A grotesque protest against standardization and the rules of metropolitan society. The individual is presented against a backdrop of unified residents of a residential complex with skillful elements of burlesque but also observations on the development of the urban organism that swallows everything in its path.
The film presents a day in the life of a large high-rise residential building inhabited by a legion of similar people who all function according to the rhythm of sequential and repetitive events. Off to work in the morning, then back home in the evening, watching TV, then sleep. All the apartments are similar to each other, all are furnished in a similar fashion and all have the same inadequacies. The protagonist is Andrzej Leski, an architect who works in a an office that designs identical high-rise buildings. There’s no room for individuality or intimacy, you can hear the neighbors from across the wall, the plumbing system is noisy, it’s cramped and uncomfortable. Leski’s wife is pregnant and he dreams of getting free of the behemoth, unsuccessfully looking through ads offering to switch apartments. Tension grows as their maid quits. The architect, having experienced the advantages of modern housing first-hand battles the professor who is a fierce enthusiast of large buildings. Leski receives a call informing him of the birth of his son Filip.
