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Kana
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Wikipedia article
'Kana' (, 'Sewer') is a 1957 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a company of Home Army resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers.Michalek, 1973 p. 25Niemitz and Steinberg, 2016. The film is adapted from the story They Loved Life by Jerzy Stefan Stawinski.Michalek, 1973 p. 160 'Kana' is the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by 'A Generation' and followed by 'Ashes and Diamonds'.
The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.Niemitz and Steinberg, 2016: Awarded the Silver Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
Plot
It is 25 September 1944, during the last days of the Warsaw Uprising. Lieutenant Zadra leads a unit of 43 soldiers and civilians to a new position amidst the ruins of the now isolated southern Mokotw district of Warsaw.
The composer Micha manages to telephone his wife and child in another part of the city that is being overrun by the Germans. After a few words, she tells him that the Germans are clearing the building and that they are coming for her. Then the line goes dead. The next morning, 23-year-old Officer Cadet Korab apologizes after walking into a room to find the second in command, Lieutenant Mdry, and messenger girl Halinka in bed together (Halinka later reveals that Mdry is her first lover). A German attack is stopped, but Korab is wounded while disabling a Goliath tracked mine.
Surrounded by the enemy, Zadra is ordered to retreat through the sewers to the city centre. Now down to 27 fit to travel, including Korab, they slog through the filth.
Daisy, their guide, asks Zadra to let her help Korab, claiming that the others can find their way easily enough. Zadra consents. However, the pair fall further and further behind. When they reach the designated exit at Wilcza Street, Korab is too weak to climb the upward sloping tunnel, so they rest for a while. He notices some graffiti on the opposite wall, but cannot quite make it out. Daisy tells him it says "I love Janek", when the name is actually Jacek, Korab's first name. She decides that they should head in the direction of the river, which is only a short distance away and drives him on, not letting him stop. Finally, they see sunlight. By this time, Korab is half blind and at the end of his strength. He cannot see that the exit is closed off by metal bars.This scene is referenced toward the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (2002). Daisy finally reveals her feelings for him, kissing him before telling him that he can rest for a while.
The main group follows Zadra for a while, but they become lost without Daisy. Finally, when Zadra tells Sergeant Kula to order them onward after a brief rest, they remain where they are. Kula lies and tells Zadra they are following in order to get him to keep going. Eventually, the only remaining soldier following Zadra and Kula is the mechanic Smuky.
Meanwhile, Mdry, Halinka and Micha are also lost. Eventually, Micha loses his mind and wanders away, playing an ocarina. Upon reaching a dead end, Mdry cries out that he has somebody to live for. When Halinka asks who, he tells her that he has a wife and child. She asks him to turn off his flashlight, and then shoots herself. Mdry finds an exit, but as soon as he has climbed out of the sewer he is disarmed by a German soldier. He looks around the courtyard he has emerged into and sees others who have come though the same manhole standing in silence guarded by armed German soldiers. Some are lined up against a nearby wall that is stained with blood. Despondent, he kneels beside the bodies of others who have already been executed (this scene is based on an event that really happened during the escape from Mokotw on 26/27 September 1944 - a large group of insurgents climbed out of the sewers at Dworkowa Street, in German-held territory, and 120 of them were executed by the Germans).
Zadra, Kula and Smuky miss the exit at Wilcza Street but find another - however it is booby trapped. Smuky disarms two German grenades, but is killed by the third and last. Zadra and Kula emerge from the sewer to find themselves in a deserted part of the ruined city. When Zadra tells Kula to bring up the rest of the men, Kula admits he lied and that they left them behind a long time ago. Enraged, Zadra shoots Kula and reluctantly heads back down into the sewer to search for his men.
Cast
*Teresa Iewska as "Stokrotka" (Daisy)
*Tadeusz Janczar as Jacek "Korab"
*Wieczysaw Gliski as Lt. "Zadra"
*Tadeusz Gwiazdowski as Sgt. "Kula"
*Stanisaw Mikulski as "Smuky"
*Emil Karewicz as Lt. "Mdry"
*Maciej Maciejewski as "Gustaw"
*Vladek Sheybal as Micha, the composer (credited as Wadysaw Sheybal)
*Teresa Berezowska as Halinka
Production
The story and script were written by Jerzy Stefan Stawiski who himself survived in the sewers as an officer of Armia Krajowa (the Polish underground resistance Home Army) during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944.Michalek, 1973 p. 25: Stawiskis experiences as a young officer in the underground Army [during] the Warsaw Rising of August 1944treatment of the events in which he had been directly involved And: ...story and screenplay by Stawiski.
The film was produced by Zesp Filmowy "Kadr" at Wytwornia Filmow Fabularnych (Feature Film Studio) in d, Poland.Michalek, 1973 p. 160
'Kanal' premiered in Warsaw on April 20, 1957.Michalek, 1973 p. 36: The premiere took place on April 20, 1957
Releases
'Kana' earned Wajda the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. The film is largely free of the overt communist propaganda that characterised its predecessor, 'A Generation'. It was released after the fall of the Stalinist regime of Bolesaw Bierut, which followed the death of Joseph Stalin.
In April 2019, a restored version of the film was selected to be shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Reception
While Wajdas debut film 'A Generation' (1955) received a measured critical response, 'Kanal' provoked widespread controversy and debate among Poles as to its merits. Donota Niemitz and Stefan Steinberg remark that the film was not received favorably in Poland. The futile death of the uprisings heroes, covered in dirt and excrement, did not correspond to the idealized picture of the nations martyrs.Niemitz and Steinberg, 2016 Critic Leon Buko in 'Dziennik polski' complained This whole Warsaw, this whole Rising wallows in filth, in the gutters of historyMichalek, 1973 p. 35: ...a disgruntled critic, And see footnote p. 172 for source
Aleksander Jackiewicz, of the Trybuna ludu wrote:
Biographer Boleslaw Michalek adds that Jackiewicz placed emphasis on the skeptical note in the film, its confrontation with the legend of the Warsaw Rising, and by and large this was how reviewers hailed 'Kanal' as a landmark in Polish cinema.Michalek, 1973 p. 36
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on , with a weighted average rating of 8.1/10.
Theme
One of the principle thematic elements in 'Kanal' concerns Polish heroism and the conceit that Poles have historically been prone to acts of courage as futile as they are desperate.Michalek, 1973 p. 33 Wajdas initially considered referencing some celebrated - and semi-suicidal - cavalry charges in Polish history, including those during the Napoleonic eras Battle of Samosierra, the Charge of Rokitna in WWI and the legend of the Charge at Krojanty, reputedly on German tanks in 1939. These were to be presented in a pre-credit sequence of but ultimately were abandoned.Michalek, 1973 p. 33
Biographer Michalek Boleslaw observes:
Historic manifestations of romanticism and heroism were deemed anachronistic in post-war Poland and challenged by appeals to reason and political common sense. Despite these political exposures, Wajdas romantic, sensual style endows the characters in 'Kanal' with heroic dimensions.Michalek, 1973 p. 34
The descent into the sewers has been compared to Dantes depiction of the souls damned in his Inferno, and acknowledged as such by Wajda. Biographer Boleslaw Michalek writes:
Political Assessment
The historical subject that Wajda addressed in 'Kanal' was one of the most politically and socially charged topics in post-war Poland. Like the other films in his war trilogy, 'Kanal' was an honest and valuable attempt to portray the complexity of Polish contemporary history and politics.Michalek, 1973 p. 30Niemitz and Steinberg, 2016: Kanal an honest and valuable attempt to portray the complexity of Polish contemporary history and politics. The film masterfully dramatizes the tragic fate of the men and women of a small unit of Polish Home Army resistance fighters.Niemtz and Steinberg, 2016: ...Wajda masterfully recreates the last days in the lives of several Warsaw uprising fighters who attempt to make their way through the citys sewer system. Biographer Bolestaw Michalek provides the context:
Michalek adds that Wajdas treatment of the Warsaw Rising and the retreat through the sewers had a definite and deliberate historical and social edge.Michalek, 1973 p. 30
By the mid-1950s, two fundamental perceptions had become established among Poles regarding the event. One was a popular romantic image of gallant young martyrs who died defending the homeland. The second was official skepticism as to the purity of the high-commands motives in committing men and women patriots to a doomed endeavor.Michalek, 1973 p. 30-31, And p. 53: ...two attitudes to this event were current in the public mind: skepticismof what seemed another heroic but misguided episode in Polish history, and whole-hearted and unqualified acclamation of the legend of the valiant, indomitable young Poles.
Wajda, responding to these dual social outlooks, attempted to synthesis these in 'Kanal'.Niemtz and Steinberg, 2016: Controversy surrounded Wajdas attitude towards national symbols and heroesWajda was widely criticized by some for accommodating himself to the Stalinist regime.Michalek, 1973 p. 25: ...a streak of skepticism as to the purpose and price of the heroism. And: p.33: The moral and historical ambiguity of Kanal. Polish critic Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz commented on the contrasting heroic dimensions of the characters in Kanal and the latent skepticism concerning the 1944 uprising:
See also
*Cinema of Poland
*List of Polish language films
Footnotes
Sources
*Michalek, Boleslaw. 1973. 'The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda.' The Tanvity Press. A. S. Barnes and Company. New York.
*Niemitz, Dorata and Steinberg, Stefan. 2016. 'Polish film and theatre director Andrzej Wajda dead at 90.' World Socialist Web Site, 14 October 2016. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/14/wajd-o14.html Retrieved 4 July 2022.
*World Socialist Web Site. 2019 '75 years ago: Warsaw uprising violently suppressed by Nazi occupiers'. World Socialist Web Site. 30 September 2019. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/30/twih-s30.html Retrieved 8 July 2022.
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