Where the Devil Says Goodnight

Poland1956documentary10'Pokaz specjalny (2018)

The first film by two young graduates of Łódz Film School about a never-ending construction of the Targówek District House of Culture and the poverty of the Warsaw suburbs. A spectral building of an unfinished local "palace of culture" where – in one of the scenes – irritation of people who had not managed to get into the small projection room nearby echoed against empty walls, became the symbol of shattered expectations. "That dragging on constructiom was only an excuse", Karabasz wrote a few years later, "because we wanted to capture at least a fragment of an image showing one of the most neglected capital districts. Staszek Niedbalski's raw photography, and plain, though still uncommon in Polish documentaries, observations of people, places and events, as well as the sharp, naturalist sound layer harmonising with a sparce and bitter commentary – it all reflected an attempt to see people and events in some new way". The film portrays Targówek which does not exist anymore: the local bazaar, the so called Cholera Cemetery, Jewish cemetery, the "Bródno Bar", muddy roads and wooden houses. With his camera Niedbalski recorded an image of the inhabitants of the district, their faces, gestures and attire. Apart from the commentary and sound effects, the soundtrack compromises "Jam złodziej czarodziej" ballad (I Am Crook and a Conjurer), sung by Targówek pigeon-fanciers. The commentary is much more restrained and inventive here than in other films of that time, e.g. in the scene picturing women at the bazaar it takes the form of the dialogue (a female voice is even heard). The reamining text is read by a debutante Tadeusz Łomnicki (in the same time he had read a few introductory sentences heard off the scene in the beginning of Wajda's "Kanał" film). At the moment of its creation, the documentary was a bold accusation towards the ones who left the young Targówek people alone. "I was really shocked with all this", wrote one of the then reviewers. "Where has the official optimism gone, where is that stiff speech, or poster-like slogans?". Instead, a fundamental question was heard from the screen: "Who is responsible for the fact that in Targówek the devil still says goodnight?".