Studio Filmowe Kronika

The history of Poland told through fragments of movies produced by Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych.

The film tells the story of pilots, American volunteers who fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war.

The Ursus factory once covered 170 hectares and employed 20,000 workers, producing 100 tractors a day. Now, its buildings stand derelict and empty; half have already been demolished by investors with new plans. The symphony of mechanical sounds and gestures that is gradually built up throughout the film is produced by former factory employees. Proud of their factory, they reminisce about the huge numbers of people and the parties they had. They were a community, passionate about supporting agriculture through their factory. The Ursus tractor was well-known, not only in Poland but throughout the world.

The film was made at the Polish Sculpture Center in Oransko, during sculpture workshops for deaf-blind people. The camera shows the process of creation, which is closely connected with getting to know oneself. It is accompanied by hesitation, anger and joy.

The first documentary by Wojciech Staroń. He just finished film school, his wife Małgosia just became a teacher. The year is 1997. They decide to go for a year deep into Siberia: she’ll teach Polish, he’ll shoot a film. And this is that beautiful film, narrated in the first person by Małgosia as she meets all sorts of colorful characters and reflects upon reality with her beautiful, monotone voice, seeing the good in people individually and collectively. This is also about her transformation in this travel undertaken in the centuries-old fashion of the observer who, by observing others, observes herself.

An account of Halina Borek's long 52-year search for the grave of her bestially murdered father. Her recollections are accompanied by excerpts from an original film shot during the exhumation of the remains of Polish officers. The film is narrated by archaeologist Zdzislaw Sawicki, who was one of the first to uncover the secrets of the Katyn graves.

A kind of film essay on the life and work of Gustav Herling-Grudzinski. The writer's story about his life is interspersed with documentary footage shot in Naples, where he has lived for thirty years (hence the title), and in Warsaw, during a visit to Poland in 1994.

In 1980, Krzysztof Kieslowski asked hundreds of people the same three questions: what year were you born? who are you? what would you like/what is important to you? From the recorded statements, he eventually selected 44 people and ranked them chronologically, guided by the age of the interviewees: from the youngest to the oldest so that there was one person's statement for each vintage. A gallery of talking heads: from kindergarten children, through schoolchildren, students, engineers, electricians, nurses, priests, writers, sociologists, cab drivers, to pensioners even a hundred years old, made up a collective portrait of a Pole - a keen observer of reality, aware of his identity and the place where he lives, eager for change. A quarter of a century later, Krzysztof Wierzbicki repeated that idea here.

Documentary film about Polish airmen who fought in the British Air Force during World War II. The narrative frame of the documentary consists of excerpts from a mass in one of the churches in London in honour of the airmen. The middle part of the film is a series of interviews with veterans.

The burner bursts with flame, hot air fills the shell, the aerostat soars. In the gondola of the balloon - Norman Davies. He is not looking for strong impressions, inspiration or beautiful views, but for the right perspective. For a historian, according to the film's protagonist, "should distance himself from his object of research. One must not be too close, too emotionally involved. That's why I will look at Wroclaw from a certain height..." Such a perception of Breslau has been sorely lacking in the distant and near past, especially in the past, the twentieth century - the century in which unleashed nationalisms resulted in the bloodiest spasms in the history of mankind.

A censor's tale about the official and unwritten rules of censorship in the People's Republic of Poland accompanied by shots and archival photographs. Their selection and presentation reveal the ironic attitude of the authors towards the protagonist's statements. The film was made in the year of the liquidation of the Main Office of Press, Publication and Audience Control.

A documentary tackling the problem of air pollution in Walbrzych. The film shows the effects of excessive and ill-considered industrialization of the region: the sky covered with smoke, mining waste heaps piling up, burnt buildings, and, above all, the residents exposed to smog from an early age.

The protagonist of the film "Klawisz" is Jan Doliński, a former guard of the Lublin Castle prison, who held his post during the German occupation and remained in it almost until the prison was liquidated in 1954. He was dismissed because he did not want to join the Polish United Workers' Party.

Russians working at the bazaar near the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw talk about their everyday life.

Collective heroes of the film: men, women from across the eastern border. Belarusians, Russians. In Poland they found a chance for a better existence. Many have education, often higher education, but they work on construction sites. Ten hours a day at a time. They are treated as second- or third-class people. They are required to do more than Polish workers, and paid much less. They accept this. They have no choice.

A documentary about the election campaign and the first free elections in Poland in 1990. The filmmakers look behind the scenes of the political game. They present candidates during meetings with voters, document meetings of election staffs and listen to the ‘voice of the street’.

Józef Gębski's film is a documentary reconstruction of the crime committed by NKVD officers against Polish officers imprisoned in Starobielsk and Kharkov in 1940. Accounts of historians and prosecutors are juxtaposed with the testimony of the then heads of the central and regional NKVD board.