On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences.
In 1668 Polish colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, who recently retired to a monastery, is recalled to active duty and takes charge of Poland's eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies.
Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.
A German woman on a ship returning to Europe notices a face of another woman which brings recollections from the past. She tells her husband that she had been an overseer in Auschwitz during the war, but she has actually saved a woman's life.
Set in the 19th century Warsaw. The indolence of aristocrats who, secure with their pensions, are too lazy to undertake new business risks, frustrates Wokulski. His ability to make money is respected but his lack of family and social rank is condescended to. Because of his "help" (in secret) to "the doll's" impecunious but influential father, the girl becomes aware of his affection.
In this WWII drama, Russian soldiers take a break at a scenic farm in Poland, and the unit is able to escape the horrors of war during their brief respite. A Polish farm girl and a Russian officer feel a mutual and unspoken attraction towards each other.
An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator.
Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
To convince the prison warden against releasing him, a middle-aged Polish man recounts his life, one he considers to have been characterized by exceptionally bad luck.
The movie "L'instant de la paix" consists of three segments: 1. "Les rideaux blancs" (France) 2. "Berlin N 65" (West Germany) 3. "Matura" (Poland)
The miners of one of the mines in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie receive news about the planned layoffs. The miners decide to organize a strike. One of the local MPs is trying to prevent this from happening. The French mine owner makes a dangerous decision - he orders the miners to work in an area at risk of fire. An explosion occurs unexpectedly. The miners lynch Coeur, and their demonstration, in which they carry the bodies of the victims of the crash, is brutally suppressed by the police.
A small fishing village between the sea and the lake. One day, when all the men went out to catch, a viper bitten Grandpa Filip and little Madzia was severely injured by a misfire. Holidaymakers with a motorboat refuse to help. Filip decides to take the girl to the doctor himself.
An elderly man returns to Poland to find his long-lost son, missing since World War II. In his quest the man is forced to contemplate the elusive and coded nature of truth itself.
A shy Warsaw university student is in love with a girl who pays no attention to him. Change comes after her intimate love letters are read publicly at a party.
1945. Home Army soldier who hides in the village must decide if he wants to engage into dangerous situation to help group of Jewish runaways.
In the last days of the war an old train driver and his young assistant carry weapons to Polish soldiers on the western front.
An actress visits her hometown to attend the funeral of her grandfather. She realizes that the places and people from her past differ from her cherished memories.
Count Olgierd Łabiński lives with his beloved wife in Paris in a beautiful palace. The Countess recalls her stay in Florence and her insistent admirer Octavius de Saville. Soon, Octavius, arrives in Paris and calls for the famous Dr. Cherbonneau, suspected of being a charlatan. Citing the teachings of the East, Cherbonneau offers the patient an "avatar", a reincarnation of the soul, which takes a different body...
Three short segments about love, all set in Warsaw’s Civil Registry Office at the corner of Nowy Świat and Aleje Jerozolimskie, against a vivid backdrop of early 1960s city life.
