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RELEASES Poland

Ethos called into question in Stones for the Rampart

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- Produced and distributed by Monolith Films, the new feature by Robert Glinski hits Polish screens today

Ethos called into question in Stones for the Rampart

A lively, and sometimes heated, media debate has preceded today’s release of Robert Glinski’s new film, Stones for the Rampart [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Kamienie na Szaniec), in Polish cinemas. An adaptation of a book written and published for the first time, illicitly, in 1943, the feature leads the viewer to ask him or herself a serious question: does it still make sense to build up and maintain the ethos of a young soldier and war hero who is prepared to lay down his life for the honour and freedom of his homeland?

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Aleksander Kaminski’s book, just like the film, recounts the actions of a young group of scouts who were members of the Resistance and of the “Little Sabotage” movement at the time of the German occupation of Warsaw during the Second World War. This is a story that was undoubtedly written with the aim of mobilising young people in the struggle for resistance, to encourage them to show their mettle at the risk of losing their lives, to pressure them into fighting and displaying some national solidarity. However, Robert Glinski seems to distance himself from this original goal. “Rigid, statue-like characters would not seem genuine. They don’t even exist, for that matter,” explains the director. “In my film, the viewer sees flesh-and-blood boys who have very different personalities. Above all, I wanted to show to young audiences that these boys were cool, they fell in love, they played tricks on each other and they were funny, but at the same time they knew how to discuss things and they had dreams.”

The film, on which Pawel Edelman worked as the DoP, comes from a very personal place. Indeed, Robert Glinski dedicated it to his mother, who was a nurse in one of the best-known battalions in the Warsaw Uprising. She often told the story of the first casualty she treated at the time – a young German who told her about his mother as he lay dying in her arms.

The three lead roles have been entrusted to newcomers Tomasz Zietek, Marcel Sabat and Kamil Szeptycki. They are joined by more familiar actors such as Danuta Stenka, Artur Zmijewski, Andrzej Chyra, Marian Dziedziel, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Krzysztof Globisz and Wojciech Zielinski.

Stones for the Rampart was produced and is being distributed in Poland by Monolith Films.

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(Translated from French)

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