Cicha noc

The Polish film Cicha noc (2017) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Silent Night. It was written and directed by Piotr Domalewski.

The movie takes place in a single day--Christmas Eve in a rural Polish region. Dawid Ogrodnik portrays Adam, a young man returning from Holland to have Christmas with his family and his pregnant fiancee, Asia. During the entire film, Adam is talking to Asia on the telephone, promising to be with her soon. This in itself lends an edginess to to the movie. Ogrodnik is a good actor, and does well in his role as protagonist.

Adam's family is almost completely dysfunctional. During the day we witness alcoholism, spouse abuse, and violence. Then things get worse.

The opening and closing scenes both show us Adam riding a bus--to home and from home. The plot is what happens in between those bus rides.

The acting is excellent throughout--especially by Tomasz Zietek, who portrays Adam's younger brother Pawel; Agnieszka Suchora who plays Teresa, Adam's mother; and Arkadiusz Jakubik, Adam's father.

I have yet to see a Polish narrative film that wasn't grim. Silent Night is no exception. It's a very powerful movie, with a solid IMDb rating of 7.2. I think it's even better than that. However, I don't think there was even one frame in the film that would bring laughter. We saw the movie on the large screen at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. It was shown as part of the outstanding Rochester Polish Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen as well.

Fair warning: This isn't a movie for a first date, and it certainly won't replace Charlie Brown's Christmas.

@deloudelouvain Who did not grow up in Poland will never truly understand and feel this movie. Especially an American person who has no idea how it feels to be a work immigrant in another country when people treat you as a 2nd grade person, how it feels to leave your family behind or how it feels for families to be alone.

I guess I have the honor to be the first one to write a review for this movie. I have a couple questions though. Why is this movie listed in the comedy genre? Because if one thing is for sure it is that you won't laugh, not once, unless I don't get the Polish humor. It's just a drama, a story about a Polish family at Christmas, with their issues and problems. My next question would be, why did this movie won awards in Poland? Is it really that good to you and is there really no better movies in Poland than this one? Because to me Silent Night was just an average movie, nothing to be thrilled about. The acting isn't bad, but nothing special either. It's one of those movies I just watch to kill time and that I will completely forget about it the next day. Maybe at Polish standards this is a jewel, I can't really compare since I think this was my first Polish movie, but honestly it's really nothing special.

The first reviewer wrote: "Maybe by Polish standards this is jewel". Quite wrong. A list of films made in Poland better than this one would be very long, with this one pretty close to the bottom of the complete list. The actors are not bad, this is true, but the script is nonsensical. There is a German Christmas carol "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", quite popular in Central Europe, and Cicha noc = Stille Nacht = Quiet night. However, this film title is a mockery. Christmas in this film is nothing but quiet. We have a large number of characters - but wishing them well on the part of the viewer would be difficult - perhaps except for the mother of Adam and except for the young girl. The Netherlands are presented as so far away as if in the southern hemisphere. Why the girlfriend of the main hero did not visit him repeatedly during his stay abroad? Why is the grandfather of Adam described early as very drunk, while throughout the film he is making more sense than the most of them? If you wish to see a good Polish comedy made just one year before this one, watch Planeta singli = The Planet of the singles.

The Christmas depicted in this film has something truly polish in it. I think it can be only understood by the East-Europeans, especially living in small communities. Emigrants who are living in between two countries - none of which is their true home. Broken families, alcohol addiction, tough siblings relations. The story where everyone has something to prove but yet, no one really can. Definitely worth watching, considering the fact that the film has few surprises as the story goes.