POLAND
www.polart.com was very helpful in constructing the list of movies on Poland
Poland:
Piast Dynasty (9th century - 1305):
Stara basn. Kiedy slonce bylo bogiem (An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was a God) (2003) -- 9th century in what became Poland; inhabited by numerous Slavic tribes
Gniazdo (The Cradle) (1974) -- Mieszko I and the Battle of Cedynia, 972 A.D.
Boleslaw Smialy (aka King Boleslaus the Bold) (1972) -- 1079, struggle between the king of Poland, Boleslaus the Bold (reign 1076-1079), and the Bishop of Cracow; the Polish Becket
X I lancieri neri (Charge of the Black Lancers) (1962) -- set after the Mongol-Tartar invasion of Poland and the Battle of Legnica (1241), lost by High Duke of Poland, Henry II (1238-1241)
Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir the Great) (1976) -- a Piast king of Poland (1333-1370) who doubled his country in size (mostly through addition of lands in the Ukraine)
Jagiellon Dynasty (1386-1572)
Krzyzacy (Black Cross; Knights of the Teutonic Order) (1960) -- under Ladislas II (1386-1434), defeat of the Order of Teutonic Knights of Prussia by the Polish and Lithuanians at Battle of Grunwald (1410)
X Barbara Radziwillówna (Love or a Kingdom) (1936) – Sigismund II, Augustus I, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (reign 1530-1572)
X Epitafium dla Barbary Radziwillówny (An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill) (1983) – Barbara in 1547 married Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund II August
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1574-1795):
Zelazna reka (The Iron Hand) (1989) -- story of right-hand warrior to Stefan Batory, ruler 1576-1586, of the noble Hungarian Báthory family; one of the greatest elected Kings of Poland
The Deluge: Serious Weakening of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword) (1961) Cossacks vs. Poles; first part of a trilogy set in mid-17th century
Taras Bulba (1962) -- Cossack life in the Ukraine
Potop (The Deluge) (1975) -- second part of the trilogy; Swedish army invades Poland and a warrior fights for the heart of Olenka
Clouds of War -- second half of the 17th century
Pan Wolodyjowski (Colonel Wolodyjowski) -- third part of the trilogy; Turkish invasion of Poland
Hrabina Cosel (Countess Cosel) (1968) -- the countess, the favorite of King August II the Strong (1697-1706), fights for her right to marry the king, who is the father of their children
Pan Tadeusz (2000) -- Poland's attempt to free itself from Russian rule in pre-Napoleonic times
Partioned Poland: 1795-1918
Napoleon (2003) -- Poland seeks help from Napoleon against its oppressors
Popioly (Ashes) (1965) -- history of Poles fighting for the independence of their partitioned country under the Napoleonic flag
Impromptu (1991) -- novelist George Sand and composer Frederic Chopin
Chopin: Desire for Love (2000) -- ditto above
Mlodosc Chopina (Youth of Chopin) (1952) -- the great Polish music composer
Polish Resistance to Russian Domination
On the Banks of the Niemen (1986) -- 1863 uprising against Russian occupation
Wierna Rzeka (Faithful River) (1936) -- tragedy of the Polish January 1863 uprising
Noce i dnie (Nights and Days) (1975) -- family saga set in period after the failure of the January 1863 Uprising
Turn of the 20th Century
Goraczka (Fever) (1981) -- turn of 20th century: revolutionary fervor, struggles for independence, and the birth of anarchism and political terrorism
Ziemia obiecana (Promised Land) (1975)-- three industrialists build a textile factory and encounter problems with the overworked, underpaid workers
World War I (1914-1918)
Austeria (1983) -- a group of Jews flee from the Cossack army in Polish Galicia
Second Polish Republic (1922-1939)
Smierc Prezydenta (Death of the President) (1978) -- assassination of Gabriel Narutowicz, 1922
Zamach stanu (Coup D'Etat) (1980) -- autumn of 1925 to the military coup in
Poland by Marshal Jozef Pilsudski (May 1926) to the Brzesc Trial (1931)
World War II
To Be or Not to Be (1949) -- occupied Poland; Jack Benny
Agent #1 -- chronicles the history of Polish soldiers fighting in WWII through activities of real-life Polish spy and war hero Jerzy Szajnowicz-Iwanow
A Generation (1954) -- 1st in trilogy of Polish resistance
Kanal (1957) -- 2nd in trilogy; Warsaw uprising in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1944
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) -- 3rd in trilogy; Polish film of Resistance movement in Poland during WW II's closing days
The Pianist (2002) -- Jewish survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising
Samson (1961) -- partly set in the Warsaw ghetto uprising
Eroica (1958) -- uprising in the Warsaw ghetto
Ulica Graniczna (Border Street) (1949) -- uprising in the Warsaw ghetto
X Zasieki (Barbed Wire) (1983) -- Soviet-backed Polish forces bravely battle the Germans in the Battle of Lenino, October 1943
X Die Flucht (March of Millions) (2007) – the brutal expulsion of Polish Germans from Poland by the advancing Red Army nearing the end of the war (currently unavailable)
Sekret Enigmy (Secret of Enigma) (1979) -- Polish contribution to the breaking of the German enigma code in WWII
Polish Fight for Independence from the Soviet Union
X Podróz do Moskwy (1999) – Poland and the Soviet Union and Stalin
X Mala Moskwa (Little Moscow) (2008) -- a love story set in 1967, Legnica (headquarters of the Soviet forces in Poland ), comprising a Soviet enclave closed to outsiders
Czlowiek z marmuru (Man of Marble) (1977) -- in Poland, criticism of Stalinist Realism of Nowa Huta, a new socialist city (followed up by Man of Iron)
Czlowiek z zelaza (Man of Iron) (1981) -- Solidarity labor movement that helped the Poles push for Polish independence from the Soviet Union (follow up to Man of Marble)
To Kill a Priest (1988) -- Catholic priest Jerzy Popieluszko allies himself with the Polish Solidarity movement
X Popieluszko: Wolnosc jest w nas (Popieluszko: Freedom Is Within Us) (2009) -- The Solidarity Chaplain killed by the Soviets (currently unavailable)
X Karol, un uomo diventato Papa (Karol: A Man Who Became Pope) (2005) -- from 1939 German Invasion to almost through end of Soviet Occupation of Poland
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