Kanal (1957)

Director:

Andrzej Wajda

Writers:

Jerzy Stefan Stawinski (screenplay)
Jerzy Stefan Stawinski (story)

Release Date:

20 April 1957 (Poland)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

September, 1944. It's the 56th day of Warsaw's uprising against the Nazis. The third Platoon of the Resistance is down to 43 heroic men and women...

Plot Keywords:

Warsaw Uprising | Sewer | Uprising | Ruins | Escape

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Teresa Izewska	...	Stokrotka
Tadeusz Janczar	...	Ens. Jacek 'Korab'
Wienczyslaw Glinski	...	Lt. 'Zadra'
Tadeusz Gwiazdowski	...	Sgt. 'Kula'
Stanislaw Mikulski	...	Smukly
Emil Karewicz	...	Lt. 'Madry'
Vladek Sheybal	...	Michal 'Ogromny', the composer (as Wladyslaw Sheybal)
Teresa Berezowska	...	Halinka
Zofia Lindorf	...	Old woman looking for her daughter
Janina Jablonowska	...	Woman
Maria Kretz	...	Wounded Woman
Jan Englert	...	Zefir
Kazimierz Dejunowicz	...	Capt. 'Zabawa'
Zdzislaw Lesniak	...	Maly
Maciej Maciejewski	...	Lt. 'Gustaw'
Adam Pawlikowski	...	SS Man
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ryszard Filipski	...	Polish Soldier (uncredited)
Wladyslaw Kowalski	...	Polish Soldier (uncredited)
Kazimierz Kutz	...	Insurgent at Canal (uncredited)
Ewa Wisniewska	...	Girl giving water (uncredited)
Tomasz Witt	...	Polish Soldier (uncredited)

Directed by
Andrzej Wajda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jerzy Stefan Stawinski		screenplay
Jerzy Stefan Stawinski		story

Original Music by
Jan Krenz

Cinematography by
Jerzy Lipman

Film Editing by
Halina Nawrocka

Production Design by
Roman Mann

Set Decoration by
Leonard Mokicz

Costume Design by
Jerzy Szeski

Makeup Department
Halina Ber	....	assistant makeup artist (as H. Turant)
Halina Sienska	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Stanislaw Adler	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Anita Janeczkowa	....	assistant director
Kazimierz Kutz	....	first assistant director (as Kazimierz Kuc)
Janusz Morgenstern	....	assistant director
Maria Starzenska	....	assistant director

Art Department
Halina Dobrowolska	....	assistant production designer (as Halina Krzyzanowska)
Roman Wolyniec	....	assistant production designer
Ignacy Gaworkiewicz	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)

Sound Department
Józef Bartczak	....	sound
Roman Branski	....	sound assistant
Józef Dabrowski	....	sound assistant
Adam Okapiec	....	sound assistant

Camera and Electrical Department
Czeslaw Grabowski	....	assistant camera
Andrzej Gronau	....	assistant camera
Antoni Tabak	....	lighting technician
Jerzy Wójcik	....	camera operator

Music Department
Adam Pawlikowski	....	musician: ocarina

Other crew
Tadeusz Bierczynski	....	production assistant
Zbigniew Brejtkopf	....	production assistant
Arkadiusz Orlowski	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Zespól Filmowy "Kadr"

Distributors

• P.P. Film Polski (Poland)
• Kingsley-International Pictures (1961) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1977) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Contemporary Films (2006) (UK) (all media)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Force Entertainment (????) (Australia) (VHS)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (video) (VOD)

Also Known As:

"Canal" - International (English title) (informal literal title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Dluga, Sródmiescie, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

Company:

Zespól Filmowy "Kadr"

Trivia:

Director Andrzej Wajda was himself a fighter in the Polish resistance movement against the Nazis in World War II and several scenes in the film were based on his experiences.

Quotes:

Halinka:It's easier to die when you're in love.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lesson of Polish Cinema (2002)

Soicism in the face of fate

Watching Andrzei Wajda's war movie 'Kanal' one is stuck just by how short the interval was between the making of this film and the horrors it depicts. And while there were plenty of British and American war films made in the 1950s, it was perhaps easier to turn "our" story into the black-and-white banality of heroic fable, besides which, "we" could also make movies without communist censors looking over our shoulders. Wajda here chooses to fashion a tale centred on the collapse of the Polish resistance to the Nazis: the last survivors take to the sewers, the Germans pump gas down, and you know as soon as the film starts that there will be no happy endings, even for the survivors. It's a tale whose laconic nihilism would be remarkable in any era: I was reminded of the (much later) BBC nuclear-themed drama 'Threads', another tale of underground life facing extinction, while the dialogue, stoical in the face of impossible fate, offers more direct echos, for it made me think of the films of another Polish master, Krystoff Kieslowski. The most remarkable things in this film are the poetically bleak sequence of scenes that end it; it's biggest failing is the score, that (as with many films of this era) feels the need to describe the plot, and not merely to complement it. Occasionally other aspects of the movie also give away its age, but what's much more notable is the modernity (and hopelessness) of its approach to its material. A fine achievement, dating from an era when the events it portrayed were the present, not the past.