Kamienie na szaniec

For all its faults as a work of cinema, this is an important history lesson for anyone who watches. This is a true story about real people & a real event which took place in occupied Warsaw in March 1943 & which was then almost immediately immortalised in a novel of the same name, which itself takes its title from a 19th century poem.

It deals well with the complexities & moral quandaries of resistance in Occupied Poland, but may also be somewhat incomprehensible for a non Polish audience not already well acquainted with these legendary characters & the nature of occupation under Nazi Germany.

Great acting, magnificent filming and meticulous attention to period detail. A very worthy account of resistance in occupied Poland. Quite how other reviewers found this boring is perplexing. It's really well paced, and an engrossing watch.

The characters and storyline are almost childish and naive with a poorly developed heroic backdrop. There really is just nothing good about this movie

This is based on a true episode during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in WWII and is from a novel of the same title. The 'Szare Szeregi' or Gray Ranks of 'The Scouts' as they were known fought with the Home Army and got involved with low key sabotage against the invaders to fight for their country. As the iron fist of the Nazis came down ever harder, the young men decided that pamphlets and flags were not enough and so decided to take up the inevitable armed struggle.

This tells of a particular operation in which they set about to free a captured comrade who has been taken by the Germans. Now there are scenes here of torture and up front and personal violence. At one point in the film they say 'let the living never lose hope' and that is a perfect phrase to sum up why they fought against impossible odds with a random set of weapons and minimum training.

This is a very well made and acted film, it is also genuinely moving in places. Just ignore the cover art on this as ever it is misleading. The makeup is totally excellent and the period detail is spot on too. The original title is 'Kamienie na szaniec' or 'Stones for the rampart' in reference to them having to be as stones in their defence of their homes. This is as I said a great film and I hope a fitting tribute to these brave young men and indeed women who did the right thing in those dark days of history.

A betrayal of the real story as told in the book - simply a poorly made film, not only does it fail to craft characters well or tell a compelling story (unbelievably so given the rich source material), it rapidly descends into gratuitous, laughably over-the-top torture-porn that seems to want to whip up a sense of aggrievedness and instill a worldview of fetishized, exalted victimhood in Polish viewers. Mostly though, it's just exceedingly boring. An atrocious piece of work that's a slap in the face for the real Warsaw Uprising heroes.