Our Folks

^director Sylwester Chęciński
^screenplay Andrzej Mularczyk
^{director of photography} Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz
^music Wojciech Kilar
^with Wacław Kowalski, Władysław Hańcza, Zdzisław Karczewski, Ilona Kuśmierska, Jerzy Janeczek
^awards
 Grand Prix, Golden Grape, at the Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów, 1976
 ’Film’ magazine award, Golden Camera, for ‘Best Film Dealing with Contemporary Issues’; for Sylwester Chęciński for the trilogy: ‘Our Folks’, ‘Take It Easy’, ‘Big Deal’, 1978
 Golden Duck on the 50th anniversary of ‘Film’ magazine’s Readers Awards for the category ‘Best Words of Wisdom’, for the quote from the film: ‘… law is law, still justice must stay on our side’, 2007
 2nd Degree Award of the Minister of Culture and Art for Sylwester Chęciński, 1969

[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]

Kazimierz: If our folks live here, so can we.
Grandma: Our? Kargul’s the worst foe of them all.
Kazimierz: Foe? Right. But a familiar one. My foe, ours… Bred on our blood.
Marynia: Couldn’t we find another place?
Kazimierz: Don’t you fret, lassie. To look for a new foe when the old one happens to be at your elbow? Why, that’d be against God’s will.

TADEUSZ SOBOLEWSKI, PAWLAK TALKS TO THE AUDIENCE [PAWLAK ROZMAWIA Z WIDOWNIĄ], ‘FILM’, 1978, NO. 31

This success if worth noting down (…). Chęciński and Mularczyk managed to strike the right balance between the two elements responsible for success of a comedy: conventionality and authenticity. (…). The typicality of the comedy about Kargul and Pawlak is based on solid foundations. Pawlak represents a full gamut of national flaws (…), but Pawlak’s flaws are attractive and redeemed by one virtue: emotionality. Pawlak is emotional both as a patriot and when he refuses to cut the throat of a chicken because it is too upsetting (…). Pawlak and Kargul have no morals to communicate to the audience. In their fundamental layer of psychological probability, including the genre of comedy, Chęciński’s films are never-failing.