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Świadectwo urodzenia (1962)

Świadectwo urodzenia poster
Directed by
Stanisław Różewicz
Genre
drama, war
Country
Poland
Runtime
1h 39m
Rated
NR
Rating
7.2 of 10 from 24 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

Three short stories show World War II from the viewpoint of Polish children. Each follows a different young person trying to survive and understand the war around them.

quietly tragicchildlikesoberingepisodicemotionally restrainedharrowingobservationalinnocent gaze

What happens

Birth Certificate (Polish: Świadectwo urodzenia) is a Polish war film from 1961 directed by Stanisław Różewicz, based on a screenplay co-written with the director's brother, Tadeusz Różewicz. The film consists of three separate novellas, each narrated from the perspective of children affected by the events of World War II. The film was critically acclaimed, winning prestigious awards at youth-oriented film festivals in Cannes and Venice. The third novella, depicting the struggle of an orphaned Jewish girl to survive, garnered particular interest from critics and researchers. However, the novella's ending – and that of the entire film – sparked controversy. Birth Certificate, with its director distancing himself from debates on Polish wartime heroism, is considered part of the plebeian trend within the Polish Film School movement. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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