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 | Escape | Ruins

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)

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:

Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

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:

Narrator:These are the tragic heroes: watch them closely in the remaining hours of their lives.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sygnowane Andrzej Wajda (1989)

Watch this film closely in the last hours of heroes lives...

Did Andrzej Wajda predict the modern horror film? Or was he merely acting on--and manipulating--our fear of the big, scary monster? There are many shots in KANAL where the camera will simply stay on a passageway seconds after the survivors leave the shot. As a modern audience who has lived through horror films, we expect a Nazi or a monster to slip into the frame in the background, but it never does. KANAL truly is a horror film, but what's unbearable to us and the sturdy group of Resistance fighters isn't the Nazis above the sewers or the metaphorical monster, but it is the solitude and emptiness that drives them to insanity, death or a bitter end.

KANAL is Andrzej Wajda's dirty, bloody valentine to the heroes of the 1944 Warsaw Resistance as the film follows the last hours of a band of heroes in their ultimately futile attempt to escape the Nazis through the labyrinth of underground sewers. We are first introduced to them as strong, willful humans trying to survive in a world that's falling to ruins (One could also argue that Andrzej Wajda also created the first post-apocalypse film). They laugh, they love, they play music in the last happy moments of their lives. After they enter the sewers, we expect and want them to come out even more strong-willed than ever--how many people can face dead bodies floating in the water of a dirty sewer with the same calm defiance? But as time goes on and the group gets separated, it becomes more and more inevitable that these heroes are not meant for a Hollywood's movie's happy, redemptive ending.

Andrzej Wajda, like Roman Polanski, was a real survivor of the Nazi invasion of Poland during WWII, and both became filmmakers who brought their experiences to films, as Polanski did with Oscar-winning THE PIANIST. However, Polanski's film, though absolutely profound, doesn't have Wajda's eye for details--the scenes of ruined Warsaw, for example, seem almost CGI'ed and it's obvious that he's trying to go for more, while Wajda will focus solely on the dirty ground, the debris blowing in the wind, or the flames of a burning building in the background. With Wajda, less is much more effective. If there is a situation more dirty, awful, lonely, scary or haunting than these people making their way through the labyrinths, I have yet to see it.