Warsaw 44

Warsaw 44
Film poster
Directed by	Jan Komasa
Written by	Jan Komasa
Produced by	Michał Kwieciński
Starring	Józef Pawłowski Zofia Wichłacz Anna Próchniak
Cinematography	Marian Prokop
Edited by	Michał Czarnecki
Music by	Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz
Release date	2 August 2014 (2014-08-02)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	Poland
Languages	Polish, German
Box office	$ 7,795,076

Warsaw 44 (Polish: Miasto 44, lit. 'City 44') is a 2014 Polish drama war film written and directed by Jan Komasa. It depicts the 1944 Warsaw Uprising during the German occupation of Poland.

In the summer of 1944, the Red Army advances from the east in the direction of Warsaw and the Polish underground Home Army (AK) launches a revolt against the occupiers. A young AK soldier, Stefan (Józef Pawłowski), joins the armed uprising. He loves the nurse Ala (Zofia Wichłacz), but also has feelings for another AK member called Kama (Anna Próchniak). A story of love and friendship unveils during the bloody and brutal reality of the uprising as the resistance is crushed with a massive death toll and most of the city destroyed.

Plot

Stefan is a young activist who assists the Polish Armia Krajowa resistance movement in the Nazi-occupied Warsaw. At work, he hides his gun from an SS officer, Krauss. Together with his friends, he goes out to the countryside where he meets Ala, who has swum out to an island in a lake that she refuses to leave. Stefan is attracted to Ala, who feels the same about him. Stefan joins the AK's Kedyw force, which upsets his mother. Ala comes from a wealthy szlachta noble family and over their opposition decides to go to Warsaw to join Operation Tempest.

When the Warsaw Uprising begins on 1 August 1944, Stefan joins in the fighting, participating in an early local success of capturing a military warehouse. Ala, as "Biedronka" ("Ladybug"), works as a military nurse while another girl forming their love triangle, "Kama", is a dispatch runner. Stefan and Ala declare their love for each other. After he becomes wounded in a disastrous fight during the defense of the Wola cemeteries that has his unit wiped out and soon witnesses his mother and little brother being executed by the SS during the Wola Massacre, Stefan becomes catatonic. Luckily, he is reunited with Ala, who deserts for the sake of Stefan and then repeatedly saves him as the Old Town is destroyed, including surviving a hellish evacuation through the sewer system and a devastating explosion. Meanwhile, the dreaded SS force Dirlewanger is unleashed against the people of Warsaw.

In the Downtown, Stefan recovers from his catatonic shock after Ala passionately kisses him. Ala decides to stay to care for the wounded at a hospital while Stefan joins up with Kama and their surviving friends in a remnant of the Radosław group of Kedyw units in a last stand in the Solec neighbourhood. After Kama is killed by a tank shell, Stefan goes looking for Ala at the hospital overrun by the Dirlewanger. There, he discovers a pile of naked bodies, and is found and spared by Krauss. While Warsaw is being systematically destroyed, Stefan wanders in a daze through burning streets strewn with corpses. He eventually swims out to an island in the Vistula river and sees Ala there. In the film's final scene, the two seem to silently watch a panorama of the city in flames, before Stefan is shown as actually being alone.

Cast

• Józef Pawłowski – Stefan Zawadzki
• Zofia Wichłacz – "Biedronka" (Alicja Saska)
• Anna Próchniak – "Kama" (Kamila Jedrusik)
• Antoni Królikowski – "Beksa"
• Maurycy Popiel – "Góral"
• Filip Gurłacz – "Rogal"
• Tomasz Schuchardt – "Kobra"
• Sebastian Fabijański – "Sagan"
• Michał Mikołajczak – "Aleksander"
• Jaśmina Polak – "Ewa"
• Michał Żurawski – "Czarny"
• Michał Meyer – "Pająk"
• Grzegorz Daukszewicz – "Miki"
• Piotr Biedroń – "Joe"
• Marcin Korcz – "Karol"
• Bartosz Porczyk - "Kędzior"
• Max Riemelt - Johann Krauss
• Monika Kwiatkowska – Hanna Zawadzka

Production

Stalowa Street in Warsaw during the first day of shooting of Warsaw 44, 11 May 2013

Production of the film took almost eight years. Jan Komasa, who wrote and directed the film, stated: "We want to show the Warsaw Uprising to the world" and to "give the Warsaw Uprising its deserved place in world-wide consciousness." Parts of the film were shot on locations around Warsaw, while many of the battle scenes were shot in an abandoned factory in Łódź. The rest of the battle scenes were shot in Walim and Świebodzice in Lower Silesia. As the city of Warsaw was almost destroyed during the uprising, many of the scenes required computer-generated imagery to recreate the Warsaw of old.

Music

The film's score was composed by Antoni Łazarkiewicz. The soundtrack album was released on 19 September 2014 under the music label Warner Music Poland. The album also includes the song "Miasto", performed by Anna Iwanek, Pati Sokół and Piotr Cugowski. The recording was promoted with a music video in which fragments of the film were used. The album charted at 41 on Poland's OLiS.

Release and reception

Warsaw 44 received a pre-release on 30 July 2014 at Warsaw's National Stadium for an audience of 15,000. It was officially released in Polish cinemas on 2 August 2014, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Its first TV broadcast in Germany was on 2 August 2015 by ZDF.

Among other distinctions, the film won the awards for Best Actress, Best Sound and Best Special Effects at the Gdynia Film Festival and two of the prestigious Golden Rooster Awards given by the China Film Association (Best International Film, Best International Director).

See also

• City of Life and Death
• The Sewer

External links

• Warsaw 44 at IMDb