Studio Filmowe KRONIKA

The history of Poland told through fragments of movies produced by Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych.

In the 1970s, plaques commemorating four generals, commanders of the Home Army—Michał Tokarzewski, Stefan Grot Rowecki, Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, and Leopold Okulicki—were placed in St. Hyacinth's Church in Warsaw's Old Town. The film presents little-known fragments of their biographies.

Krzysztof Wierzbicki, the director’s assistant on ‘First Love,’ found the film’s protagonists decades later and went with a camera to Canada, where they lived. He shot ‘Horoscope’ (2000), which confirms Kieślowski’s initial prediction from 1974. Ewa — the girl we saw being born in ‘First Love’ — did have a daughter when she was 20 years old. Once again, the reality lent the dramaturgy to the film.

Henryk Greenberg is a Polish-born American who lost much of his family in the Holocaust. Certain of the location where his father and younger brother were murdered, Greenberg returns to find most of his former neighbors predictably claiming foggy memories at first; but soon their recollections come more easily.

Collective heroes of the film: men, women from across the eastern border. Belarusians, Russians. In Poland they found a chance for a better existence. Many have education, often higher education, but they work on construction sites. Ten hours a day at a time. They are treated as second- or third-class people. They are required to do more than Polish workers, and paid much less. They accept this. They have no choice.

A documentary about the election campaign and the first free elections in Poland in 1990. The filmmakers look behind the scenes of the political game. They present candidates during meetings with voters, document meetings of election staffs and listen to the ‘voice of the street’.

About Catholics exiled to Kazakhstan from Germany, Poland, and Ukraine during Soviet times.

The first documentary by Wojciech Staroń. He just finished film school, his wife Małgosia just became a teacher. The year is 1997. They decide to go for a year deep into Siberia: she’ll teach Polish, he’ll shoot a film. And this is that beautiful film, narrated in the first person by Małgosia as she meets all sorts of colorful characters and reflects upon reality with her beautiful, monotone voice, seeing the good in people individually and collectively. This is also about her transformation in this travel undertaken in the centuries-old fashion of the observer who, by observing others, observes herself.

The protagonist of the film "Klawisz" is Jan Doliński, a former guard of the Lublin Castle prison, who held his post during the German occupation and remained in it almost until the prison was liquidated in 1954. He was dismissed because he did not want to join the Polish United Workers' Party.

A documentary portrait of Anna Kulczycka. After her husband's death, she became a custodian of the collection of carpets and rugs created by the Kulczycki family. The protagonist tells about the complicated history of the collection, about the relationship between her and her husband and about their common interests. She presents the treasures of the collection.

A kind of film essay on the life and work of Gustav Herling-Grudzinski. The writer's story about his life is interspersed with documentary footage shot in Naples, where he has lived for thirty years (hence the title), and in Warsaw, during a visit to Poland in 1994.

Poetic tale about Kazimierz Dolny, a town by the Vistula river - true pearl of Polish urban architecture - told by its dwellers, historians Tadeusz Pałka and Tadeusz Michalak.

A censor's tale about the official and unwritten rules of censorship in the People's Republic of Poland accompanied by shots and archival photographs. Their selection and presentation reveal the ironic attitude of the authors towards the protagonist's statements. The film was made in the year of the liquidation of the Main Office of Press, Publication and Audience Control.

The film tells the story of pilots, American volunteers who fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war.

The burner bursts with flame, hot air fills the shell, the aerostat soars. In the gondola of the balloon - Norman Davies. He is not looking for strong impressions, inspiration or beautiful views, but for the right perspective. For a historian, according to the film's protagonist, "should distance himself from his object of research. One must not be too close, too emotionally involved. That's why I will look at Wroclaw from a certain height..." Such a perception of Breslau has been sorely lacking in the distant and near past, especially in the past, the twentieth century - the century in which unleashed nationalisms resulted in the bloodiest spasms in the history of mankind.

The Ursus factory once covered 170 hectares and employed 20,000 workers, producing 100 tractors a day. Now, its buildings stand derelict and empty; half have already been demolished by investors with new plans. The symphony of mechanical sounds and gestures that is gradually built up throughout the film is produced by former factory employees. Proud of their factory, they reminisce about the huge numbers of people and the parties they had. They were a community, passionate about supporting agriculture through their factory. The Ursus tractor was well-known, not only in Poland but throughout the world.