Gdzie jest general...

I liked "Gdzie jest General" (Where is the General) a lot because it was like a breath of fresh air after watching so many gloomy pictures of WW2. The main characters are the Polish soldier Orzeszko (Jerzy Turek) and Soviet female soldier Marusia (Elzbieta Czyzewska). Orzeszko, who is considered a loser at the end of World War II, takes a German general prisoner. Orzeszko is helpless, clumsy, reluctant to work, drinks a lot, and sleeps even more. Marusia, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Dutiful, energetic, and committed, she performs the most trivial task with a sense of mission. The film was received very warmly by audiences and critics. The director was praised for his extraordinary sense of humor and interestingly conceived characters. To me, "Where is the General" looked sometimes a little bit dated, but many scenes were terribly funny. I think that at the beginning of the 1960s, the Polish society was already tired of talking about World War II only in a serious tone and was ready for Polish-German reconciliation, as it was the case between France and Germany. Unfortunately, Poland was not a democracy at that time but an authoritarian regime. And authoritarian regimes or parties always incite against other nationalities, races, or some minorities.