The Promised Land
 

PostED ON 19.10.2024

In Łódź, in 19th-century Poland, three young men of different backgrounds strive to make their fortune in the textile industry. 

© DR

Restored in 4K by DI Factory and reKino for Documentary and Feature Film Studios, exclusively for the Lumière film festival, Andrzej Wajda's The Promised Land is a thoroughly relevant epic picture about capitalism and the quest for profit at any cost. Featuring the three greatest (and youngest!) Polish actors of the day, Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak and Andrzej Seweryn, this tale of a world of ambitious men is sensational thanks to the modern, vibrant framing, which keeps close to the faces and bodies. It exudes a ferocious energy that is amplified by the great lighting work on the impressive landscapes and sets. 

© DR

The streets of the densely populated town, like the manufacturing workshops, reveal themselves to be of great graphic and cruel beauty. The three protagonists, young entrepreneurs and a kind of 19th-century version of the 'Wolves of Wall Street', move nonstop amid a profusion of magnificent characters and extras. All of them, without knowing it, are denouncing this zealous craze for money and power that goes nowhere fast. Wajda gradually exposes the limits of this materialistic obsession - the limits of an industry at full throttle that mutilates bodies and traumatises souls. 

V.A.

:Screening:

The Promised Land by Andrzej Wajda (Ziemia obiecana, 1975, 2h50)

Institut Lumière (Hangar) Sat. 19 at 9.45 am