Movies - Lotna

	Movies - Lotna

Lotna is a film, released in 1959, directed by Andrzej Wajda.

The year is September 1939 and Poland has been invaded by Nazi Germany. Lotna, a beautiful mare that belonged to a wealthy nobelman, is given to Captain Chodakiewicz (Jerzy Pichelski), the commander of a Polish cavalry squadron, and immediately becomes a bane of contention for everyone in the unit. Lieutenant Wodnicki (Adam Pawlikowski), Cadet Grabowski (Jerzy Moes) and Sergeant Major Laton (Mieczyslaw Loza) jelously scheme among themselves to get their hands on the horse. However, the war takes the lives of Captain Chodakiewicz and Cadet Grabowski, and Lotna falls to the lieutenant. The sergeant major feels he should get the animal and so nabs Lotna and flees amidst the abandoned supply wagons and equipment of the retreating Polish Army.

The film remains highly controversial, as Wajda includes a scene in which Polish horsemen charge a unit of German tanks, an event, that as it is now proved by historians, never took place. Wajda was the son of a Polish Cavalry officer who was murdered by the Soviets at a prison camp sometime in the first years of the war. This highly symbolic film is both the director's tribute to the long and glorious history of the Polish Cavalry, as well as a more ambiguous portrait of the passing of an era. Writing of the film, Wajda states that it "held great hopes for him, perhaps more than any other." Sadly, it also one that he came to think was "a failure as a film." The horse Lotna represents the entire Romantic tradition in culture, a tradition that had a huge influence in the course of Polish history and the formation of Polish literature. Lotna's death at the end of the film is Wajda's meditation on the historical breaking point that was 1939, as well as a reflection on the ending of an entire era for literature and culture.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Lotna ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Lotna; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay