Polish Film Academy: lecture by Dr. Łukasz Biskupski: “The Beast”, directed by Aleksander Hertz (1917), “Miracle on the Vistula”, directed by Ryszard Bolesławski (1921)

Pola, a young and good-natured girl from a small town, enjoys spending time in men's company. After a quarrel with his father, he decides to run away from home. She is helped in this by Dimitr, who is in love with her, who takes her to a hotel. Pola gets the worshiper drunk, steals money and goes to town. She quickly made a career, initially as a fashionista, later as a cabaret star. Rich industrialist Alexy Wilineffo falls in love with her, who leaves his wife and child for her. When Pola finds out that her lover is married, she breaks up with him. Desperate, Alexy decides to return to his wife, but she, suffering from a bite, dies. Pola is also killed, shot by vengeful Dimitra.

The film was commissioned by the Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs. It depicts the history of the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920, which ended with the Battle of Warsaw, which went down in history as the “Miracle on the Vistula”; it begins with a Christmas evening at the civil court and in the hut of a Włościan, and ends with a picture of the August days of 1920.