Second half of September 1939. Lt. Brejer, along with a detachment of his sappers, receives orders to blow up the bridge. The promised explosives do not arrive. So Brejer gets the order to withdraw and reunite with the rest of the division. Along the way, suffering hunger and discomfort along with his soldiers, he joins various divisions, collects survivors and fights. From a German prisoner of war, he finally learns that the Soviets have entered Poland. Finally, he and his men manage to reach his home unit, but that unit has just surrendered to the Germans.
Acting
Wysota's exhausted dignity carries every scene.
Direction
Butrymowicz frames chaos as administrative purgatory.
Director
Jacek Butrymowicz
Kazimierz Wysota
Porucznik Jerzy Brejer
Dorota Pomykała
Kobieta jadąca do Buczacza
Arkadiusz Bazak
pułkownik
Zbigniew Buczkowski
sierżant
Maciej Góraj
Kozdra
Krzysztof Jędrysek
Górski
Gustaw Lutkiewicz
burmistrz
Krzysztof Stachowski
Janik
Józef Nalberczak
major
Aleksander Trąbczyński
jeniec
Artur Barciś
Jehorek
Stanisław Brudny
ksiądz
Andrzej Chichłowski
żołnierz
Jacek Domański
żołnierz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Poland's final communist years, the film's depiction of military collapse carried uncomfortable echoes of 1989's political disintegration.
Virtuti refers to Poland's highest military decoration—awarded for heroism, yet here given to a film about systematic heroism made impossible.
PL
