“The merriest bunkhouse in the camp”:

Polish comedies

OUR FOLKSOUR FOLKS ( (SAMI SWOISAMI SWOI))

Comedy made in 1967. Director Sylwester Chęciński. Music by Wojciech Kilar.

First part of a trilogy, followed by We are Strong (Nie ma mocnych, 1974) and Love or Ditch (Kochaj albo rzuć, 1977).

Black and white; digital colour version , 2000.

OUR FOLKSOUR FOLKS A story of two displaced

peasant families, the Pawlaks and the Karguls, brought from the East to the “Regained Territories”.

A family feud and a “Romeo and Juliet” plotline.

Slapstick comedy with underlining social satire.

Undying popularity due to witty dialogues.

VABANKVABANK (I and II) (I and II) Directed by Juliusz

Machulski, 1981 and 1984. Music by Henryk Kużniak.

Starring: Jan Machulski.

Criminal comedy set in 1930s.

Focused on a genius safecracker/musician, Kwinto, and his revenge on a treacherous partner/sly banker; “noble robbers” restoring justice.

SexmissionSexmission ((SeksmisjaSeksmisja))

Sexmission made in 1984, director Juliusz Machulski.

Starring: Jerzy Stuhr and Olgierd Łukaszewicz.

Voted by viewers as the best Polish comedy ever.

A sci-fi anti-utopia. Takes place in 1991 and in 2044.

Acute political satire.

SexmissionSexmission An epigraph from

Sławomir Mrożek: “Tomorrow is today, only tomorrow” («Jutro to dziś — tyle, że jutro»).

A post-nuclear war society without men, a feminist totalitarian science-oriented world.

Human reproduction through parthenogenesis.

SexmissionSexmission Two men survive due to

a hibernation experiment.

They are defrosted on March 8 (International Women’s Day), 53 years later.

Escape and start “the return to normality”: the first boy born on December 24.

Sexmission: Sexmission: Political Political subtextsubtext

Oppressive society with military discipline;

Brainwashing;

Bugged rooms;

Falsification of history;

Distortion of reality;

Lies on TV;

Underground dissidents;

Suppression of sensuality and sexuality;

Hatred towards “the other,” an image of an enemy.