CINEMA AND TV
POLAND
KAMIENIE NA SZANIEC - FILM REVIEW
BY MICHAL
Kamienie na Szaniec’ (which translates into English as ‘Stones on the barricade’) is a 1943 novel by Aleksander Kamiński, describing the activities of ‘the grey ranks’ (Polish underground scout movement) during World War II. The book was banned by the communist authorities in PRL Poland until 1956, but is now an accepted part of Polish literature, studied as part of the school curriculum. The novel was made into a film in 2014, directed by Robert Gliński.
‘Kamienie na szaniec – Stones on the barricade’
The opening scenes in the movie ‘Kamienie na szaniec’ depict swastikas being taken down from buildings to be replaced by Polish flags, letting off smoke bombs at the screening of Nazi propaganda at the cinema, and the breaking of windows displaying the pictures of Nazi leaders.
The young people committing these minor acts of sabotage appear to believe they are doing little more than playing a rather dangerous game of youthful bravado. Even so, right from the start of the film there is an undercurrent of evil oppression, depicted in the rounding-up of random pedestrians, who often end up being shot by firing squads.
The heroes of the film, ‘Zośka’ (Sabat), ‘Rudy’ (Ziętek) and ‘Alek (Szeptycki) are fired up by naïve romanticism. Despite having been inspired by romantic myths, they gradually come to understand that more than ‘a few coins and drops of blood’ are required if Poland’s independence is to be regained. The youngsters in the film have a 21st century feel: their hair is immaculately styled, they take care of their clothes, fall in love and even experience sexual acts. However, the death and horror of war is always in the background, particularly after the capture of Rudy by the Gestapo.
Anyone afraid of going to watch the film and having to sit through extracts of the novel being read aloud will be pleasantly surprised: the film is fast-paced and gripping, the camera of Paweł Edelman with films with realism and sensitivity, and the director copes with his cast of young, little-known actors masterfully. ‘Rudy’ (Tomasz Ziętka) makes for a handsome, sympathetic hero, and the very antithesis of the Germans who torture him mercilessly, whereas ‘Zośka’ (Marcel Sabat) is a well-crafted portrait of a moralizing leader attempting to act as an adult. The dissonance between the stark reality of the situation and the heroic imagination of the youthful partisans is captured in the soundtrack in the hypnotic guitar playing of Łukasz Targosz.
Unfortunately, the depiction of the young resistance fighters in the film has shocked and disappointed some of the surviving relatives. Many of the criticisms appear absurd: that Zośka swears and jumps into bed with girls, that the leadership of the ‘grey’ ranks display insufficient ‘bravery, wisdom and correctness’, that the scouts did not always follow