Boldyn

Second World War, occupied Poland. Somewhere in the woods near the town of Bialystok, a partisan group, commanded by a self-proclaimed General Boldyn, is stationed. The commander demands total obedience and cannot bear objections or criticism. Moreover, he shows signs of mental disorders, sometimes hardly discerning the reality from his dreams. Seeking relaxation, he hits the bottle, but this only makes things worse as he starts hallucinating. General Boldyn cannot stand idleness - it makes his autocratic tendencies grow even stronger. In order to avoid it, his subordinates start to provide him with false reports on sudden moves of German troops. The resulting decisions of the General prove wrong; a disaster becomes inevitable. "Boldyn" is more a psychological movie rather than a war story - it's focused more on relations between the commander and his subordinates, and the General's internal struggle with himself, than on the history of the time. There are only a few battle scenes throughout the movie, and in general the war appears more like a "stage design" than a component of the story. Despite being made in 1981 and based on a novel by a writer who belonged to the top brass of People's Republic of Poland, the movie is not burdened with a propaganda layer - neither the general nor the partisans are idealized, and heroism mingles with trickery and lack of moral values.