AN ORDINARY MONTH OF MARCH

SYNOPSIS

With commentary of by former student and opposition activist Adam Michnik, this documentary revisits the events of March 1968. Adam Mickiewicz’s 19th century, poetic drama, “Forefathers’ Eve,” is abruptly closed at the National Theatre because audiences were applauding at politically inappropriate moments. University students respond with protests. Gomulka, the head of the Polish Communist Party, gives a speech promoting anti-Semitism. This leads to student riots demanding cultural freedom and an end to censorship. Accused of conspiracy, university students are interrogated and then imprisoned. The title is an allusion to Mikhail Romm’s “Ordinary Fascism”, a documentary about the birth of totalitarianism shown only through the images employed by officially approved propaganda that accompanied it.

MARIA ZMARZ-KOCZANOWICZ
Born in Cieplice Śląskie in 1954. Director and screenwriter. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (Painting Department 1978), following up with a film directing degree from University of Silesia in Katowice (1982). She made many documentary films and TV dramas. In 2003 she received a Polish-German Journalism Award in the category of television. In 2008, she completed PhD degree in Film. In 2013, for outstanding achievements in the study, documenting and remembering the history of March ‘68 she was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. Her internationally acclaimed documentary films have been frequently awarded worldwide.

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