Jan Łomnicki

Director

June 30, 1929 (73 years)

† December 18, 2002

Podhajce k. Lwowa, Polska [obecnie Ukraina]

Biography

Jan Łomnicki (30 June 1929 – 18 December 2002) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. A graduate of the National Film School in Łódź. He directed more than thirty films between 1954 and 2000. His 1976 film To Save the City (Polish: Ocalić miasto) was awarded at the Polish Film Festival (1976) and was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival (1977).

Filmography

7.3

Dom

The story of the residents of a tenement house on Złota Street in Warsaw from 1945 to 1980.

6.4

Just Beyond This Forest

The laundress working at the doctor's house agrees to take her daughter out of the ghetto for a fee and get her settled with her family in the countryside. The old woman's attitude to the Jews is ambivalent but the action is unambiguous.

6.8

Operation Arsenal

In Nazi-occupied Warsaw, teenage scouts Alek, Rudy, and Zośka risk their lives pulling down a swastika and hoisting the Polish flag atop the German “Zachęta” cultural center and then blowing up a mobile propaganda cinema.

9.0

To Save the City

1945. Soviet offensive is approaching Cracow. Local resistance cooperate despite political differences to save the city from destruction planned by Germans.

7.0

Rat

Polish businessman Jarek Branicki organizes a beauty pageant. As the man in charge, he expects his girlfriend to win it and suggests this outcome to the judges. At the same time, however, he is on the verge of bankruptcy and tries to escape the country after being cornered by his creditors. Recognized by a passenger on the train, he flees and finds refuge in the underground passages of Warsaw’s central railway station.

5.6

The Great Give-Away

A well-known wheeler dealer joins the underground opposition to avoid responsibility after stealing valuable coins. When he is released from prison, he sets up a private bank with high interest rates together with a Security Service colonel. However, the colonel has bigger ambitions.

9.0

Awards and Decorations

A wartime drama set in a 1944 military hospital where wounded officers and staff from opposing political camps confront ideological conflict and moral uncertainty.

9.0

Wiano

A peasant girl is abandoned by her fiancé after she has talked her father into giving her his land as a dowry.

6.8

A Slip-Up

A young man strikes up an ill-fated romance with a married woman.

7.2

Warsaw Main Station

Warsaw Central Station, 1958. A place of greetings and farewells, an intersection of people from different parts of Poland and Europe. A girl waits in vain, she goes away. Soon the station would belong to the past too.

10.0

Birth of a Ship

This documentary shows the birth of a 10,000-ton ship called "Phenian" (the deadweight tonnage of this cargo ship is 10,000 tons). The film is devoid of commentary, which emphasizes the importance of the forms and the almost mystical nature of the "birth" of the ship.

10.0

The Contribution

A bank robbery conducted by Polish Underground members goes awry and the brother-in-law of the group's leader, Paweł gets arrested. Now Paweł must choose between helping his loved ones and staying loyal to the underground.

8.0

Pan Dodek

A cinematic ode to actor Adolf Dymsza, one of the biggest stars of pre-war Polish cinema. The film combines footage from Dymsza's new movies and contextualises in the frame story of Mr. Dodek, a retired actor who recounts his past exploits while trying to earn an allotment for a plot of land.

9.0

The Birth of a City

On the 10th anniversary of Nowa Huta, documentary filmmakers go back to the beginnings of the town's construction and the conglomerate, using archival footage from the Polish Film Chronicle. The city is born to the rhythm of seven days of creation, and the jubilee is celebrated by children - its peers and former builders.

8.0

Old Women's House

A documentary portrait of elderly women living in a Kraków nursing home, observing daily rituals, illness, and waiting, shaped by recurring symbolic images of time and decline.

10.0

Toast

In 1969, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Polish People's Republic, documentary filmmakers analyze the achievements of the past 25 years. Contemporary, color photos contrast with black and white, archival photos. Workers of different generations are the hosts of the country.

10.0

Rolling Mill

In February 1956, after several months of construction, the largest rolling mill in Poland, the rolling mill of the Lenin Smelter, started to operate. The viewers could see the final preparations and the launch of the machine.

10.0

The Land Is Waiting

The film encourages people to settle in the so-called Regained Territories. Not only cities and towns but also villages that offer brick buildings and fertile soil. The region of Zielona Góra, Szczecin, Wrocław, Olsztyn – people are wanted there.

8.0

Ab urbe condita

After the Second World War, a cemetery turns into a city. The camera flies over Warsaw to take a bird's-eye view of its mosaic beauty: the Old Town, Śródmieście, and modern blocks of flats. The soundtrack reflects the mood of the summer of 1965.

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