Andrzej Munk, who was one of the founding
fathers of the Polish Film School, had his career tragically cut short by a car
accident while he was shooting only his fourth feature film; nonetheless, he
managed to leave behind an exceptional body of work as his legacy. Made right
after his wonderful debut feature Man on the Tracks, Eroica remains a
strong competitor to his last completed film, the magnificent Bad Luck, for the title of best work of his short career. This brilliant
satire set during WWII comprised of two segments that, despite their differing
tones and compositions, were joined by their common themes of the
romanticization of heroism. The first was a whimsical tragi-comedy about a
callous, drunken man (Edward Dziewonski) who unwittingly becomes a vital keg in
Warsaw Uprising against Germans by the underground Resistance movement, while
the second was a searing tale of a POW camp where the only thing that keeps the
hopes of the imprisoned Polish officers alive is the legend of a former
prisoner who managed to escape from the hell-hole. The key element that Munk
devised this grand and acerbic satire on was the dichotomy between truth and
perception, and the need for heroism during an otherwise bleak period marked by
war, death, loss, suffering and a sense of hopelessness. Consequently, he
filled the movie with tongue-in-cheek observations, wry and subversive humour,
sardonic wit, and scorching ironies, at the backdrop of grim realism. The stark
B/W photography laced the proceedings with strong sense
of doom and moodiness. The film was interestingly supposed to have a third
story which Munk didn’t eventually go ahead with.
Director: Andrzej Munk
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Black Comedy/Political Satire/War Drama
Language: Polish
Country: Poland
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