Birth Certificate

Birth Certificate

NR 1961 · 104 min · ★ 7.2 · Drama, War

Three separate stories depicting the tense everyday life during occupation, as seen through the eyes of children. In “On the Road,” the two main protagonists are lost in the September’s strife: a young boy, and a soldier transporting the valueless documents of his broken unit. In “Letter from the Concentration Camp” the story’s protagonists are young boys who help their mother during the hardships of the occupation. Their treasure is an officer uniform belonging their father who is being held in a prisoner of war camp. In “Blood Drop,” the Germans find a set of typical Aryan characteristics in this story’s protagonist – a Jewish girl, hiding in an orphanage.

Directed by Stanisław Różewicz · Written by Tadeusz Różewicz

Your Rating

Cast

Henryk Hryniewicz Janek
Wojciech Siemion Józef
Edward Mincer Zbyszek
Andrzej Banaszewski Heniek
Pawel Rózewicz Jacek
Beata Barszczewska Mirka
Zofia Małynicz Refuge Manager
Barbara Rachwalska Woman from the Forester
Mieczysław Stoor German Motocyclist
Janusz Kłosiński Shop Owner
Barbara Wałkówna
Stanisław Milski Neighbour Ciziak

Make it a double feature

3h 22m together

Birth Certificate

Free City

Both from Stanisław Różewicz.

More from Stanisław RóżewiczSee all →

Glass Ball

Glass Ball · 1972

Five teenagers on the cusp of their final year in high school ponder about their futures.

Difficult Love

Difficult Love · 1954

MovieRomanceDrama

A story of the love affair between Janek Małodworny and Hanka, daughter of the kulak Nalepa. The two love each other, but their happiness is hampered by differences in possessions. To make matters worse, Małodworny is in favor of establishing a cooperative along Soviet lines, while old Nalepa is staunchly opposed.

Pierwsze dni

Pierwsze dni · 1952

An old worker secures the future of his steel mill during the war.

Loneliness of the Couple

Loneliness of the Couple · 1969

Loneliness of the Couple

The film is a psychological study addressing the problem of lack of inner resilience in the face of misfortune. The death of a son, trampled by frightened horses, disrupts the peace and happiness of the family of Pastor Hubina. Mentally broken wife Edyta (Barbara Horawianka) leaves to join her sister in Prague and there meets music teacher von Kschitzky, with whom she returns after some time, entrusting him with teaching music to her daughter Olesia. The teacher is a follower of Nazi ideology and practice. Edith begins to show more and more interest in him, and he ostentatiously seeks her favor.

Postkarten

Postkarten · 1979

MovieDocumentaryAnimation

On colorful German postcards and photos, WW I looks like a great adventure for men. It is enough to compare them with documentary photos describing that terrible period to reveal the whole falsity of the iconographic project of the war.

Nocny gość

Nocny gość · 1990

MovieDramaHistory

In 1456, Francis Villon and his companions attack a merchant in the forest. On the cart they find a girl dead of the plague. They give up the robbery. Villon spends the evening in an inn. He drinks, dances - the fun is interrupted by the arrival of a leper. Only Villon is not afraid to touch him, he treats him as a neighbor. In bed, his lover Gretel complains to the poet that no one wants to marry her....

Place on Earth

Place on Earth · 1960

A teenager finds himself torn after the death of his mother and falls on the wrong side of the law.

Free City

Free City · 1958

The heroic struggle of Polish post office workers in Gdańsk on the first day of World War II.

The Structure of Crystal

The Structure of Crystal · 1969

The Structure of Crystal

Two friends who used to study physics together are forced to make tough decisions as their lives take different paths.

Westerplatte Resists

Westerplatte Resists · 1967

Westerplatte Resists

Westerplatte is a small peninsula at the entry to the Gdańsk Harbour. Before World War II, it functioned as a Polish ammunition depot in the Free City of Danzig. Its crew consisted of one infantry company and a group of civilians, 182 people in total. It was the only Polish guard-post at the mouth of the Vistula River, with as little as five sentries, one field cannon, two anti-armour guns and four mortars. The first shots of World War II were fired there. This film tells the story of Westerplatte's courageous defenders.

The Lynx

The Lynx · 1982

Set during the German occupation of Poland during WWII. A priest in a small village meets a revolutionary who is on an assignment to kill a supposed Nazi collaborator.

Passion

Passion · 1978

MovieDramaHistory

The last days in the life of Edward Dembowski (1822-1846), the organizer of the Kraków Uprising in 1846. The informal leader of the uprising, determined to fight for the unification of Polish lands and the liberation of the peasants, negotiates with other politicians.

Woman in a Hat

Woman in a Hat · 1985

A psychological portrait of Ewa, a young Polish theatre actress searching for her own way in life. She plays a minor role in Jasieński's 'The Ball of Mannequins', a complete opposite of her real personality, while aspires to star as Cordelia in Shakespeare's 'King Lear'. Ewa lives on her own, occasionally visiting a famous old actress to talk about theatre, taking care of a poor neighbor, and fights her sophisticated mother rejecting the truth about her beloved father, who died an alcoholic.

Hell and Heaven

Hell and Heaven · 1966

Hell and Heaven

MovieComedyFantasy

A bus crashes and its passengers find themeselves in the afterlife, which they find has the not only the same set of rules as Earth, but also the same bureaucratic chaos.

Salvation

Salvation · 1972

A biology professor, Adam enters a hospital for observation. He is a loner and a serious-minded man, who dislikes any display of emotions. He spends three months in the hospital while being tested. After observing patients and hospital routines around him from a distance, he learns that he will need a kidney transplant. Meanwhile his personal and professional life is falling apart: he refuses his wife's offer to donate the kidney for him; the scientific problem he was working on has been solved elsewhere. In the end Adam cracks under the prolonged pressure, waiting for the sound of an ambulance bringing a moribund patient whose kidney may be used for the transplant.

God's Finger

God's Finger · 1973

A young man from the countryside fights against all odds to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.

More Like This

The Deer King

The Deer King · 2021

MovieAnimationDrama

Following a brutal war, former soldier Van toils in a mine controlled by the ruling empire. One day, his solitary existence is upended when a pack of wild dogs carrying a deadly and incurable disease attack, leaving only Van and a young girl named Yuna as survivors. Finally free, the pair seek out a simple existence in the countryside but are pursued by nefarious forces. Intent on protecting Yuna at all costs, Van must uncover the true cause of the plague ravaging the kingdom—and its possible cure.

Three Colors: White

Three Colors: White · 1994

Three Colors: White

MovieComedyDrama

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.

Man of Marble

Man of Marble · 1977

A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter · 1955

The Night of the Hunter

MovieCrimeDrama

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

Battle Royale

Battle Royale · 2000

MovieDramaThriller

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon · 1937

MovieAdventureFantasy

British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash-land in the Himalayas, where they are rescued by the inhabitants of the hidden, idyllic valley of Shangri-La. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-La provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway.

Arctic

MovieDramaAdventure

A man stranded in the Arctic is finally about to receive his long awaited rescue. However, after a tragic accident, his opportunity is lost and he must then decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his camp or embark on a deadly trek through the unknown for potential salvation.

The Last Days

The Last Days · 1999

MovieDramaRomance

Romance brings two warring families together in this historical drama. As citizens fight for independence in 1810s Lithuania, Tadeusz, the son of a murderer, and Zosia, a young woman, come together for a wedding against a backdrop of changing politics, ancient traditions, and the uncertain future of a country.

August Rush

August Rush · 2007

MovieFamilyDrama

Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter