A Road Story

Poland1958documentary19'Pokaz specjalny (2018)

What explains the exceptional appeal and expressive power of this documentary ballad about Bieszczady? Some of its frames seem to echo some famous feature films set in the same mountain scenery, such as Petelski’s “The Depot of the Dead” shot in the same year and Passendorfer’s “The Lost Bridge” (1963). However, not only did Slesicki manage to recreate that special atmosphere of the post-war Bieszczady, but also to paint an authentic portrayal of places, people and events. Stanislaw Niedbalski’s camera photographed an entire gallery of human types, immigrations in this unpopulated nook of Poland, wildernesses speckled with farm ruins. The voice of Wlodzimierz Kmicik comments, “They came up here from different parts of the country to build this road. The few knick-knacks they carries in their wooden chests were supposed to replace their homes many months. The newspapers called the, pioneers who were building a road which would put life back into this dead land. But they didn’t care much to think about sad things. They came here, because work was waiting for them.” We watch them work in quarries preparing material for the road construction, clear slopes of fallen trees, wade through the muddy gunk that forest trucks turn into in Autumn, or fall asleep on bunk beds in overcrowded barracks at night. But filming in different seasons Slesicki captured how violently the weather changes the landscape ant the working conditions in the Bieszczady mountains. There is an outstanding winter sequence towards the end of the film. In a blizzard, lorries with road constructors leave their remote camp in the mountains. Other stay behind to build the first house.