director Waldemar Krzystek
screenplay Waldemar Krzystek
director of photography Tomasz Dobrowolski
music Zbigniew Karnecki
with Swietłana Khodczenkowa, Lesław Żurek, Dimitrij Uljanov, Jurij Itskov
awards
Grand Prix, Golden Lions for the Best Picture, Best Actress for Svietlana Khodchenkova and award of the Programme Council and the President of the Board of Polish Television at the 33rd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 2008
WALDEMAR KRZYSTEK, GDYNIA BELIEVES IN THE VIEWERS’ TEARS. INTERVIEW WITH JOLANTA GAJDA-ZADWORNA [GDYNIA UWIERZYŁA ŁZOM WIDZÓW; ROZMOWA Z JOLANTĄ GAJDĄ-ZADWONĄ], ‘ŻYCIE WARSZAWY’, 2008 NO. 222
It’s a very personal film. I come from Legnica, I was growing up 200 yards from an off-limits Russian military housing estate. For 20 years I could see those people from a close distance, I watched them and got acquainted with them. (…) ‘Little Moscow’ is a melodrama, but an ennobled one. Concrete dates play a dramatic role in it. The protagonists meet at a ball organised on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the October Revolution, the turning-point of their acquaintance occurs on the day of Gagarin’s death, and the lovers part their ways during the first days of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. (…) The film also has a contemporary part. Looking at the ruins of the units left after a former empire, one may ask: in the interest of what grand purpose people’s lives were destroyed then – the way it happened to the couple of our protagonists.
ANDRZEJ BUKOWIECKI, THE WINNER FILLS THE GAP [TRIUMFATOR WYPEŁNIA LUKĘ], ‘ŻYCIE WARSZAWY’, 2008 NO. 222
The Jury were right in awarding ‘The Golden Lions’ to ‘Little Moscow’. Krzystek decided to tackle a serious theme and made a film which at the same time grips the public at large. (…) Between the two poles – of dramas which may appeal to rather niche viewers and trivial comedies which will attract mass audiences – there extends a somewhat deserted space. It is quite rare that it is filled by films (…) capable of combining ambitious messages with commercial qualities. And now shining among them is ‘Little Moscow’. By inscribing an interesting lesson of latest history in an adequate and masterlyenacted melodramatic plot, the director struck a perfect balance between the ambitions and attractiveness.
history periods
