A boy comes of age under an oppressive, cruel socialist government and watches as it slowly but surely distorts his family, his school and even his own thoughts.
Direction
Marczewski turns bureaucratic spaces into psychological horror.
Acting
Tomasz Hudziec's dead-eyed transformation is genuinely chilling.
Writing
Dialogue so loaded that silence becomes the only escape.
Director
Wojciech Marczewski
Teresa Marczewska
Girl guide
Marek Kondrat
Tutor
Zdzisław Wardejn
Inspector
Teresa Sawicka
Mother
Marian Opania
Zbyszek
Jerzy Bińczycki
Onion, Polish language teacher
Bogdan Koca
Druh, tutor
Zygmunt Bielawski
Director of the training center
Bogusław Linda
UB officer
Małgorzata Dobrowolska
Małgosia
Mieczysław Łoza
Policeman
Ferdynand Matysik
peasant
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the final years of Polish communism, the film circulated in samizdat circles before official approval—audiences reportedly walked out shaking.
Marczewski based the 'shiver' tic on actual interrogation techniques used on Polish youth; the physical manifestation of ideological infection was his invention.
PL
