Adventure in Marienstadt

Women workers unite in the effort to rebuild post-war Poland and dance in a beautiful Warsaw square. An Adventure in Mariensztat, despite its ostentatious propaganda, continues to evoke feelings of nostalgia. After all, the thrill of young romance, sunshine, and the beauty of a collective effort to rebuild the beloved capital never grow old, and one of the film’s central themes is even still relevant today. The foreman in charge of the construction site, Ciepielewski, does not appreciate women at all. Because of this, newly-arrived resident of Warsaw, Hanka Ruczajówna (Lidia Korsakówna, whose parts were dubbed by Irena Santor), along with other female bricklayers, decide to prove they can outdo the men, including the object of Hanka’s affections, handsome work-leader Janek Szarliński (Tadeusz Schmidt). The women’s effort first appears as a stunt, and ultimately – as a political manifesto. This first Polish film shot in colour, and one of the few Polish musicals, celebrates its 70th birthday.

Patrycja Mucha

Leonard Buczkowski (1900–1967) was a Polish screenwriter and director, active from the end of the silent era to the 1960s. He directed the most expensive Polish film of the pre-war period, The Starry Squadron (1930), and later made the first post-war feature film (Forbidden Songs, 1946), the first post-war comedy (The Treasure, 1948) and the first-ever Polish color film (Adventure in Marienstadt, 1954).