The Last Schoolbell

Krzysiek Buk (Zbigniew Suszyński) is expelled from a high school in Gdańsk for distributing anti-state leaflets and ends up in a high school in a provincial town. Although his new classmates are notorious for their unruly behaviour, they spend most of their energy on idiotic pranks. It is the spring of 1988 and strikes on the coast are underway. Just before their final exams, high school pupils will face making some life-changing decisions. The Last Schoolbell is Magdalena Łazarkiewicz’s big-screen debut and one of the last films to be confronted with People’s Republic of Poland’s censors (it premiered after the fall of communism). In the film, political themes run parallel to the nostalgic coming of age narrative. Matura, or secondary school exit exam, swigging beers after school, and singing together around a campfire – the teenagers’ seemingly carefree lives are underpinned with a bleak anxiety about the coming future. The screening of the reconstructed film will be a perfect opportunity to revisit 1980s hits and longingly await chestnut trees blooming in May.

Bogna Goślińska

Magdalena Łazarkiewicz (b. 1954) is a Polish director and screenwriter. She graduated from the University of Wrocław in 1976 and University of Silesia (Radio and Television Department) in 1981 where she studied cultural studies as well as TV and film direction respectively. She works in TV, theater and film. Her filmography includes the feature films The Departure (1991), White Marriage (1992) and To the End of the World (1999).