THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

WIZJA LOKALNA 1901

Title: Wizja lokalna 1901
Literal English translation of title: On-site inspection 1901
English language title on the official DVD: Inspection of the Crime Scene 1901
English language title on English poster: 1901. Children on Strike
Year of Release: 1980 (screened at the Gdynia Film Festival in September 1980; the film went on general release at cinemas in the following year)
Director: Filip Bajon, who also directed such films as Poznan 56 (1996)
Country of Production: Poland
Principal Boy Actors: Numerous boys feature as school pupils in this drama, of whom the two most important are Krzysztof Kozłowski as Antek Winkler and Grzegorz Dobrzycki as Kacper Smólkowski. Of the boy actors in this film, only Krzysztof Kozłowski had a role in any other film, playing an uncredited part (as Kazimierz Domagała) in Wojciech Marczewski's Dreszcze ('Shivers'), released in 1981.
Genre: Historical drama
Length: 1 hr 26 min
Language: Polish, some German
Availability: The film was released by Telewizja Kino Polska on DVD as part of the Filip Bajon box set.
English subtitles: Included on the DVD

Synopsis
The film is a dramatisation of the Września children strike (1901-1904), a series of protests on the part of children and their parents against the Germanisation policy whereby Polish pupils in the part of Poland governed by Germany (following the partitions) were given lessons and textbooks in German, rather than in their native tongue.

A group of pupils refuse to say the Lord's Prayer or recite the psalms in German, leading to a confrontation with the teachers and with the German state.

Director commentary
A short interview with director Filip Bajon was published in the "Gazecie festiwalowej" (Festival Gazette), no. 7, VII FPFF, Gdansk 1980. The interviewer was Teresy Krywow (Translation by the Editor):

TK: On-site inspection 1901 tells the story of one of the most famous strikes in our history - the children's strike in Września. Was the film supposed to be a reconstruction of authentic events?

FB: Rather a reconstruction of the mood and logic of those occurrences. In the film, I tried to show a "model" event, for which I used materials from many school strikes from 1901-1905. I think that such a synthetic approach says the most about this period and this event. For me, this is the era in which our present was shaped: in the sphere of culture, politics, even socialism. At that time, certain concepts were created that are now commonplace. The relationship between the authorities and citizens characteristic of a modern state was outlined. Inspection is a film about the formation of a modern state that subordinates all areas of human activity to itself. For this purpose, Counselor Wagner from Berlin comes to Września.

TK: And the matter of Germanisation?

FB: Just one of the elements of the state's activity.

TK: In the film, you predict a great war...

FB: The premises for this war already existed. I assumed that it could have been born from a regional conflict - for example in Września.

TK: And psychological warfare?

FB: That too. The film shows the escalation of the actions of such a state, including in the sphere of psychological pressure.

TK: And why did you decide to use a poetic formula for the film?

FB: It's a matter of temperament. I didn't want to fall into sentimental political propaganda. The title of the film – On-site inspection – is to emphasise the objectivity of the presentation of events, without assigning the reasons a priori: that, for example, the Germans are bad and the Poles are good. I wanted to bring out the metaphysical themes. The metaphysics of rebellion is that it arises by chance. That is why - on purpose - we did not show the moment of the children's decision. The rationalization of rebellion comes later. Besides, rebellion is always metaphysics, which is why the children, feeling the need to justify it, refer to God, who was the only constant value at that time.

TK: And what is a constant value today?

FB: There is none.

TK: Let's try it differently: is Inspection a film about resistance or about breaking it?

FB: About both. About passive resistance, i.e. the most dangerous form, and breaking this resistance.

TK: Let's hope that in a year or two your film won't become even more relevant... Inspection may, however, be accused of being cold. Isn't it because you're adding meaning to those events from the standpoint of 1980?

FB: I'm not adding anything. For me, history is a game. I'm more excited by the game between Wagner and Mossenbach, a sign from God, than by the children as a group. I'm interested in individual people because of the role they play in history, hence the lack of knowledge about their everyday lives. The drama of man does not unfold gratuitously, but for some purpose - in accordance with the functioning of the principles of the modern state apparatus, which reduces the individual to the role of the executor of an "episode" of an idea being promoted. Every event has its highest dimension – which is the most conventionalised, the middle, and the lowest – which is the most spontaneous. I feel drawn to the lowest (…)

Production and publicity photos

Screenshots
(First image, below left, shows Krzysztof Kozłowski as Antek Winkler; second image, below right, shows Grzegorz Dobrzycki as Kacper Smólkowski)