Movie reviews

POWSTANIEC 1863 

Sebastian Fabijański plays the main role as Ksiądz Generał (priest general) Stanisław Brzóska. The biopic is scripted, directed and produced by Tadeusz Syka. When he was browsing historical pictures, he saw pictures with the priest from 2 years apart, in the later one his hands were shot through. When the war on Ukraine broke out he had to make the movie because Poles had had no aid at all, unlike Ukraine, so we had lost but we had won mentally. The movie was released on 12th January 2024, before the 160th anniversary of the uprising. The actors hadn't seen it before. Daniel Olbrychski hadn't been invited to Polish productions for a long time, he had played all over the world at the time. Ksawery Szlenkier in Tadeusz Syka's previous film played a priest who didn't take up arms so he was happy to reverse the role now. It's the first January Uprising movie in 30 years. Previous "Wierna rzeka" ("The Faithful River") was shot during the martial law. Olgierd Łukaszewicz (as Bishop Szymański) was cast as a link with the previous movie. No Russian uniforms could be found in all of Poland so they were sewn within 2 weeks. Tadeusz Syka has never gone to any film school but says there are many like him. The director commented on Sebastian Fabijański that with his hair shaved, in a vestment, he had resembled a priest "aż niektórzy na planie szli do niego do spowiedzi" ("so much that some people on set would go to a confession at his"). The production fulfilled the requirements of green filming: costumes were recycled, made over. 4200 Polish zlotys were received from Szkoła Podstawowa im. Stanisława Brzóski (a primary school bearing the priest's name) who had been baking and selling cakes for a week to fund the movie. A Ukrainian acted as the Russian major. The movie was promoted with a song based on Maria Konopnicka's poem.