User reviews

The beginning of 1980s was a difficult time for Polish people. This series tries to show it. While it is a comedy and some things can be exaggerated, it has the spirit of these times. The action takes place for few months in some building (with the title address "4 Alternative Street") of Warsaw's newly built district. Everyone has his/her own life and fights socialism problems. So, you have a house-master, who believes to be the most important person in the building. He does nothing and make people, whom he should be about to serve, do all the work for him. There is also a minister, who lives in the building with his lover. He says privately different things than he does in TV. Everyone had to wait for one's flat for years (true in Poland), but there is a man, who has lots of flats. There is a man, who was shown in TV that he got a flat, but he had not and no officer wants to help him. There are two families with similar names, who were given the same one flat, so they have to live together, having no understanding in bureaucracy. And so on. Not everything is true, but I say -- the main idea of socialism is shown. The people are treated like animals, with no respect, only the top of the iceberg has lots of privileges. The success of the series was reached because everyone in Poland could identify with the characters of the movie and everyone could say 'it's an absurd, but could also happen to me'.

I was introduced to this superb social comedy via my polish friend. 'Alternatywy 4' is so succinctly observed and superbly written and acted, that despite not knowing the language and having had minimal translation of the text, I enjoy this more each time I've watched it.

To understand the political context of communist-era Poland is to enter into the richly comic ironies which are at the core of the writing: the gross corruption and hypocrisy of local politicians and petty officials, the empire-building by the hangers-on to the former, the chicanery, scams, and ruses (the latter perpetrated by the populace -in typical polish tradition- to improve what was, after all, a dismal lot) to confound officialdom, and the sketching of a certain mindset which flourished or was likely created by the era: an 'old-fashioned communist' brusque arrogance and patent unhelpfulness as exists to this day in many Czech and Polish establishments such as shops and kiosks,restaurants, rail ticket counters, post offices...you get the picture.

I just have to add that the sublime comedy and character acting is every bit the equal of the writing. 'Alternatywy 4' would be almost worth learning the idiosyncratic and difficult polish language for.

"Alternatywy 4" is cult polish comedy series, created by the state-of-the-art director Stanislaw Bareja. The series simply rocks and I personally laugh my a*ss off every time I watch it and so do friends of mine. However it may not be that funny nor even understandable for non-polish audience (however people from so called "East block" i.e. Russia, Czech, former BRD may find it funny from the scratch due to similar political situation of the 80s in their countries). If you are not familiar with the reality of those times of eighties, you got no clue what socialism was/is, you may find situations pictured in the movie a bit odd or even scary. You have to gain some knowledge about history of Poland to fully enjoy it, to understand all the situations and characters (the main housekeeper rocks ;-), as there're so many details that counts that you can simply overlook most of them. Even the movie title is a specific joke. The movie itself is killer to me and I get me a DVD set for sure. But if you want to fully enjoy this movie let me suggest to watch Alternatywy 4 with someone who would be able to explain you the situations and characters.

Alternatywy 4 was an excellent TV series. WAS - it was commenting actual situation in Poland. Situation has changed. movie is not actual anymore... BTW, nobody from abroad wouldnt understand jokes in it