Nights and Days

^director Jerzy Antczak
^screenplay (based on the novel of the same title by Maria Dąbrowska) Jerzy Antczak
^{director of photography} Stanisław Loth
^music Waldemar Kazanecki
^with Jadwiga Barańska, Jerzy Bińczycki, Karol Strasburger, Elżbieta Starostecka, Stanisława Celińska, Władysław Hańcza, Barbara Ludwiżanka, Janina Traczykówna, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Jerzy Kamas, Emir Buczacki, Ilona Kuśmierska, Zbigniew Koczanowicz
^{awards (selection)}   Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, 1976
 Silver Bear for Jadwiga Barańska and UNICRITIC prize (prize awarded by the International Association of Film Critics) at the International Film Festival in West Berlin, 1976
 Gdańsk Lions (together with ‘Land of Promise’) and prize for acting achievements for Jadwiga Barańska and Jerzy Bińczycki at the 2nd Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1976
 prizes ‘Star of the Film Season’ for Jadwiga Barańska and Jerzy Bińczycki at the Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagowo, 1976
 the 1st Class State Team Award for Jadwiga Barańska, Jerzy Antczak and Jerzy Bińczycki, 1976
 Golden Duck on the 50th anniversary of ‘Film’ magazine Readers Awards for the category ‘Best Music’, 2007

JERZY ANTCZAK, A FILM ABOUT LIVING AND DYING; CONVERSATION WITH WIESŁAWA CZAPIŃSKA [FRESK O ŻYCIU I UMIERANIU. ROZMOWA Z WIESŁAWĄ CZAPIŃSKĄ], ‘GŁOS WYBRZEŻA’, 1975, NO. 189

Why ‘Nights and Days’? Maybe because it is a book woven from emotions, an epic about living and dying, a story of a generation whose fate was determined by two graves: from 1863 and 1914. The second date symbolizes the end of an era, of a world and of people never to return.

WALDEMAR CHOŁODOWSKI, DOWNWIND, UPWIND [Z WIATREM, POD WIATR], ‘FILM’, 1975, NO. 40

Here is a story of Barbara and Bogumił, of their love, a story of the passage of time, of standing by an unloved person. (…) The Barbara personated by Jadwiga Barańska is the epitomy of a woman – lasting, persevering, waiting, though slowly crumbling in the wake of unexpected events: her son’s death, her daughter’s departure, the outbreak of war. (…) The reminiscent mood determines the structure of the film which seems to be a tale about the past set in a strange historical gap between great defeats, when people lived decent lives according to the cycles of nature, following what they thought were eternal laws and using their intuition in distinguishing good from evil.