FILMS > FINISHED >

ORDINARY MARCH

POLISH TITLE: ZWYCZAJNY MARZEC

The title is an allusion to Mikhail Romm’s Ordinary Fascism, a film about the birth of totalitarianism shown only through the images employed by officially approved propaganda that accompanied it. To present the events of 1968 the director used cinema reels from that period, speeches given by Gomułka and Moczar, television and radio programmes exposing ‘the ringleaders of incidents’ and ‘Zionists’ as well as photos taken by the secret services of communist Poland. Live commentary is provided by Adam Michnik, a then-participant of the movement for democracy which developed into Solidarity a decade later.

GENRE:
documentary
COUNTRY:
Poland
RUNNING TIME:
58'
YEAR:
DIRECTING:
Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz
DOP:
Andrzej Adamczak
EDITOR:
Grażyna Gradoń
PRODUCTION:
Studio Filmowe LARGO, Agnieszka Traczewska

Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz »

Director of several dozen documentaries and TV theatre plays who has won numerous awards. She graduated from Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and from Film Directing at the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia. The documentaries "I Am a Man" (1986) and "The Office" (1986) won her renown, in particular the latter one was showered with awards. For years, she has created film portraits of famous Poles, including Leszek Kołakowski, Czesław Miłosz and Jerzy Grotowski. Among her other well-known documentaries were: "Gdańsk Railway Station" (2008) and the biographical documentary "Wiera Gran" (2011). She is a lecturer at the Directing Department of the Film School in Łódź.