strike (strajk - die heldin von danzig) 2006 region free dvd5 polish bcbc

Strike (Strajk - Die Heldin von Danzig) is a Polish language film produced by a mainly German group, released in 2006 and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. The film is broadly a docudrama. It covers the formation of Solidarity. The action centers around work and labor organizing in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.



The film follows the life of Agnieszka Kowalska (Katharina Thalbach) in about three segments covering first her life as a dedicated worker in communist Poland of the early Sixties (DVD chapters 1-4), then following events leading to the Polish 1970 protests (chapters 5-10), and finally the early Eighties including the dedication of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the Gdańsk Agreement, and Martial law in Poland (chapters 11-15).



The character of Agnieszka is loosely based on at least two women, the crane operator Anna Walentynowicz and the diminutive shipyard nurse Alina Pienkowska with invented or distorted facts.



Contains movie and Optional English Subtitles. No menus or extras. Regular DVD quality (Not BD, 1080p etc...). Seeding/Feedback appreciated. Thank You.













Synopsis

Inspired by a true story, this powerful drama tells the tale of an ordinary woman who helps spark a revolution in Poland. Single mother Agnieszka (Katharina Thalbach) works as a shipyard welder. Concerned about dangerous working conditions, she speaks up -- to no avail. But after an accident kills several employees, and their families are denied pension benefits, she steps up her activities, laying the foundation for the Solidarity movement.



Cast

Katharina Thalbach, Maria Maj, Andrzej Chyra, Andrzej Grabowski, Dominique Horwitz, Joanna Bogacka



Strike (Strajk - Die Heldin von Danzig) film review

Solidarość and Lech Wałęsa exploded on the world in 1980 when the workers at the Lenin Shipyards forged a strike that spread throughout Danzig and infected half of Poland. The workers forced the shipyard, and the Politburo in Warsaw to make extraordinary concessions for a Communist country: the right to strike, the right to form an independent labor union, the right to freedom of speech. Eventually, the authorities cracked down, but Solidarość and Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize a few years later, had made history and a hesitant movement throughout Eastern Europe took heart, leading ten years later to the fall of Communism. The founder of Solidarość, however, was not Wałęsa, but a tiny, feisty woman called Agnieszka, (Katharina Thalbach) in Volker Schlöndorf’s fictional film ( her real name was Anna Walentynowicz.)



The strike in Danzig didn’t happen overnight. It had its roots in years of mistreatment, exploitation, and lies and the unrest came to a boil in 1970 when a disaster, caused by dangerous, neglectful conditions, killed 21 workers. The subsequent cover up, and the denial of compensation and pensions for the widows was too much for Agnieszka She led a protest for which she was imprisoned, severely beaten and eventually fired from her job, but the widows got their pensions and the workers insisted she join a secret movement at the yard along with a young electrician named Lech (Andrezej Chyra). The group forced the yard’s directors to give Agnieszka her job back and did not stop there. Agnieszka was their leader, the spirit and the strength who galvanized the workers, speaking out against injustice wherever she saw it.



Katharina Thalbach gives an extraordinary performance. The photography is incredible. Schlöndorf returned to Danzig (the location of his Oscar-crowned film The Tin Drum, also starring Thalbach) and the scenes shot on the docks with the present shipyard workers as extras, the towering half-built ships and ten story-high cranes are absolutely breathtaking. How extraordinary this incredible woman and her brave colleagues were in a Communist world totally controlled by repressive and vindictive authorities.