Polish Cinema. A Citizen and the Security Service Cover Image

Polskie kino. Obywatel a służba bezpieczeństwa
Polish Cinema. A Citizen and the Security Service

Author(s): Krystyna Duniec, Joanna Krakowska
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Polish cinema; Security Service of communist Poland.

Summary/Abstract: Feature film as a historical source is frequently underestimated, while despite its artistic ambitions and openly subjective narration it should be recognized and analyzed as a valuable source of knowledge about the past. The article presents wide contexts and detailed insight into the ways how The Security Service of communist Poland and its relations with ordinary people have been represented and interpreted by the Polish cinema. Surprisingly enough we can learn a lot about methods, activities, surveillance, interrogations and tortures of the secret police during almost any period of Polish history from films made both before and after 1989. Polish films concerning the problem of the Security Service theory and practice could be analyzed according to three different orders: an order of representation, an order of dramatization and an order of updating, which refers directly to the problem of lustration and coming to terms with the past.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 77-78
  • Page Range: 223-243
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Polish