Trzecia Czesc Nocy(1971)

English Title: Third part of the night

Director: Andrzej Zulawski

Country: Poland

Zulawski's debut film is also his toughest to watch. As passionate as his much acclaimed "Possession", this film is even more darker. This film is fairly biographical as a major part of it is inspired by his father's memoirs of the Nazi and Soviet occupied communist Poland in the 1970s. His very idealistic and strong political sentiments are very imminent in this film.
It starts off with Michal, who is recovering from a terminal illness in a countryside with his family. While he takes a walk in the woods, his wife, son and mother gets killed by Russian soldiers. He returns to the city, goes underground and while attacked by the Gestapo, stunbles upon a woman in labor. The Nazis take in the husband of this woman mistaking him for Michal, while Michal helps the woman to deliver her son. Then Michal works as a lice feeder in a Nazi experiment to earn breads for himself and this woman, who resembles his dead wife. And then he goes on to try and free the husband. The basic storyline runs along on this path while Zulawski plays around with a lot of things. He plays around with the timeline, often disturbing the flow of the narrative to give it a non-linear look, and also with all sorts of metaphors. He uses the whole lice feeding scheme to depict the parasitism creeping into the Polish society, as it gets infected with guilt and oppression. He uses the concept of doppelgangers as parts of an identity by using the same female cast for Michal's dead wife and the pregnant lady. In fact, somewhere these two are not different personas. They are the same individual. The constantly moving camera catches the dynamics of Michal, who seems to be running away from failed relationships, his sense of oppression and guilt through labyrinthine alleyways and dark buildings. He seems to be running away from his dead wife and again coming back to the pregnant lady resembling his wife. His relation with his father, who cannot take any of this anymore and destroys his only belongings, music notes reminds us of the patriarchal society we so often see in a Kafka book. In fact, the guilt, the running away, the metamorphosis of the poilitically oppressed society seen through the eyes of Michal are all very Kafkaesque. This film is Zulawski's vision of the post World War II Polish society from a very compelling point of view. Just for the brilliant direction and lead performances, the film will definitely affect the viewer. This is as intriguing as cinema can get. And I also recommend a second viewing for better understanding of the film.

By far, the best Polish cinema I have ever seen.