Andrzej Wajda - Our awareness of the war (12/222) скачать в хорошем качестве

Andrzej Wajda - Our awareness of the war (12/222)

To listen to more of Andrzej Wajda’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Andrzej Wajda (Film director)   Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016), whose début films portrayed the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes which established his reputation as storyteller and commentator on Polish history. He also served on the national Senate from 1989-91. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki] TRANSCRIPT: It's worth taking a moment to recall that our awareness of what was happening was very slight; this would largely explain people's behaviour during the occupation. September 17 didn't register with us at all, because together with our mother we escaped, as I've already said, to a small village close to Kazimierz on the Vistula. The chaos and the total lack of orientation of the Polish army, what happened the blow, the dreadful blow, was also a terrible blow to our hearts, we boys regarded the army as invicible. This wasn't just propaganda - we really believed this. How was it possible that the army could suddenly be retreating in such panic, for there to be such disorganisation, and for everything to have disintegrated in, I'd say, such a short time? Later, this was a deep, I'd say, it turned into a deep complex in the war films I was to make. It was acutely painful for me that this happened so suddenly because after all, this was the army my father represented. What happened, what had occurred? This is why 17 September just didn't register with us because we had no communication and we only found out about it when we returned home and got a letter and some money from my father brought to us by a soldier from Szepietówka, then we learned he was on the other side, imprisoned by the Soviets. We found out what happened on 17 September, but we didn't really know what that meant because we didn't understand the Bolshevik order which was completely beyond us. Hence the lack of awareness, people being kept unaware, was, well, the result of the lack of free communication. It's true that people wrote all kinds of things, and today, when this correspondence written during the occupation comes to light it's astonishing how people wrote about so many different things, that if the Germans had monitored these letters, they would have had more control over the things that were occurring in Poland. However, they had enough control to disorganise any sort of life. Of course, I myself distributed and received pamphlets telling us that London, France, England were all getting ready and that they wouldn't allow us to perish. However, these were, so to speak, empty promises, whereas reality was as it was. We imagined that this disaster would soon be reversed, that things can't be like this, that this wouldn't last eternally, that the war will be over within a few months and so there was no point in making any particular preparations. We managed to get through the winter and by the spring everyone was saying that a knight on a white horse would come and rescue us. Years later, that was to be Anders. Now though, everything would simply turn back, the war would end. I think this moment was very significant because it enabled us to survive the first few months: it was a disaster, but the disaster would turn into a speedy victory over the Germans. The longer it lasted, the more clearly we began to see that we were deluded and that this delusion was growing greater. Maybe the greater this delusion, I'd say the greater the need to be doing something else, it was an inner need. By painting flowers or still life or landscapes, I was entering a different world and this world could no longer do as much harm because it was no longer so troublesome.