Antonina is a traveling cabaret performer in Stalinist era Poland. After a night of celebratory drinking she is tricked into accepting a ride that she thinks will take her home, but instead delivers her to a military detainment facility. Her captors reveal that their motives are to coerce her into making a false confession against one of her friends. After refusing to cooperate with their plot, she is slowly dragged into the hellish system of the secret prison. No charges, no trial, only punishment. As days become weeks and months become years, Antonina loses her grip on reality while realizing, in the face of unimaginable brutality and humiliation, that her only means of survival against this vicious totalitarian regime will be to hold tight to her principles.
Produced in 1981 and completed in 1982, prior to and during the Polish People's Army's declaration of Martial Law, Ryszard Bugajski’s INTERROGATION is a landmark in Polish resistance cinema. Produced by the ‘notorious' Zespół Filmowy X, with help from Andrzej Wajda, Agnieska Holland and Andrzej Żuławski, INTERROGATION was initially banned outright by government film censors, being labeled "the most anti-communist film in the history of the Polish People's Republic". Unable to receive an official release, the film was purposely leaked to the public through underground tape trading. After sustaining a 7-year ban, INTERROGATION received an official premiere in Poland in 1989, after the authoritarian regime it depicted had been overthrown, in part due to the film itself. Hailed as a masterpiece, both politically and artistically, the film was honored at Cannes Film Festival in 1990, winning the Best Actress award for star Krystyna Janda and a nomination for the Palme d’Or. Vinegar Syndrome Labs is proud to bring this landmark film to Blu-ray, newly restored from a studio-supplied master.
directed by: Ryszard Bugajski
starring: Krystyna Janda, Agnieszka Holland, Adam Ferency, Janusz Gajos, Olgierd Lukaszewicz
1982 / 117 min / 1.37:1 / Polish Mono
Additional info:
- Region Free Blu-ray
- Newly restored by VS from a studio-supplied master
- "Negatives Don't Burn" (48 min) - a making-of documentary featuring interviews with lead actress Krystyna Janda, cinematographer Jacek Petrycki, actress Agnieszka Holland, actor Olgierd Łukaszewicz, director Ryszard Bugajski's widow Maria Mamona and footage from the film's premiere
- Booklet with an essay by film historian and scholar Tomasz Kolankiewicz
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- Newly translated English subtitles
