Józef Grzeszczak

Przyłbice i kaptury

Tender Spots

The year is 1998 and the world is in an ecological cataclysm: there is shortage of water, environment is polluted and being outside brings high risks. The main character is a tv technician, Jan, an individualist, who is harassed by the conformists. Jan loves Ewa, a ballet student, who in turn is in a liaison with Allan, a successful and powerful man.

The Deluge

During the Swedish invasion of Poland, the brave warrior Andrzej Kmicic, considered a traitor to the nation, fights for a country, redemption and love across the 17th-century Polish territories.

Nights and Days

A family saga of Barbara Ostrzeńska-Niechcic and Bogumił Niechcic against the backdrop of the January Uprising of 1863 and World War I. The film is a rather straightforward and faithful adaptation of a novel by Maria Dabrowska with the same title. The plot is woven around the changing fortunes of a noble (upper-class) Niechcic family in the pre-WWI Poland. There are two main crossing threads: a social history one and an existential one.

Życie na gorąco

Aria for an Athlete

Set at the turn of the century it presents a story of a famous Polish athlete, Zbyszko Cyganiewicz. It begins in a small town where a traveling circus attracts a shy boy into a phony wrestling game to please the crowds. The youth, however, takes his strength seriously, eventually defeating a name wrestler in a fair match. Angered circus manager fires him; he leaves happily due to two wrestler brothers who were harassing him. The wrestler goes on to fame, performing in the world's top arenas, and one day is serenaded by a tenor from the crowd. Fame brings him women and admirers but he is uncompromising on his profession. He has his revenge on one of his tormentors defeating him in the ring. One day, attending a game in a tuxedo, he is challenged by another of the brothers and drawn into a brutal game, in course of which he kills his opponent. Thus his career ends.

Fiasco of Operation Terror

The action-packed historical and revolutionary film about the struggle of the VCHK with the international conspiracy against the Soviet government in Russia in the beginning 20s. On the activities of Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the VCHK, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and at the same time Commissar of Railways. About the work on resuscitation of a collapsed industry, army, railways, to which the Iron Felix attracts (some by threats, some by persuasion) pre-revolutionary intellectuals.

The Nest

Told in flashback as Mieszko lies feverish in his bed just before the Battle of Cedynia, Gniazdo recounts how the revered leader extended Poland's borders, formed an alliance with Emperor Otto I, and ultimately strengthened his country's autonomy by achieving victory during that crucial battle in the year 972.

Fever

The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.

Father of the Queen

Chevalier de Charentes goes to Poland on a double mission.