few clues in hand, has to figure out the motive for the killings as well as who the psychopath is and where he might strike next. He uncovers that the mentally deranged sniper can't stand seeing people happy together in public places.

On the night of August 31, 1939, Dolas, from a platoon reinforcing a train station on the German border, falls asleep in a train car and unknowingly crosses into Germany. The moment he shoots a German, who he thinks is a saboteur, the German invasion of Poland begins, and Dolas is convinced it was his fault. He is taken to Stalag POW camp, the first destination in his odyssey around Europe.