The Promised Land

Bravely executed adaptation of an almost forgotten novel by Władysław Reymont, depicting the fate of three friends against the backdrop of Łódź, rapidly developing at the end of the 19th century: the German Max, the Jew Moryc and the Pole Karol. The heroes decide to set up their own textile factory in the city, which is not to the taste of Jewish, German and Russian competition. Along the way, Karol Borowiecki seduces Lucy Zuckerowa, the alluring wife of an old factory worker, using the romance to raise capital, and Moryc Welt conducts risky financial and commercial speculation in the Jewish community, balancing on the verge of bankruptcy and fraud. At the same time, Maks Baum negotiates with German industrialists in an attempt to save a failing family business, while the great financiers Bucholz, Grünspan and Müller try to win over the young and ambitious for their business. In the end, Borowiecki decides to sell his family property, move his fiancée Anka to Łódź and surrender his lofty values to the wolf rules of capitalism.

This dazzling film in terms of art, narrative and acting wins in all rankings for the best film in the history of Polish cinema. The strength of Andrzej Wajda's directing, the ability to accommodate so many plots in one film and the enormous wealth of staging deserved the highest laurels. The sequence itself in the theater is today perceived as one of the greatest achievements of cinematic narration, within the framework of which the director, in a small space, managed to combine several dozen characters and plots. Among the awards, only the Oscar was missing, because although the film was the favorite, as a result of unauthorized accusations of anti-Semitism, he lost the fight for this statuette.

A sweeping vision of emerging capitalism and ruthless economic struggle in nineteenth-century Łódź, and a monumental portrait of the birth of modernity and the human cost it demands.