K.O.R.

Summary

In June 1976, the Polish communist government announced a dramatic increase in food prices. The protests that followed sparked a resurgence of activism and opposition that would ultimately lead to the fall of the regime.

Directed by Joanna Grudzinska, whose activist parents were forced into exile in 1981, K.O.R. captures the vibrant idealism and energy that drove Polish dissidents in the late 1970s. This documentary traces how the bonds forged between workers and intellectuals were strengthened in the Gdansk shipyards in 1980, with the creation of the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) union and the leadership of Lech Walesa.

Production

Production : DÉRIVES (Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne),
Coproduction : CAMERA OBSCURA

Diffusion : RTBF (Wilbur Lebegue)- Radio Télévision Belge Francophone

Participation :
Loterie Nationale Belge, Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Communauté française de Belgique, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – FWB, Ministère de la Culture, Région Wallonne, PISF – Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej / Polish FIlm Institute / Institut du film polonais, Bourse Louis Lumière (Villa Médicis Hors les murs), CNAP, Novembre Production.

Synopsis

In Ursus, a suburb of Warsaw, angry workers blocked rail traffic. In Radom, they set fire to the local headquarters of the Communist Party. The demonstrations were spontaneous. At the same time, a group of intellectuals and workers came together to form the K.O.R. (Workers' Defense Committee). Active from 1976 to 1981, it clandestinely produced uncensored newspapers, provided financial and legal assistance to dismissed workers, and campaigned tirelessly for the creation of truly independent trade unions capable of defending workers' rights.

The documentary follows Henryk Wujec and Jan Lityński, two key activists of K.O.R., as they meet former comrades, search through archives, and retrace the history of this influential movement.

Joanna Szczesna erinnert sich daran, wie sie das geheime Informationsblatt verfasste, das von Freiwilligen heimlich von Hand gedruckt wurde, mit der Entschlossenheit, nur die Wahrheit zu sagen. Kobylka Wieslaw, Arbeiter in einer Autofabrik, erinnert sich daran, wie er nach den Demonstrationen wegen Rowdytums verhaftet wurde und wie diese Erfahrung sein Leben veränderte: „1976 wurde ich immun gegen den Kommunismus. Ich hatte keine Angst mehr.“

Générique

Direction : Joanna Grudzińska
Scénario : Joanna Grudzińska
Dir. de production: Véronique Marit
Image : Benoît Dervaux
Sound : Jaroslaw Bajdowski
Mixage : Philippe Baudhuin
Editing : Yannick Leroy

Diffusion – TV

RTBF, 2010

Distribution - Festivals

Cinéma Du Réel, compétition «Panorama français» – Paris | 2010
Planete Doc Review – Varsovie | 2010,
Cinémathèque Française – Paris
Cité de l’immigration – Paris
Festival «À l’est du nouveau» | 2011,
faitodocfestival – Italie | 2011

Projections, en présence de la réalisatrice :

• ..

PRESSE – MEDIA

« Highly Recommended. …
Joanna Grudzinska’s film brings together, three of K.O.R.’s founding and most active members, Jan Litynski, Henryk Wujec, and Joanna Szczesna, to tell the story of an organization that was truly Solidarnosc in embryo. With almost no contemporary footage to go by, the film relies on its protagonists’ recollections, dozens of still photos, readings from issues of Robotnik, and prose paragraphs on an otherwise black screen to advance the story. Nevertheless—and this is one of the film’s chief strengths—the portraits of Litynski, Wujec and Szezesna that emerge are strangely, admirably powerful—in their subjects’modest heroism, in their profound humanity. …radiates the very purest kind of idealism—in all directions. »
– Educational Media Reviews Online

« K.O.R. [is] a wise, fresh, intimate, and nuanced exploration of the vibrancy and idealism of the Polish democratic opposition in the late 1970’s. …What distinguishes the film is its underlying theme of generational transmission. Grudzinska, whose parents were active in KOR and Solidarity, collects the memories of her parents’ friends…whom she knew from childhood. …In a refreshing departure from the static talking-heads documentaries, the filmmaker and her protagonists arranged their scenes to underscore the importance, not only of people and events, but of place. …Grudzinska’s film is a valuable teaching companion to academic course work, introducing personalities and themes and making opposition history accessible. »
– Shana Penn, Graduate Theological Union, University of California, Berkeley, Slavic Review, Spring 2012