Romansa konjokradice

A little knowledge of Polish history makes this movie a lot more meaningful, and abandon any idea that it is romantic in the way we think of the word today. Those caveats aside, this is a neglected film from 1971 that holds up quite well. The hyper-masculine Yul Brynner is the star in every sense, swaggering his way through as the Cossack who has been put in charge of the Polish town of Mlawa. Meanwhile the Jewish residents of a nearby shtetl plot and scheme to steal horses and defy the Russian authorities. A Polish gentleman of the upper class wants to marry his daughter off to a French dandy, while she falls for one of the Jewish horsethieves. Mind you, this is a time when Poland had been wiped off the map, and the Germans and the Russians were vying for their piece of the country. Favorite scene: Yul Brynner in a brothel drinking champagne and then chewing up the glass. Favorite line: "Polish peasants can't read, and the Jewish peasants won't."