Prussian Culture

^production (commissioned by Mojżesz Towbin) presumably Pathé Film Production Company (France)

MAŁGORZATA AND MAREK HENDRYKOWSKI

At the turn of 1907, Mojżesz Towbin, the owner of the cinema at 118, Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw decided to make probably the first feature film in partitioned Poland. Unfortunately, its title is not known; nor is it known whether it played in Towbin’s cinema at all because, according to the press, the Russian authorities banned any screenings in Warsaw. It is known, however, that the film was shown in Russia, France and Italy. The plot was based on authentic events in Wielkopolska. One event was a strike of children in Września, the other was a protest of the local peasant Michał Drzymała, who was not granted building permission by the Prussians and decided to live in a circus caravan. Both events were nicely combined into a whole and the producer focused on the life of one family. The Warsaw cinema at 118, Marszałkowska Street showed the film after the outbreak of World War I under the title ‘Prussian Culture.’ The eight-minute French version entitled ‘Les Martyrs de la Pologne’ is the oldest known relic of Polish cinema from more than a century ago. A copy with one longer intertitle in French was found in 2000 in the archive of Bois d'Arcy in France by Małgorzata and Marek Hendrykowski.