Directed by
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Also Known As:
Calm Before the Storm
Peace
The Calm
Runtime: 70 min
Country: Poland
Language: Polish
Color: Color
Award: Special Jury Prize 1981 Polish Film Festival
imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075256/
Filmed in 1976 and shelved for five years. A young man in his twenties leaves prison after a three-year sentence. He wants to start a new life in a place where he is not known and dreams only of a job, a wife and a family. He succeeds partially in fulfilling these dreams, but then runs into a conflict on a construction job between the corrupt boss and fellow workers secretly planning a strike. He becomes a pawn in one camp while remaining true to his ideals in the other. The unavoidable conflict destroys him.
Dated, but still relevant.
An unjustly imprisoned man is released after serving 3 years, in Communist Poland of the mid 1970s. He only wants peace, and the most normal life imaginable: work, a wife, kids, and a simple home of his own. But above all, peace.
As he is introduced into the Socialist society of the time, he soon discovers peace is not an easy goal; perhaps not even attainable in that society. The film shows outdated lifestyles, and scenes which would be considered kitsch by today's standards. The whole scenario showing us the conflicts to attain peace is totally outdated.
However, it is a little known, controversial (in its time) film by a great deceased director - reason enough to see it. And the conflicts faced to achieve peace are all completely different to those faced now, in the new order. Some are obsolete; such as the strict controls on one's movements in Communist times, the puritan ideals of sex and marriage, the machismo and submission to it by all women shown, the excessive vodka drinking (literally until you drop) and smoking anywhere and everywhere.
But, the conflict between balancing one's relationship with the boss on one side, and colleagues on the other, is still basically the same, whether it's in the communist system or in the capitalist system. Still, I think it's much easier now to avoid the conflicts and achieve some peace, as long as you lower your expectations.
That's why many viewers may not understand the film, or they understand but find it's a waste of time to see all this which they already know or lived through, rehashed once again. It's a Kiezlowski film, yes. But you won't find anything new, unknown or unrevealed about Kiezlowski in it. It's not for everybody who might think it's for them.
spokoj_kieslowski.avi 
(Several full sources!
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