I rented this because I loved the two other Kawalerowicz films I've seen. The movie is frustrating for a few reasons. Firstly, about 1/3 of the subtitles are unreadable in the copy I rented - the text is all wavy-like. Of course this makes it a bit hard to follow the story at times unless you understand Polish. Secondly, during the second half there are some very large gaps in the narrative as if there's been a great deal of editing. For instance, at one point it seems like the main character's going to go to officer school and the next moment he's unemployed again. Finally, this movie is actually Part One of a two part movie series. The second part is a movie called Under the Phrygian Star which as far as I can tell is not easily available. With all that out of the way, the story follows the life of one man in Poland during the 30s at a time of political and social unrest. The lead actor is excellent though a bit of a cipher. He's mostly just a passive observer. By the way, the plot description is a little off, he is not a political radical/communist in part one - rather he is always on the sidelines. It's apparent at the end though that this will change in part two. The movie has a very epic feel to it but the jumps in narrative are very disconcerting. Reminds me a bit of Man of Marble. Very well shot and has some noirish aspects to it.
