Kanal (1956) Showtimes and Tickets

Teresa Izewska (Daisy Stokrotka), Tadeusz Janczar (Cpl. Korab), Wienczyslaw Glinski (Lt. Zadra), Tadeusz Gwiazdowski (Sgt. Kula), Stanislaw Mikulski (The Slim (Smukly)), Wladyslaw Sheybal (Composer), Emil Karewiez (The Wise (Madry]), Teresa Berezowska (Halinka). This second feature from Andrzej Wajda takes place dur¬ing the final days of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, as three groups of Poles, no longer able to hold off the enemy, retreat to the city's kanaly, or sewer system. The viewer is told from the very start to "watch them closely; these are the last hours of their lives," and with this pessimistic tone established we watch them both trying to escape and liv¬ing an underground existence free from the oppression and lost ideals of their lives above ground. Although we know that death awaits them, we also know that freedom from the sewers is only a relative freedom. Wajda spares the viewer nothing, showing death, betrayal, suffering, sui¬cide, capture, and despair. Still the Poles fight on in the hope that they will see sunlight pouring into the sewer, even if it is filtered through a metai grate. The videocas¬sette is available in both dubbed (Polish into English) and subtitled versions.