Volker Schlondorff has directed a gripping account of the slow progress of the worker's movement in Poland over roughly 20 years, from the discontent of the Sixties to the open rebellion of the Eighties, eventually led by Lech Walesa. The Lenin shipyards in Gdansk are filmed to look appropriately forbidding--the accident that claims the lives of 21 workers in 1970 is very well staged. The cynicism of the Party bosses, the apathy and drunkenness of the workers and the passion of Agnieszka, the crane operator who provides much of the impetus for change: these things are brought out vividly.
Katharina Thalbach gives a fine performance as the worker who's not going to take any more, Andrzej Chyra is very good as Walesa and Pope John Paul II puts in an appearance via news footage.
Katharina Thalbach gives a fine performance as the worker who's not going to take any more, Andrzej Chyra is very good as Walesa and Pope John Paul II puts in an appearance via news footage.