Search The Archive
In 1901, when part of Poland was subject to German rule, a group of
schoolchildren (abetted by a local priest) refused to recite the catechism in German. This film recounts the tale of the children's defiance and, naturally, serves as an allegory of Poland's current position.
"Bajon finds powerful parallels to current crises in a little-known incident in Western Poland. The film is a study in moral defiance, civil disobedience and the serpentine workings of the bureaucratic mind. There is a great deal of earnest debate, but there is too a strong feeling for communal life and Bajon uses the flocks of geese along the border as a prominent motif. The picture concludes with the devastating image of contraband geese being machine-gunned by Prussian soldiers."
Philip French, London Film Festival Program