Cud nad Wisla

Cud nad Wisłą / Miracle on the Vistula River (1921) dir. by Ryszard Bolesławski
It is the winter of 1919. In the village of Kręzy on the Bug River, preparations for Christmas Eve supper are underway. In the cottage of a rich farmer Maciej Wierun (Edmund Gasiński), his daughter Krysta (Jadwiga Smosarska) is bustling around the Christmas table. Soon the young heir Jerzy Granowski (Jerzy Leszczyński) shows up at the farmyard, having been in love with Krysta ever since she grew up on his parents' estate. The young couple, together with Krystya's brother Michał (Bogusław Samborski), go to the manor house to break the Christmas Eve wafer. Life in the remote village goes on quietly and monotonously, while the front of the Polish-Russian war sweeps through the Eastern Borderlands. In the spring, the Bolsheviks appear in Kręze and occupy the Granowski manor house, while the Polish Army fights the Red Army in the area. Soon the front moves towards Warsaw...

A patriotic drama, originally made up of two series, illustrating episodes of the Polish-Bolshevik War. The film, skilfully produced by an actor and director of the famous MChAT and later a recognised Hollywood filmmaker, was commissioned by the Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs. Due to its topical and vividly emotive subject matter and a good cast of actors, the picture was very popular with Polish audiences. The action of the film begins on Christmas Eve 1919 on the eastern borderlands of the Republic of Poland in the manor house of the Granowski family. The peaceful life of the characters in the story is thrown into turmoil by the war with the Bolshevik invaders. After many dramatic vicissitudes, the victorious offensive of the Polish army in August 1921 results in a fundamental turning point in the course of the war. Once the war is over, the couples in love can finally stand on the wedding cake. The final sequences include a documentary recording of the presentation of the Marshal's mace to Józef Piłsudski on 14 November 1920.