71 mins | 2021

Director: Tomasz Wolski

Producer: Anna Gawlita

Subtitle: English

In the days leading up to Christmas 1970, the Polish government raised the prices of food and consumer goods, prompting worker strikes and public demonstrations. In response, the Communist regime ordered the police and military to intervene and suppress the protests, which resulted in violent clashes, thousands of arrests, and the deaths of over 40 demonstrators. Director Tomasz Wolski brings the tragic sequence of decisions and their ramifications to life in a compelling and stylized pastiche of archival footage, stop-motion animation, puppetry, and recordings of government officials’ conversations. Bold and bracing, the film interweaves multiple visual styles and stories to suspenseful effect as the tension between the public and the government unfolds in black-and-white streets and moody dioramas. With chilling contemporary resonances, 1970 captures the politics of power and intimidation—how both are deployed by authority figures when they are confronted by the forces of civil unrest and a fear of their own citizens. TM