A propaganda story about rural Poland, thoroughly saturated with the tenets and poetics of social realism.
The film debut of Jerzy Kawalerowicz, winner of the Platinum Lions Award for lifetime achievement at the Feature Films Festival in Gdynia in 2007. Kawalerowicz was a longtime director of film production and distribution company Studio Filmowe Kadr, as well as founder and first president of the Polish Filmmakers Association.
A simple and unambiguous story of the shaping of class consciousness of the eponymous “community” and the fight against opponents of the new social order.
Residents of a small village, who are also members of an organization called Peasants’ Self-Help, try to finish the construction of a mill in a bid to gain independence from greedy miller Zieliński. Supported by class enemies - kulaks and a corrupt judge, the miller sabotages their plans by blackmailing and instigating undecided farmers. His actions lead to a suicide attempt of one of the farmers and a conflict between affluent farmer Florek and his daughter, who fell in love with an impoverished social activist. The mill is built on time, yet Zieliński makes one last attempt to defend his interests. If a disaster is to be avoided, all the characters will have to set aside their differences and work together.
