An Ordinary Country
Poland2020documentary53'
Controlled conversations, recording with hidden cameras, dirty records of interrogations and recruitment attempts as well as video tutorials for the officers of the security service – all of these materials are employed to portray the monitored life in Poland under communism. Sometimes grotesque, this picture is underpinned by horror, escalating intuitively with every minute. The dramatic culmination is when the Big Brother is not just watching but violating the intimacy of an ordinary citizen. Before us, there is a terrifying communist panopticon which keeps spying on and recording itself.
- directed by
- Tomasz Wolski
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Director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A graduate of Journalism at the Jagiellonian University and the Documentary Course at the Wajda School (2003). Member of the Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP), Polish Academy of Film (PAF), and European Film Academy (EFA). Since 2024, he has also served on the Polish Film Institute (PISF) Council. His feature-length documentary 1970 was screened at over 50 international festivals worldwide and received numerous awards (Visions du Réel, Krakow Film Festival, Zagrebdox, Festival Film Dokumenter, Batumi International Art House Film Festival). He also edited Sergei Loznitsa’s films Babi Yar. Context and The Kiev Trial, as well as Anna Gawlita’s Krzyżoki.
- script
- Tomasz Wolski
- sound
- Marcin Lenarczyk
- editing
- Tomasz Wolski
- production
- Anna Gawlita (Kijora Film)
- Photo
- Trailer