A film by Tadeusz Konwicki, author, script writer and director, winner of Gdynia Film Festival Platinum Lions in 2011 and the Polish Film Academy Eagle lifetime achievement award.
A film awarded during the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1967.
A wide selection of extraordinary Polish actors - Zbigniew Cybulski, Gustaw Holoubek,
Andrzej Łapicki, Wojciech Siemion, Włodzimierz Boruński, Zdzisław Maklakiewicz.
Dramatic music by Wojciech Kilar.
A mysterious wanderer – Kowalski-Malinowski comes to a strange backwater town.
He describes himself as a prophet and promises the locals, each representing a different Polish stereotype, a new life. This change is to happen during a magic ceremony, a nighttime celebration of the „Anniversary”. The protagonist is revealed to be an impostor, sought by his abandoned wife. The insulted inhabitants drive him away throwing stones at him.
A psychological dramatic-comedy attempting to analyze the phenomenon of „national mythomania” and a presentation of fears rooted in the past, unearthing the remarkable romanticism of national history.