Hear My Cry (0+)
Poland, 1991, colour, 46 min.
Director: Maciej J. Drygas
Director: Maciej J. Drygas
The story of Ryszard Siwiec, a clerk from Przemyśl. In September, 1968, during a harvest festival at the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, in front of thousands of people he poured benzene over himself and lit it in protest against the communist totalitarianism and the entrance of Warsaw Pact forces into Czechoslovakia. Severely burned, Siwiec was transferred to the hospital where he died. His sacrifice passed unnoticed. His name did not appear on the front pages of neither Polish, nor western papers. After many years, the creator of the film, on the basis of the preserved documents, confessions of relatives and eyewitnesses of the event tries to find out who Ryszard Siwiec was and the cause of his readiness to do such a terrible thing.
AWARDS
Festival International de Cinema VISIONS DU RÉEL, Switzerland, 1991, (Silver Sesterce); European Film Awards 1991, (European Documentary Film of the Year); San Francisco International Film Festival, USA, 1991, (Golden Gate Award).
Maciej J. Drygas
Maciej J. Drygas
was born on 3 April 1956 in Lodz, Poland. Film and radio director, screenwriter, professor and lecturer at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. After having graduated in 1981 from the Film Directing Dept. of the Cinema Institute in Moscow (VGIK), he worked as an assistant director for Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kieslowski. He has won awards at numerous international festivals. Maciej J. Drygas’s films and radio documentaries have been broadcasted by television and radio stations in Europe, Canada, Brazil and Australia.
FILMOGRAPHY
«Hear me cry», 1991; «State of weightlessness», 1994; «A day in People’s Republic of Poland», 2005; «Hear us all», 2008; «Violated Letters», 2011; «Abu Haraz», 2013.
Poland, 1991, colour, 46 min.
Director: Maciej J. Drygas
Director: Maciej J. Drygas
The story of Ryszard Siwiec, a clerk from Przemyśl. In September, 1968, during a harvest festival at the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw, in front of thousands of people he poured benzene over himself and lit it in protest against the communist totalitarianism and the entrance of Warsaw Pact forces into Czechoslovakia. Severely burned, Siwiec was transferred to the hospital where he died. His sacrifice passed unnoticed. His name did not appear on the front pages of neither Polish, nor western papers. After many years, the creator of the film, on the basis of the preserved documents, confessions of relatives and eyewitnesses of the event tries to find out who Ryszard Siwiec was and the cause of his readiness to do such a terrible thing.
AWARDS
Festival International de Cinema VISIONS DU RÉEL, Switzerland, 1991, (Silver Sesterce); European Film Awards 1991, (European Documentary Film of the Year); San Francisco International Film Festival, USA, 1991, (Golden Gate Award).