Interrogation (film)
8.4 /10 1 Votes
Director Ryszard Bugajski Music director Danuta Zankowska Country Poland | 8.2/10 IMDb Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller Duration Language Polish | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 13 December 1989 (1989-12-13) Writer Ryszard Bugajski, Janusz Dymek Initial release December 13, 1989 (Poland) Screenplay Ryszard Bugajski, Janusz Dymek Cast Krystyna Janda (Antonina Dziwisz), Adam Ferency (Tadeusz Morawski), Janusz Gajos (Kąpielowy), Agnieszka Holland (Witkowska), Bożena Dykiel (chłopka), Olgierd Łukaszewicz (Konstanty)Similar movies Set in Poland, Movies about communism, Prison movies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interrogation 1
In Stalinist Poland, cabaret singer Tonia (Krystyna Janda) decides to spend the evening drinking with a group of friends. The next morning, she awakes to find that, for reasons unknown to her, she has been jailed as a political prisoner. As prison officials interrogate, torture and humiliate her, she fights for survival and to maintain her innocence by refusing to sign a false confession. As her years of imprisonment pass, her relationship with her captors grows more complicated.
Contents
Interrogation (Polish: ) is a 1982 Polish film about false imprisonment under the Stalinist pro-Soviet Polish regime in the early 1950s. An ordinary, apolitical person heroically refuses to cooperate with the abusive system and its officials, who are trying to force her to incriminate a former incidental lover, now an accused political prisoner. It was directed by Ryszard Bugajski. Due to its anti-communist themes, the Polish communist government banned the film from public viewing for over seven years, until the 1989 dissolution of the Eastern Bloc allowed it to see the light of day. The film had its first theatrical release in December 1989 in Poland and was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, where Krystyna Janda won the award for Best Actress and the film itself was nominated for the Palme dOr.
Despite the films controversial initial reception and subsequent banning, it garnered a cult fanbase through the circulation of illegally taped VHS copies, which director Ryszard Bugajski secretly helped to leak out to the general public.
In Stalinist Poland, cabaret singer Tonia decides to spend the evening drinking with a group of friends. The next morning, she awakes to find that, for reasons unknown to her, she has been jailed as a political prisoner. As prison officials interrogate, torture and humiliate her, she fights for survival and to maintain her innocence by refusing to sign a false confession. As her years of imprisonment pass, her relationship with her captors grows more complicated.
Plot
Tonia (Krystyna Janda) is a cabaret singer in post-World War II Poland towards the end of the life of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. After she performs for soldiers, she is arrested without being told why, and placed in a political military prison to be interrogated. Over a course of some years, she is humiliated and tortured by prison officials into confessing to crimes she did not commit. After failing to sign a document detailing a false confession, she is taken to the prison shower block and locked into a small cage between the floors. The water is turned on and the room is slowly flooded. She is released at the last moment and told to sign the confession form again, which she continues to refuse to do. While in prison, she demands that she sees her husband. One day he visits the prison, but is told by the officials of her alleged infidelities prior to her arrest, and he tells her that he doesnt want to see her again. She unsuccessfully attempts suicide. She develops a romantic relationship with an officer, one of the interrogating prison officials, whom she tells of the absurdity of the system he believes in. She becomes pregnant by him and, like other female inmates, is forced to give up her child for adoption, before eventually being released and reunited with her child. The officer secures her release and her ability to reclaim their child and then commits suicide.
Cast
References
Interrogation (film) WikipediaInterrogation (film) IMDb Interrogation (film) themoviedb.org