Still from TV series "Days of Honour", photo:Monika Zielska / TVP
Recreating a city rife with dissent against Nazi occupation, portraying a conspiring population, ready to assist Polish insurgents and revealing the moral ambivalence caused by wartime, the television drama series Days of Honour, met with great approval from Polish audiences, is to appear on TV in Italy and China
A TV series that starts in 1941 with the beginnings of conspiracy and underground resistance movements in occupied Warsaw, Days of Honour is more than the story of how war separated families, forced teenagers into early adulthood and caused fear and death. The programme, as the Economist's correspondent picked up on, depicts Polish collaborators as "causing as much destruction as the Nazis. The cliché of Poles being too conscious of their own suffering to admit failings does not apply. Days of Honour shows such failings to be entirely human. [It] forces viewers to ask hard questions of themselves. What depths of wickedness would you be capable of descending to in return for getting your sister released from Auschwitz? How far would you expect your own moral compromises to be forgiven?"
Broadcast on the Polish television station TVP2 since September 2008, Days of Honour enters its fifth and last season in September 2012. Starting off in the spring of 1941, the series follows the adventures of five Cichociemni / "dark and silent" agents parachuted into occupied Poland by Britain to support the polish home army / Arma Krajowa. The Polish resistance, an organisation resembling a sort of hybrid of the CIA, the IRA and mafia gangs uses pseudonyms, passwords, couriers, handlers and closed operational cells. Every aspect of public life has been infiltrated by resistance spies. Throughout the war years, against the backdrop of the struggle for freedom, friendship, love and life go on. The upcoming fifth season, made up of 13 episodes, deals with the first post-war years: the time of a sturdy political division based on visions of the future and relation towards the Soviet Union.
According to the Economist correspondent a " superb example of the most visceral depictions of wartime moral ambivalence, a Polish television series that rivals anything comparable from Britain or America in recent years", in 2012 the series received the Platinum Award at the 43rd WorldFest Independent Film Festival and the Silver Medal in the category action at the New York TV Festivals. In Poland, the first seasons were followed by around 3 million viewers and reinforced the appeal of Polish history, especially to younger generations.With reenactment group numbers rising, online Days of Honour fanclubs appearing, the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising witnessing a rise in visitors, Wojtek Jeżowski's short film about the Uprising There is a City watched by millions and Jarosław Sokoła's book Days of Honour becoming a bestseller. Jan Komasa's new film Uprising44 - Warsaw Uprising/ Uprising44 - Powstanie Warszawskie and the correspondent video game are highly awaited.
- Director: Michał Kwieciński; Michał Rosa; Wojciech Wójcik, Screenplay: Jarosław Sokół; Jerzy Matysiak; Ewa Wencel, Year: 2008-2012, Production (country): Telewizja Polska S.A. (POLAND), Producer: Dorota Kośmicka, Executive Producer: Akson Studio, Awards: 2010 - Houston (WorldFest Independent Film Festival) - Platinum Award, 2010 - New York Festivals - Silver Medal in the category: action, Editor: Grażyna Gradoń; Leszek Starzyński, Cast: Maciej Zakościelny; Jan Wieczorkowski; Jakub Wesołowski; Antoni Pawlicki; Jan Englert; Maja Ostaszewska; Katarzyna Gniewkowska; Anna Romantowska; Krzysztof Globisz; Anna Cieślak; Krzysztof Stelmaszyk, Composer (Music Score): Music: Bartosz Chajdecki; Sound: Małgorzata Lewandowska
Sources: culture.pl, TVP, The Economist
Author: Marta Jazowska