Movies - The Promised Land

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	Movies - The Promised Land

The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana) is a film made in 1975 by the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by the writer Władysław Reymont.

Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew stuggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.

Karol Borowiecki (Daniel Olbrychski), a Polish nobelman, is the managing engineer at the Bucholz textile factory. He plans to set up his own factory with the help of his friends Max Baum (Andrzej Seweryn), a German and heir to an old handloom factory, and Moritz Welt (Wojciech Pszoniak), an independent Jewish businessman. Borowiecki's affair with Lucy Zucker Kalina Jedrusik, wife of another textile magnate, gives him advance notice of a change in cotton tariffs and helps Welt to make a killing on the Hamburg futures market. But more money has to be found, so all three characters cast aside their pride to raise the necessary capital.

On the day of the factory opening, Borowiecki has to deny his affair with Zucker's wife to a jealous husband. But while Borowiecki accompanies Lucy on her exile to Berlin, Zucker apparently takes his revenge by burning down the three partners' uninsured factory.

In Wajda's film, Borowiecki, the Pole, remains the most vicious and destructive character until the very end. According to Wajda, his inhuman attitude was due to circumstances: Borowiecki, being the least wealthy, had to be particularly ruthless in order to achieve success.

Wajda presents a shocking image of the city, with its dirty and dangerous factories and ostentatiously opulent residences devoid of taste and culture. The film follows in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, Émile Zola and Maxim Gorky, as well as German expressionists such as Knopf, Meidner and Grosz, who gave testimony of social protest.

The novel

The film was adapted from Władysław Reymont's 1899 novel The Promised Land
, in which he vividly painted a portrait of the rapid industrialization of Łódź and its cruel effects on workers and mill owners. "For that land people were born. And it sucked everything in, crushed it in its powerful jaws, and chewed people and objects, the sky and the earth, in return giving useless millions to a handful of people, and hunger and hardship to the whole throng," he wrote.

Cast

Daniel Olbrychski
as Karol Borowiecki
Wojciech Pszoniak
as Moryc Welt
Andrzej Seweryn
as Maks Baum
Kalina Jedrusik as Lucy Zuckerowa
Anna Nehrebecka as Anka
Bozena Dykiel as Mada Müller
Andrzej Szalawski as Herman Bucholz
Stanislaw Igar as Grünspan
Franciszek Pieczka as Müller
Kazimierz Opalinski as Maks' Father
Andrzej Lapicki as Trawinski
Wojciech Siemion as Wilczek
Tadeusz Bialoszczynski as Karol's Father
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz as Kessler
Jerzy Nowak as Zucker
Piotr Fronczewski
as Horn
Jerzy Zelnik as Stein
Maciej Góraj as Adam Malinowski
Grazyna Michalska as Zoska Malinowska
Wlodzimierz Borunski as Halpern
Danuta Wodynska as Müllerowa
Marian Glinka as Wilhelm Müller
Jadwiga Andrzejewska as Bucholzowa
Aleksander Dzwonkowski as Zajaczkowski
Zdzislaw Kuzniar as Kaczmarek
Halina Gryglaszewska as Malinowska
Jerzy Oblamski as Malinowski
Marek Walczewski as Bum-Bum
Lidia Korsakówna as Widow
Emilia Krakowska as Gitla
Bernard Ladysz as Russian Merchant
Boguslaw Sochnacki as Grosglück
Bohdana Majda as Grosglückowa
Kazimierz Kaczor as Kipman
Teodor Gendera as Endelman
Jerzy Przybylski as Doctor
Mieczyslaw Waskowski as Bucholz's Servant
Jan Pawel Kruk as Borowiecki's Servant
Alicja Sobieraj as Anka's Maid
Krzysztof Majchrzak as Socha
Janina Grzegorczyk as Sochowa
Janina Tur-Kirylow as Theatre Singer
Ryszard Bromowicz as Theatre Singer
Witold Dederko as Old Dyer
Tomasz Lengren as Kessler's Foreman

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