Polish Feature Film after 1989

Abstract

CINEMA IN THE LABYRINTH OF FREEDOM: POLISH FEATURE FILM AFTER 1989 “Freedom does not exist. We should aim towards it but the hope that we will be free is ridiculous.”Krzysztof Kieślowski1 This essay is the continuation of my previous deliberations on the evolution of the Polish feature film during socialist realism, which summarized its output and pondered its future after the victory of the Solidarity movement. In the paper “Cinema Under Political Pressure…” (1993), I wrote inter alia: “Those serving the Tenth Muse did not notice that martial law was over; they failed to record on film the takeover of the government by the political opposition in Poland. […] In the new political situation, the society has been trying to create a true democratic order; most of the filmmakers’ strategies appeared to be useless. Incipit vita nova! Will the filmmakers know how to use the...