BORDER STREET
(ULICA GRANICZNA)

1948, 110 min., Poland
Polish with English subtitles

DIRECTION:
Aleksander Ford
SCRIPT:
Ludwik Starski, Aleksander Ford, Jan Fethke
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Jaroslav Tuzar
ART DIRECTION:
Stepan Kopecky
MUSIC:
Roman Palester
EDITING:
Jirina Lukesova
SOUND:
Miroslav Prokes, Josef Zavadil, Jozef Koprowicz
PRODUCED BY:
Film Polski

CAST:
Mieczyslawa Cwiklinska (Klara), Jerzy Leszczynski (Dr Jozef Bialek), Wladyslaw Godik (Grandfather Liberman), Wladyslaw Walter (Cieplikowski), Jerzy Pichelski (Kazimierz Wojtan), Josef Munclinger (Kusmirak)

The protagonists are tenants of one Warsaw apartment building - children and adults. The war begins. Fredek's parents sign volkslist, collaborate with Germans, reveal Jewish descent of dr Bialek and take over his apartment. Jewish tenants move out to a ghetto. In spring of 1943 the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising outbreaks. In sweeping, multistoried fashion, the film recreates the last days of the Warsaw Ghetto. Director Aleksander Ford concentrates on the repercussions that war, prejudice, and oppression have upon the children-specifically the young Jewish ghetto dwellers on one side, and the Hitler Youth on the other.

ALEKSANDER FORD
Born in 1908 in Kiev. Director and scriptwriter. During WW II he made a number of documentary and educational films for the Polish Army in the Soviet Union (1940-1943). Co-organizer of the post-war film industry in Poland; the first director of Film Polski (1945-47); professor in the Lodz Film School (1948-1968), one of the most influential figures in Polish postwar cinema. Played a key role in establishing Poland's international reputation for excellent cinema. He used his films to voice his discontent and expose the effects of the new regime upon Jews and the poor, as in his documentaries "Children Must Laugh" (1936) and the award-winning "Eighth Day of the Week" (1959). Both films were banned in Poland. He is perhaps most famous in Poland for directing the film "Knights of the Teutonic Order", based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Ford continued making films in Poland until a resurgence of anti-Semitism during the late 1960s led him to spend two years in Israel. Ford later lived in Denmark and eventually settled in the United States. He committed suicide in Naples, Florida in 1980.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

1974 The Martyr (Sie sind frei, Doktor Korczak);
1971 The First Circle (Den foerste Kreds);
1966 Wages of Sin (Der Arzt stellt fest);
1964 The First Day of Freedom (Pierwszy dzien wolnosci);
1960 Knights of the Teutonic Order (Krzyzacy);
1958 The Eighth Day of the Week (Osmy dzien tygodnia);
1953 Five from Barska Street (Piatka z ulicy Barskiej), Jury Award in Cannes '54:
1948 Border Street (Ulica Graniczna), Gold Medal in Venice '48;
1938 Children Must Laugh (Mir kumen on), documentary;
People of the Vistula River (Ludzie Wisly);
1932 Street Legion (Legion ulicy);
1930 Mascotte;
1929 In the Morning (Nad ranem).

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 7pm (SKOKIE THEATRE)