director Jerzy Kawalerowicz
screenplay (based on a novel of the same title by Julian Stryjkowski) Tadeusz Konwicki, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Julian Stryjkowski
director of photography Zygmunt Samosiuk
music Leopold Kozłowski
with Franciszek Pieczka, Wojciech Pszoniak, Jan Szurmiej, Ewa Domańska, Wojciech Standełło, Liliana Głąbczyńska, Szymon Szurmiej, Gołda Tencer
awards
Grand Prix, Golden Lions at the 9th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1984
[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]
Pritsch: But this is an austeria. It’s not Kishinev! And thank God it never will, so long as the Emperor Franz Joseph rules. And there is no Jew who does not wish him a long life in good health. It’s only a pity he himself is not a Jew. But then maybe it’s better – he might deny his people. It’s enough that he has a Jewish heart. Tag: My dears, my beautiful Jews, to what shall I compare this day today? To the day when the temple was destroyed. Can one sing on such a day? One must not sing on such a day. This is a day of mourning.
KRZYSZTOF TEODOR TOEPLITZ, THE DAY BEFORE [KRAJOBRAZ PRZED ZAGŁADĄ], ‘MIESIĘCZNIK LITERACKI’, 1983, NO. 6
‘Austeria’ is a double reconstruction. It deals with the world before the extermination but it reaches deeper, to the turn of the century, when the corrosion was starting. (…) The director managed to avoid two dangers: of being enigmatic and of being folkloristic. The central figure of ‘Austeria’ and one that outgrows both stereotypes is the old Jew Tag excellently played by Franciszek Pieczka. (…) He accepts all decrees of fate with dignity but, at the same time, he expresses his moral and intellectual protest. Once again Kawalerowicz has proved a master of ‘historical reconstruction’ – one unusual situation reveals in a flash the colours and problems of a culture gone forever.
history periods
