Through the eyes of Chris Salewicz, a British journalist of Polish heritage and a veteran of Rock-n-Roll, Beats of Freedom is a film about one of few aspects of everyday life that gave a bit of elbow room in an otherwise constrained society. Directed by Leszek Gnoiński and Wojciech Słota, and the first installment in the Guide to the Poles series, it features interviews with Tomek Lipiński, frontman for the groups Tilt and Brygada Kryzys, manager and journalist Piotr Nagłowski, and photographer and historian Mirek Makowski.
Explaining the meaning of music in times when telling jokes about the government could lead to severe prison sentences, the film illustrates how music from the West managed to penetrate through the Iron Curtain and ignite a flame in Poland that led to the development of Polish rock.
Each decade in communist Poland brought with it its own restrictions from the government and reactions and ideas from the side of the people. Trying to live normal lives in unnatural conditions under which expressing one’s ideas was punishable, music was a way to express disatisfation and call for action. Director Leszek Gnoiński accentuates the nature and purpose of rock in a communist society:
Rock never fought with the communist system and it was never even intended to. It described those tough times in simple, at times strong, words, sharp metaphors. These songs broke through stereotypes, created bonds between young people, giving us the chance, even for a moment, to feel free. They showed that aside from the entertainment that was touted by the authorities, there was an underground movement with a life of its own, far from the political cynicism of the government and oppositional uprising.
The motion picture features archive material which shows the legendary 1967 Rolling Stones concert at the Palace of Culture's Congressional Hall - an event that became fixed in the collective musical memory for many decades following the Jarocin Festival - one of the biggest and most important rock music festivals in the 1980s Eastern and Central Europe and Czesław Niemen’s 1967, Dziwny jest ten świat / Strange Is This World – Poland’s most important Polish protest song. Far-reaching and meaningful happenings for a country under foreign rule, the freedom that they offered was quickly curtailed by the imposition of Martial Law, attacks on the hippie movements and the organisation of rock concerts by the regime only to keep people from street protests.
An English version of Czesław Niemen’s protest song Strange is this world recorded in 1972.
The 1980s witnessed a boom in Polish rock music which, full of anger and frustration, had been lying dormant under the surface. Beats of Freedom’s director Wojciech Słota reminisces:
I was ten years old when Martial Law was instated in Poland. Soon afterwards, the hit list appeared and I got to know Polish rock music. Following my sisters' example, I recorded my favourite songs on the tape player. Was this the music of freedom? Looking back, I can say it was. The reality of that time gave music an incredible power. I was too young then to understand the lyrics of all the songs, but all those musical fascinations from the '80s strongly influenced what I do today. And, after all, it's worth talking about those things that are important to us.
Beats of Freedom officially premiered in the Palace of Culture in March 2010 followed by several months of screenings in Poland and around the world. It continues to be shown at various festivals across Europe and the United States and is also available on DVD.
Sources: culture.pl Presidency website
Author: Marta Jazowska