director Józef Lejtes
screenplay (based on the theatre play by Jan Adolf Hertz) Jan Adolf Hertz, Anatol Stern
director of photography Albert Wywerka
music Roman Palester, Marian Neuteich
with Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski, Adam Brodzisz, Maria Bogda, Bogusław Samborski
awards
Special Recognition for Best Actor Creations for the whole acting team at the Soviet Film Festival in Moscow, 1935
BARBARA AND LESZEK ARMATYS, HISTORY OF POLISH FILM, VOL. 2 , ED. BY JERZY TOEPLITZ [HISTORIA FILMU POLSKIEGO, T. II (1930-1939), POD RED. J. TOEPLITZA], WARSZAWA 1988
Lejtes’s film stood out among other Polish film productions of the time. The audience was united by their emotion. It won the poll of readers of the weekly ‘Kino,’ satisfied even the most demanding critics, brought profits to the producer and raised Lejtes’s prestige among film-makers.
JACEK CYBUSZ, JÓZEF LEJTES, FILM IN THE WORLD, MAY JUNE 1983, NO. 293-4; QUOTATIONS FROM: THE SOVIET PRESS ABOUT ‘YOUNG FOREST’ [‘FILM NA ŚWIECIE’ PRASA SOWIECKA O ‘MŁODYM LESIE’], ‘WIADOMOŚCI FILMOWE’ 1935, NO. 6
The triumph of ‘Young Forest’ at the first International Film Festival in Moscow in 1935 became almost a legend. It was awarded a commendation and, reportedly, it was to have won the main prize. If that were to be true, it missed the prize merely for political reasons. (…) The film received many favourable reviews from prominent Soviet film-makers. Grigori Aleksandrov said that the author ‘gave evidence of great dramatic abilities,’ Grigori Kozintsev: ‘I was dazzled by the Polish film. The tsarist school and the characters of the teachers were very genuine and evocative. The director is very able, indeed.’ (…) Vsevolod Pudovkin, whom Lejtes regarded as a master, mentioned to someone at the festival: ‘When the light came on, we saw tears on many faces.’
history periods
