The Promised Land (film)

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Movie
German title The promised land
Original title Ziemia obiecana
Country of production Poland
original language Polish , German
Publishing year 1974
length 179 minutes
Rod
Director Andrzej Wajda
script Andrzej Wajda, based on the novel by Władysław Stanisław Reymont
music Wojciech Kilar
camera Witold Sobociński , Edward Kłosiński , Wacław Dybowski
cut Halina Prugar-Ketling , Zofia Dwornik
occupation

The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana) is a film directed by Andrzej Wajda and shot in Poland in 1974 . It is based on the novel of the same name (1897–1898) by the Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature Władysław Reymont . The first screening of the film took place on February 21, 1975 in Warsaw . The first performance in the Federal Republic of Germany was on December 13, 1976 on ZDF, in the German Democratic Republic on September 2, 1976.

action

The film is set in the up-and-coming textile industry city of Łódź at the end of the 19th century. The city has been shaped by the coexistence of Poles, Germans and Jews and has become a place for industrialists and speculators. During this time the Pole Karol , the German Maks and the Jew Moryc also decide to build a factory. With inside information about the cotton exchange that Karol receives from a factory owner's wife, they can close a deal and thus significantly improve their start-up capital. The factory is inaugurated with the usual festivities. However, the factory owner, whose wife cheated on him with Karol, sets fire to the factory in revenge, and it burns down completely. Since the three friends have not taken out insurance due to financial difficulties, they are left with no means.

The different cultures that existed in the city at that time and competed economically with one another are shown not only by the main actors, but also by the side events. The occasional use of short German phrases in the actually Polish-language film indicates the influence of the German industrialists in what was then Łódź.

The film is set at the height of industrial capitalism and shows the social conflicts and contradictions that arise using the example of the textile industry in the part of Poland annexed by Russia. While the factory owners indulge in luxury, the factory workers live in poverty. The only value for the manufacturers is the increase in their profit and the representation of their own wealth. Right at the beginning of the film, the harsh working conditions and the focus on profit are staged as opposites. The employee von Horn tries to help a widow who has lost her husband in an industrial accident in the Buchholtz factory and is reprimanded for this by the factory director Karol Borowiecki . Von Horn justifies himself with the fact that he is not a machine, but a person (“Nie jestem maszyną, a człowiekiem”). But Borowiecki replies: “At home, but your humanity is not required in the factory” (“Domu, aw fabryce nie wymaga się od pana człowieczeństwa”). In a later scene, Borowiecki has an accident at work in which a worker has lost his arm and apparently dies. He hesitates briefly, but then asks the workers: “To the machines” (“Do maszyn”).

Reviews

  • Film-dienst wrote: “An epically broad social panorama, often glaringly naturalistic and unfolded in an excessive style. Even if the director's criticism sometimes overshoots the mark, his opulently equipped film is also an expression of a convinced commitment to the oppressed. "
  • Monthly magazine Kino 1974, No. 12: "Wajda seems to be completely moved by the untamed vitality, the energy, the enterprising spirit, the unlimited lust for life and love of the three young protagonists of the 'Promised Land'" - wrote Tomasz Burek. - "(...) In fact, it shows much more clearly than Reymont described it, the lack of content in her life, concealed by the dynamic infantilism and automatism of making 'big money' at any price."

Awards

literature

  • Alice Bachner: The Promised Land . In: Filmstellen VSETH & VSU (Hrsg.): Science Fiction. - Andrzej Wajda. Documentation 1990. Association of Students at the University of VSU, Zurich 1990, pp. 41–47 (with bibliography)
  • W. St. Reymont Lodz. The promised land . 1915 u. ö. (German)
  • The promised land . Supplemented German edition, Leipzig 1984

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Promised Land. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ culture.pl ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.culture.pl