Kierunek Berlin

I enjoyed watching "Kierunek Berlin" (Direction Berlin). The heroes are the soldiers of the First Polish Army. These soldiers were not communists; they were people who did not want to be swallowed by a black hole of the Soviet Union. The only way to achieve this was to fight in the Polish army alongside the Soviet Army. Director Jerzy Passendorfer specialized in war films, so the fight scenes are excellent. The plot contains a large-scale reconstruction of the Oder crossing operation and the First Army taking part in the Berlin operation. I think that the battle scenes are among the largest in the history of Polish cinematography. Thanks to skillfully balanced proportions, excessive psychologizing was avoided. There are no main characters here, and the entire soldier community is the hero. The whole galaxy of popular actors took part in "Direction Berlin", but they all play only secondary roles. I have read that before shooting the film, a lot of historical materials were studied in order to recreate the true picture of the events. There is maybe only a tiny bit of communist propaganda in it, but not enough to spoil your viewing.