Przesluchanie (Interrogation, 1982)

If I felt embarassed and outraged by the behaviour of the British police force when imprisoning Gerry Conlon, his friends and family (as seen in 'In the Name of the Father'), perhaps I was being a little presumptuous. It's well known that under the Soviet regime many, many people were falsely imprisoned and tortured by the Stasi and the Communist Party, even for the slightest infringement of Party policy, and in Poland this was perhaps most active. 'Interrogation' tells just such a story, of a Polish singer who suddenly finds herself in prison and all the secrets of her life revealed by her captors in an attempt to link her the anti-Communist activity of a man she once slept with.

At the heart of the film is a stunning and brave performance by Krystyna Janda, who submits herself to all kinds of hardships (even if she was protected by a film crew) to fully portray the harsh treatment prisoners would inevitably undergo. The simple fact that she's a woman automatically makes the film harder to take, particularly as the majority of her keepers and interrogators are men and the threat of sexual abuse constantly lurks in the background. Imprisoned alongside other women, guilty or innocent of a variety of charges, Tonia keeps spirits high by forming a strong sense of community - easy when there's more than half a dozen women in a cell with two beds. There is an openess and warmth amongst the women that reassures us of their predicament. One woman freely admits she took an axe to a man trying to throw her off her land, whilst another woman (played by director Agnieska Holland) has tragically convinced herself of her guilt of espionage, despite her complete ignorance of her involvement at the time.

During the course of the film, this community suffers the strain of interrogation, as various women crumble at different times, often incriminating each other. Tonia is not brave, as we might expect, and makes no attempt to conceal information other than admitting how many times she committed adultery. This honesty, which gets her nowhere, makes it plain to us that she'll never be able to appease her interrogators and will stay longer and longer. Though reassuringly she remains defiant and strong, with only the occasional collapse of faith.

As with 'In he Name of the Father', it's best not to reveal too much of the plot as the bulk of the film's power is its constant ability to renew our sense of injustice and helplessness with each new turn of events. Suitably the film doesn't judge Tonia at any time, much like Holocaust survivors are forgiven the horrors they perpertrated in order to survive. Poland's direct involvement with concentration camps and mass murder during the Holocaust also adds to the power of this film, as we see the country has only been liberated from one enemy by another. Innocent behaviour from the past suddenly becomes an offence under a new regime, and even Tonia's personal sex life is under scrutiny. Her personality as a sexually liberated woman seems to be the main reason she is imprisoned and becomes a focus point for her captors once beyond her 'crime'.

The most remarkable thing worth examining this film is the fact that its director, Ryszard Bugajski, managed to make the film during the very time this regime was still in power. Thanks to a lapse in political power at the beginning of the 80s as a result of the Solidarity movement, Bugajski saw the opportunity to get the film greenlit and very rapidly made it before Marshall Law was reinstated. He tells of how the rushes had to be hidden from the authorities and surreptitiously edited under the belief they would be arrested at any time. Instead it was finished, its script published by an underground magazine and the film distributed illegally on video, which could get you arrested simply for being in possesion of it. Bugajski was forced to emigrate in 1985 and the film didn't receive its official premier until 1989, when Communism was beginning to crumble. During that time it had become a cult classic and is rightly seen as a landmark Polish film (from a country and period that has an embarrassment of riches in cinema).

I definitely urge everyone to further investigate Polish cinema but also this film in particular, which is a stunning piece of work and really leaves you with a different perspective on injustices that still occur across the world today. It makes you very grateful that there were people willing to take these sorts of risks, as well as demonstrating the political power of cinema as rebellion.