The Portrayal of Germans in Polish Films during the Transformation Period

Abstract

In Poland, the changes started with the Round Table talks and June elections, and in the GDR with the fall of the Berlin Wall. They gained momentum with the transformation of the Polish People’s Republic into the Republic of Poland and the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany. These processes were reflected in literature, film, music, and even computer games. Artistic attempts to face the new reality acquired a special dimension in Germany, where the term “breakthrough literature” appeared. The international success of such productions as The Lives of Others or Goodbye, Lenin! indicates the great interest of German film directors in the subject as well. Similar attempts were made in Poland. Films appeared in which German characters – refugees from the GDR, businessmen, tourists, regime officials, or criminals – were presented in connection with the native heroes (usually in the background). An analysis of these characters allows us to look at the Polish experience of the last thirty years from a different perspective and to make a certain relativization of the changes that have occurred in Poland. In accord with Marcin Kula’s concept, the author treats selected films as “historical memory carriers” and analyzes the image of Germans in films created during the political transformation in Poland or in films that concern this period: Psy (Dogs, directed by Władysław Pasikowski), Dwadzieścia lat później (Twenty Years Later, directed by Michał Dudziewicz), Sauna (directed by Filip Bajon), Obcy musi fruwać (The Foreigner Must Go, dir. Wiesław Saniewski), Yuma (dir. Piotr Mularuk) and Wróżby kumaka (Call of the Toad, dir. Robert Gliński).