Hear My Cry
(Uslyszcie mój krzyk)



1994, 57 min.

Direction: Maciej Drygas
Script: Maciej Drygas
Cinematography: Andrzej Musial, Stanislaw Sliskowski
Air cinematography: Jewgienij Bakalow
Music: Pawel Szymanski
Editing: Dorota Wardeszkiewicz
Sound: Andrzej Zabicki
Producer: Maciej Drygas
Produced by: Logos Film Studio, TVP Channel 1, Canal +,
ADR Production, Lodz Film Center

SYNOPSIS:

On the 8 of September, 1968, during the harvest festival at the Warsaw Stadium of Dziesieciolecie, 60-year-old accountant Richard Siwiec immolated himself as a sign of protest "against the evil of tyranny, hate and lies possessing the world." His sacrifice went unnoticed by most inside the arena. A camera operator for the Polish Newsreel Agency captured the tragedy on seven seconds of film, which was buried in the national archives. Maciej Drygas' film utilizes authentic material recorded by Siwiec himself two days before his self-immolation. Before he ignited his gasoline-doused suit, Siwiec managed to throw dozens of leaflets protesting the Warsaw Pact's armies' invasion of Czechoslovakia. The heavily-burnt Siwiec was transported to the hospital where he died several days later. Siwiec's name was could not be found on the front pages of Polish or Western newspapers. For several months the radio station Free Europe also said nothing. Yet when half a year later Jan Palach burned himself on the Vaclav Square in Prague, the world was shocked. Based on documents, reactions of Siwiec’s closest family and friends, and eye-witness accounts, Drygas attempts to answer the questions: What were Siwiec's motivations? What kind of person was he, and how does one define his fatal actions? From these documents and interviews comes a portrait of a man of honor, a man unwilling to compromise, and whose excruciating death was a protest against the ruling system.

Maciej Drygas (b. 1956 in Lodz) graduated from the Directing Department at the Soviet Union National Film School (VGiK) in 1981. He worked as the Assistant Director for Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kieslowski (directing collaboration in Blind Chance, 1981). Since 1991 he has directed documentary films and radio program; received numerous prestigious awards, including "Felix" of the European Film Academy for the best documentary in 1991 for his "Hear My Cry" and the 2005 Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. At the present, he is the head of the Radio Documentary Department in Laboratory of Reportage at Warsaw University and a lecturer at the Academy of Visual Arts and New Media.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 8:45 pm. (Gallery Theatre)

Screening with VOICE OF HOPE directed by Maciej Drygas