The Last Day of Summer — dir. Tadeusz Konwicki, Poland 1958, 59'

On a deserted seaside beach, two people meet - a woman and a man, who are trying to break the loneliness, although each of them carries a difficult past to tell. Their conversations are fraught with tension, mistrust and clumsy attempts to get closer, and the silence between them tends to be more eloquent than words. The minimalist form of the film - limited space, sparing dialogues and strict aesthetics - makes every gesture and look take on a special intensity. “The Last Day of Summer” is one of the most subtle and moving studies of intimacy in Polish cinema, in which the feeling is born in the shadow of trauma and fear of rejection. Konwicki has created a film remarkably contemporary in its sensibility - a story about the need for closeness that collides with the impossibility of expressing it.

Tadeusz Konwicki's debut film, made in parallel with the French Nouvelle Vague, is considered one of the first examples of the Polish new wave. It was created almost guerrilla, with a minimal crew, a microbudget and the participation of close associates, which gave it an exceptionally authorial character. The success of the film, which won the Grand Prix in Venice and at EXPO'58 in Brussels, opened the way for Konwicki to further his career as a creator of auteur cinema.