POLISH FILM ACADEMY

It is 1905. A chemist makes a bomb commissioned by Polish Socialist Party conspirators. A young girl named Kama comes to collect it. Shortly afterwards, the chemist is arrested. Meanwhile, Leon, a freedom fighter, is released from captivity. Party comrades liberate him during his transport through the streets of Warsaw. He secretly visits his family home. His father, who is more conciliatory in his approach to politics, cannot understand his son and his methods of dealing with Russian oppression.

Hiding at Kama’s, Leon establishes contact with the Polish Socialist Party Fighting Organization. Later, he goes to the countryside to organize a peasant militia. He designs an attack on the Russian Governor-General, who is to appear at the Warsaw charity bazaar. Kama agrees to throw the explosive. Elegantly dressed, she walks through the bazaar with a bomb in a box decorated with a bow. She is accompanied by Leon and Kamil, a fighter. The General does not arrive. After this shocking experience, Kama goes mad and is placed in a psychiatric hospital. Leon hides the bomb in the countryside, in the house of a peasant named Kiełza, who is a member of the Socialist Party. Soon, he goes to Krakow. The revolution ends. The terror intensifies. After returning to Warsaw, Leon tries to convince Kamil that, despite everything, combat operations shoud be resumed. Kamil, however, blames him for the madness of Kama and, out of hatred for his former friend, reports him to the authorities. Wojtek Kiełza brings the bomb to Warsaw. He wants to find his Socialist Party comrades and take part in a military action. By chance, he meets a handcuffed Leon in the street. In the end, he falls victim to a provocation. During the investigation, he refuses to reveal where he has hidden the bomb and is sentenced to death. While waiting for the execution, he entrusts his secret to an anarchist named Gryziak. After his release, Gryziak finds the bomb. He kills the provocateur who denounced Kiełza and is arrested for it. In the building of the Russian Okhrana, he throws the bomb. The explosive does not go off. Outraged gendarmes kill Gryziak. Tsar sappers take the bomb to the Vistula and detonate it there.

Joanna Piątek, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996