Przesluchanie (1990)

Tonia goes out drinking. She wakes up in prison, not having a clue why she's there. She is tortured to encourage her to confess to a crime she is not aware of.

Director:

Ryszard Bugajski

Writers:

Ryszard Bugajski, Janusz Dymek

Stars:

Krystyna Janda, Adam Ferency, Janusz Gajos

9 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Krystyna Janda	...	Antonina 'Tonia' Dziwisz
Adam Ferency	...	Lieutenant Morawski
Janusz Gajos	...	Major Zawada "Kapielowy"
Agnieszka Holland	...	Communist Witkowska
Anna Romantowska	...	Miroslawa "Mira" Szejnert
Bozena Dykiel	...	Honorata
Olgierd Lukaszewicz	...	Konstanty Dziwisz (Tonia's husband)
Tomasz Dedek	...	UB officer "Czesiek" arresting Tonia
Jan Jurewicz	...	Guard
Jaroslaw Kopaczewski	...	UB officer arresting Tonia
Zofia Balucka	...	Cell-mate
Arkadiusz Bazak	...	Officer at Name-Day Party
Krzysztof Gosztyla	...	Alledged victim
Antonina Girycz	...	Cell Top Dog
O. Jasinska

Storyline

Tonia goes out drinking. She wakes up in prison, not having a clue why she's there. She is tortured to encourage her to confess to a crime she is not aware of.

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Plot Keywords:

lesbian kiss | interrogation | inmate | humiliation | hose | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Release Date:

10 August 1990 (UK)

Also Known As:

El interrogatorio

Filming Locations:

Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zespól Filmowy "X"

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Completed in 1982, but due to its controversial anti-communist themes, was banned by the Polish government (then under Stalinist rule) for 7 years until 1989 after the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc.

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Connections

Referenced in Lekcja polskiego kina (2002)

User Reviews

Gripping and heartbreaking

Unlike the reviewer "carioca-6," I have never seen this film available in the U.S. for rent or sale in any video format. It is not available from Netflix as of early 2008. I have seen it only once, when I lived in Detroit. Living near the border, I could pick up some Canadian stations, and "The Interrogation" was shown probably in late 1991 on the old TVOntario series "Film International" hosted by Jay Scott. Nevertheless, so riveting was this film that I have never forgotten it. Within the first couple of minutes, the film establishes that Tonia is a young pretty blonde---she is a wife and mother but doesn't seem to take this role too seriously--who is apolitical (risky in Communist Poland) and mostly out to have a good time. Without warning or reason, the film plunges her into a Kafkaesque nightmare of arrest, interrogation, conviction and imprisonment. She loses her youth, her health, everything but her own inner resources, and as the outside world forgets her, she develops dignity and a will to survive. Still worth seeing, despite the collapse of the government under which it was made, as a character portrait and a study of man's inhumanity to (wo)man. There are places on Earth where this still goes on, and they are not so far away as we'd like to think.