BRZEZINA · DAS BIRKENWÄLDCHEN | Black Box im Filmmuseum Düsseldorf

In the organizer's words:

BRZEZINA - THE BIRCH GROVE

PL 1970 - 99 min - OmeU - digitalDCP - ab 18 - R: Andrzej Wajda - B: Andrzej Wajda based on a script by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz - C: Zygmunt Samosiuk - D: Daniel Olbrychski, Olgierd Łukaszewicz, Emilia Krakowska, Danuta Wodyńska, Elżbieta Żołek and others.

An intimate chamber play about illness, transience and family estrangement unfolds in a deserted forest landscape. Andrzej Wajda's 1970 film is based on a story by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and is one of the Polish director's quieter, more literary works. It centers on two brothers whose contrasting lifestyles clash against the backdrop of a rural estate: One marked by death, the other seemingly firmly anchored in life.

Wajda translates Iwaszkiewicz's symbolically charged prose into a consistently reduced visual language in which nature is not merely a backdrop but an emotional resonance chamber. The birch grove functions as a recurring motif for memory, loss and the inevitability of the end. Made at a time when Polish cinema was increasingly turning to existential and psychological issues, the film combines individual tragedy with a timeless reflection on human closeness and loneliness.

Price information:

Admission 7 Euro - reduced 5 Euro - with Black Box Pass 4 Euro - ticket reservation Tel. 0211 - 8992232