A movie about war made for young audiences, directed by Władysław Ślesicki, who also filmed the popular adaptation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s “In Desert and Wilderness”.
Nazi occupation is shown from the perspective of the youngest group of resistance fighters – the boy-scouts.
Two teen brothers Piotrek and Wojtek run away from a forced labor camp in Germany. During their voyage across enemy territory they reminisce about times from before the occupation: their family home, their conspiracy activity and the Warsaw Uprising after which they were sent to the camp. Despite meeting a friendly German host the brothers are captured by the Nazi’s again. They survive the brutal investigation and are finally liberated. They return to Warsaw where they find only rubble and their parents’ graves.
The film’s title is part of the song “Ho, Boys, Mount Your Bayonets”, one of the most popular songs of the Polish Underground State, written in 1043 by Krystyna Krahelska – the woman whose face was used for the Warsaw mermaid statue.
Excerpt from the movie
