STUDENT BOOK [1977]
year:
- 1977
release date:
- 25 V 1981
runtime:
- 94 min
directed by:
- Janusz Kijowski
written by:
- Janusz Kijowski based on the short story
director of photography:
- Krzysztof Wyszyński
cast:
- Krzysztof Zaleski [Józef Moneta], Ewa Żukowska [Maria], Justyna Kulczycka [Daria], Małgorzata Niemirska [Anna], Lucyna Winnicka [Mrs. Marina], Maria Zbyszewska [Moneta’s mother], Wiesława Mazurkiewicz [Maria’s mother], Igor Przegrodzki [the dean], Ferdynand Matysik [a Security Service captain], Zbigniew Lesień [Andrzej], Marian Opania [an editor-in-chief], Erwin Nowiaszek [a film director], Marek Jagoda [Januszek, a journalist]
edited by:
- Irena Choryńska
music by:
- Jacek Bednarek
production design:
- Wojciech Wołyński
produced by:
- Zespół Filmowy „Pryzmat”, Zespół Filmowy „X”
executive producer:
- Zbigniew Tołłoczko
awards:
-
• International Film Forum "Man-Work-Creativity" Lublin 1981: First prize
• Lubusz Film Summer Łagów 1981: the Polish Socialist Youth Movement Award for Janusz Kijowski
• Polish Feature Film Festival Gdańsk 1981: prize for the best male actor in the lead role for Krzysztof Zaleski
• IFF Taormina (Italy) 1981: Bronze Charybdis
About the film
The debut of Janusz Kijowski and Krzysztof Wyszyński; blocked by the censor for four years, the film addresses the events of 1968, or rather their later, often imperceptible, consequences for society. More specifically, it focuses on the individual tragedies of people expelled from university after the March events.
The academic year begins. Several people are missing from the body of students after being expelled following the events of March 1968. Józef Moneta and his colleagues try to negotiate with the dean, but the boy’s hot-headedness results in his expulsion from the university. He struggles with the difficulties of his new circumstances. He finds employment while beginning to write a novel at the same time. Settling down, Moneta tries to maintain his youthful ideals, but it is extremely difficult. One of the last scenes in the film shows him as a teacher throwing the most radical student out of his classroom, who protested against the history curriculum.
Waldemar Piątek, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
Articles
-
Head of Medusa, or realism in films of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety
Marcin Maron
„Kwartalnik Filmowy” – Special Issue 2013: “Polish Film Scholars on Polish Cinema”
