Your husband's birthday gift? A tape exposing he's been spying on you since the 1950s. Happy birthday indeed.
Joanna and Jan's marriage seems happy. After the birthday party is over, Joanna unwraps the gifts she received. One of them is a videotape with a recording of a regional TV program, during which a historian named Marczak tells about Jan's cooperation with the political police, which began back in the 1950s, by reporting on Joanna's father. At first, Joanna believes in her husband's innocence, but soon becomes suspicious and begins a private investigation.
Acting
Jankowska-Cieślak's silent devastation as her world unravels
Direction
Rosa's claustrophobic framing turns their apartment into a trap
Writing
The screenplay trusts you to connect the historical dots yourself
Director
Michał Rosa
Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak
Joanna Kocjan
Krzysztof Stroiński
Jan Żółwieński
Ryszard Filipski
Mirski
Teresa Marczewska
Hanka
Jerzy Schejbal
Jacek
Jerzy Nowak
Leon
Stanisław Radwan
Iwo
Kinga Preis
Zosia
Alicja Bienicewicz
Ms. Olga
Sławomir Pacek
Jurek
Jakub Bohosiewicz
Lekarz
Ewa Telega
Beata
Zdzisław Wardejn
Man by the Jan's Bed
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film unpacks Poland's 'lustration' debates—public exposure of communist-era informants that tore families apart in the 1990s and 2000s.
Director Rosa deliberately never shows the tape's contents, forcing audiences into Joanna's position of incomplete, agonizing knowledge.
PL
