Academy of Polish Cinema: The Deluge of Redivivus (1974)

The Flood, 1974, directed by Jerzy Hoffman (Redivivus)

Screening of the second part of Henryk Sienkiewicz's Trilogy. Andrzej Kmicic, a young ensign from Orszany, arrives in Vodokty, Lithuania, to meet his fiancée, Oleńka, by Heraklius Billewicz's will. They both fall in love at first sight. However, Kmicic's rebellious and hot-tempered nature quickly gets him into serious trouble. When the Swedes invade Poland, the young nobleman initially takes the side of the Radziwiłł — a powerful dynasty of magnates supporting the aggressors in the assassination of the Republic of Poland, and is therefore considered a traitor to the homeland by the nobility and fiancée. The testamentary record — in case of trouble with the bachelor — gives the unhappy maiden a gateway from an improper marriage: a religious habit. However, Kmicic decides to rehabilitate himself, both in the eyes of society and his beloved. To this end, he engages in hostilities under the assumed name of Babinicza.

Although the acclaimed editor Marcin Kot Bastkowski put together a little more than three hours of film from the two-part, five-hour film, he managed to preserve all the most important plots of the story, adapting it to the expectations of the contemporary viewer.

The film features the leading Polish acting of the time. The roles of Andrzej Kmicic and Oleńka Billewiczówna were played by Daniel Olbrychski and Małgorzata Braunek. Although it is difficult to imagine other reproducers of these characters today, their casting has become the subject of a turbulent national debate. In the first and secondary roles, a total of nearly four hundred actors and thousands of extras performed in the film. The realization of the Flood is one of the largest production projects in the history of Polish cinematography. 23 thousand costumes and thousands of props were prepared.

18:00 - lecture by Prof. Piotr Zwierchowski

19:30 - screening of Jerzy Hoffman's film

Screening with english subtitles.