News Out From The Frying Pan

A reportage created by a well-known duo of documentary filmmakers - Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski. The men and their Polish Film Chronicle crew went to Armenia. Breathtaking, mountainous landscapes and historic cities remembering the first centuries of our era – it makes us aware of the importance of the area.

Three stories about life problems, each rooted in contemporary reality through newspaper reports and a “Polityka” magazine survey, crafted by documentarians Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski.

This film criticizes various types of vandalism and behavior that is socially harmful: people spitting on the street, housewives wasting water, teenagers destroying sockets, passengers storming buses without paying attention to others, pedestrians devastating greenery in the city. Are you one of them?

A staged documentary that started the Polish Black Series. The film takes the form of a warning against indifference to the rogue behavior of hooligan groups and their pernicious effect on young people flowing into the cities.

Strangers on a train. Late in 1916, a brave and idealistic Russian officer in his 20s comes to his superiors' attention when he stands up to Rasputin at a nightclub. He's asked to carry important papers from Petersburg to Stockholm by train in the dead of winter, a dangerous mission. The first-class carriage may be full of spies, and soon after the train embarks, the man in the next compartment searches Obozow's luggage. A beautiful stranger approaches him, a woman older than he, on a concert tour; a game of cat and mouse ensues with patriotism and emotion sometimes on opposite sides. Can Obozow consummate the affair, reach Stockholm, and maintain his ideals?

A famous surgeon is beaten by drunken bullies, loses his memory and cannot recollect who he was before. He gets to a village, lives in a not so well to do family and becomes the Quack - he slowly regains his talent for medicine and saves the lives of several village patients.

During the Swedish invasion of Poland, the brave warrior Andrzej Kmicic, considered a traitor to the nation, fights for a country, redemption and love across the 17th-century Polish territories.

Havana, 1961. After the success of the Cuban revolution, the city was no longer just a capital of nightlife. The city was changing for the benefit of the local population: it opened beaches, built blocks of flats, guarded the coast.

A report from a student’s festival in Kraków. The history of this event dates back to the 15th century in Poland. Statues and knights at Wawel remain unmoved until they fall into the rhythm of joyful fun.

A documentary impression from the capital of the Tatra Mountains. All the winter attractions of Zakopane rhythmically presented by the camera: sleigh rides, skis, dances, sunbathes, bonfires. Visit Zakopane!

In 1668 Polish colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, who recently retired to a monastery, is recalled to active duty and takes charge of Poland's eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies.

A look at the horse races at the famous track in Sluzewiec, Warsaw.

A documentary impression in color showing the attractions of the Łowicz region. With curiosity, the camera captures scenes from a fair and an amusement park. The atmosphere of the place is created by artists wearing national costumes, especially women from Łowicz in colorful skirts.

As the Germans invade Poland Jewish Ruth and her mother are trapped by the oncoming Nazis. When they are loaded onto a truck for transportation to a ghetto, Ruth is told by her mother to jump from the truck at the first chance and to make her way to relatives in Warsaw. While the war progresses Ruth tries to survive and grow up.

At the end of World War Two, Polish people move to the western lands vacated by Germans. But some ruthless profiteers pose as government representatives and intend to make off with loot from a deserted town they took over. One honest man stands up against them because he believes these goods belong to the people.