Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Rose - a film review

1945. Rose lives on a farm in Masuria, an area that for many years up to and during the Second World War was part of Germany. The residents were treated as ethnically Polish, despite having their own dialect and culture. Now the area is part of Poland again.

During the war, Rose's farm was used as a base by the Soviet soldiers who abused her and her hospitality. Now she lives alone.

Tadeusz, a soldier visits her to tell her he was present at her husband's death and to return the wedding photo that the dead man had carried with him. Rose asks Tadeusz to help around her farm and he stays on, to protect her from the Russian army and the mistrustful neighbours. As they negotiate their own initial mistrust and their individual heavy pasts, they develop a close and loyal friendship.

This is a beautifully shot, moving film that tells the story of friendship arising in unlikely circumstances, against the backdrop of a country suffering intensely from the aftermath of war. The complicated tensions between the various communities in the area are well drawn.There are some moments of fun and enjoyment in amongst all the hardship that show the resilience of the human spirit and lighten the mood of the film.

Rose (directed by Wojciech Smarzowski) is part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, you can see it at:

21:10, 28 June at Cameo 1
21:15 30 June at Filmhouse 3

Disclaimer: I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and attended a free press screening of this film.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.


1 comment:

Howard of Belvedere Mountain Express said...

Thanks for the heads up – that looks totally up Katherine’s street, if not entirely up mine. I’ll keep an eye out for it at the Filmhouse or Cameo during the coming months. There seem to be very few films coming out of Poland in general, despite the Łódź film school still having world renown …