Zakazane piosenki (, ''Forbidden Songs'') is a 1946
Polish musical film directed by
Leonard Buczkowski
Leonard Buczkowski (5 August 1900 – 19 February 1967) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He directed 23 films between 1928 and 1966. His 1959 film '' The Eagle'' was entered into the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.
Sele ...
. It was the first feature film to be created in Poland following the six years of
World War II.
The film, set during the
German occupation of Warsaw during the war, tells the story of several inhabitants of the same tenement house.
Their stories are loosely tied together by a set of songs, both pre-war ballads popular during the war and war-time popular songs mocking German occupation (''
Siekiera, motyka'').
The film's
premiere took place on 8 January 1947 in the newly reopened
Palladium cinema in Warsaw. The film proved to be highly popular and more than 10.8 million people watched it in the following three years – twice the usual average attendance in post-war Poland.
In 1948 the film was
re-edited and re-released in a new version, with more focus on
Red Army's role as the liberator of Poland and the main ally of post-war Polish
communist regime, as well as more grim outlook of the German occupation of Warsaw and German brutality in general.
Main differences:
* place of Roman Tokarski's (main character) narration:
** 1947 edition—a film studio,
** 1948 edition—a flat. A former soldier of
Polish Armed Forces in the West often blunders when Tokarski tells about
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...
.
* boy singing song against Germans in tram—song ends with words ''Śpiewać się nie boję, bo mnie nie zrozumią te przeklęte gnoje.'' (Polish ''I'm not afraid to sing, because those damn bastards won't understand me''):
** 1947 edition—boy escapes. When a
German officer is shouting ''Ja rozumie! Ja rozumie! Gnoje to my, Deutsche!'' (broken Polish ''I understand! I understand! Bastards are we, Deutsche!''), all passengers laugh,
** 1948 edition—German officer shouts ''Halt!'' Boy tries to escape, but he is shot by German soldiers.
*
German policeman at Tokarski's home:
** 1947 edition—policeman begins to play piano,
** 1948 edition—policeman tries to force Tokarski's mother to play the
Deutschlandlied, beats and pushes her.
* soldiers of
Polish resistance at home of
Volksdeutsche
In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of ''volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sing ...
Maria Kędziorek (Marie Kentschorek):
** 1947 edition—they shot her,
** 1948 edition—movie suggests that they have shaved her head.
* a scene in which a blind accordionist is killed by
Polish policeman, was added in 1948 edition.
However, as the farcical plot and all-familiar songs were mostly free of ideological subtexts, the film remained popular in the decades to come and some of its songs re-emerged in slightly modified form during the
1980s martial law and struggle against the Communist rule.
The film remains well-known and popular even in modern Poland,
being screened by the public
Polish Television
Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s.
Since ...
(TVP) on a regular basis. Both editions have been published on DVD in Poland, by the Propaganda label, first the 1947 one, as-is, and later the 1948 one, in a digitally restored version.
Cast
*
Danuta Szaflarska
Danuta Szaflarska (; 6 February 1915 – 19 February 2017) was a Polish film and stage actress. In 2008 she was awarded the Złota Kaczka for the best Polish actress of the century. Szaflarska participated in the Warsaw Uprising as a liaison. Sz ...
as Halina Tokarska
*
Jerzy Duszyński as Roman Tokarski
*
Jan Świderski as Ryszard
*
Janina Ordężanka
*
Jan Kurnakowicz as Cieślak
*
Stanisław Łapiński
Stanisław Łapiński (25 September 1895 – 26 January 1972) was a Polish film actor. He appeared in more than 20 films between 1931 and 1966.
Selected filmography
* ''Każdemu wolno kochać'' (1933)
* ''Pieśniarz Warszawy'' (1934)
* ''P ...
*
Zofia Jamry as Maria Kędziorek
*
Konstanty Pągowski
*
Józef Maliszewski
*
Hanna Bielicka
*
Alina Janowska
Alina Janowska (16 April 1923 – 13 November 2017) was a Polish actress. She appeared in more than 35 films and television shows between 1946 and 2017.
Biography
Janowska was born in 1923 in Warsaw into a wealthy family. She was arrested ...
*
Zofia Mrozowska
*
Leon Pietraszkiewicz
*
Czesław Piaskowski
* Stanisława Piasecka
*
Bronisław Darski
* Helena Puchniewska
* Ludwik Tatarski
*
Kazimierz Wichniarz
Kazimierz Wichniarz (18 January 1915 in Posen(now Poznan) - 26 June 1995 in Warsaw) was a Polish film and theatre actor. In 1974 he starred in the Academy Award-nominated film ''The Deluge'' under Jerzy Hoffman.
He is interred at the Powązki M ...
*
Jarosław Skulski
*
Edward Dziewoński
*
Henryk Szweizer
*
Feliks Żukowski as Jurek
*
Henryk Modrzewski
*
Henryk Borowski
Henryk Borowski (14 February 1910 in Płock - 13 November 1991 in Warsaw) was a Polish theater, radio and film actor.
*
Stefan Śródka
*
Igor Śmiałowski
*
Zdzisław Lubelski
*
Artur Młodnicki
*
Adam Mikołajewski
*
Maria Bielicka
* Bolesław Bolkowski
* Janina Draczewska
*
Andrzej Łapicki
Andrzej Łapicki (11 November 1924 – 21 July 2012) was a Polish film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1947 and 1999. He was married twice. His first marriage to Zofia Chrząszczewska lasted from 1947 to her death in 2005. He then mar ...
*
Wanda Jakubińska
*
Kazimierz Dejunowicz
* Marian Dąbrowski
*
Witold Sadowy
References
{{Reflist
1946 films
Polish war films
1940s Polish-language films
Polish musical films
1946 musical films
1940s war films
Polish black-and-white films
Polish World War II films
Films about Polish resistance during World War II