DRAGON (Meetings of Young Explorers of Cinema): Channel

One of the most famous films of the Polish School and winner of the Silver Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. Jerzy Stefan Stawiński's script focused on the final weeks of the Warsaw Uprising, when the soldiers of Lieutenant “Zadra” must descend into the canals to escape the Germans.

In the labyrinthine interior and darkness, the heroes lose strength and hope. They get lost, overcome the next obstacles with difficulty and one by one they perish or fall into the hands of the occupiers. The channel is perhaps the most pessimistic and tragic vision of war in Polish cinematography.

A symbol of the “thaw”, thanks to which the topic of the Warsaw Uprising could hit the screens, and at the same time one of the top achievements of the Polish School. The film delighted the whole world with the mastery of the narrative, the dynamics of staging, outstanding acting and the universality of the message.