Reviews

Pan Tadeusz had a huge impact on Polish audience this year. The film, which was made on a three-million dollar budget, beat all records of popularity in Poland. On the first weekend 420,000 Poles saw the movie. By mid-November more than three million Poles watched Pan Tadeusz in the 130 movie theaters nationwide.

We can expect high popularity level in Lithuania, and, maybe, to some extent in Belarus. But otherwise, the movie will be overlooked and probably discarded by the people who are not familiar with the history of the region, namely, with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the union with Recz Pospolita (The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth).

For Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians this is a movie that brings back poignant nostalgia for the glorious past of the Duchy. For everyone else, it is just another historical ballad, based on the classical poem of Adam Mickiewicz.

The director, Andrzej Wajda, did a wonderful job -- the casting seems almost perfect, the whole organization is very nice, the acting is powerful. Some Polish movie critics predict that the film is going to be nominated for Oscar, but as far as it looks now, it is going to be huge -- but only on a regional scale.

This award-winning movie may become a real eye-opener for overseas audience. Apart from "Saving Private Ryan" American cinematography for the most part ignored the other side of WWII.

"Idi i smotri" shows the German occupation in Belarus through the eyes of a teenager. His village gets burned, his relatives get massacred, he becomes the witness of many other atrocities, joins underground partisan group.

The movie is very similar to "Saving Private Ryan" in that it shows the grim, the real face of the war. Yet it is quite different from Spielberg's masterpiece for it does not really show the happy ending, the way out, but rather leaves the reader to ponder over these tragic days.