One of the key documentary films of the People’s Poland.
Member of an exclusive club of shelved political movies, it was released after four years of its production date. The first screening took place in 1981 during so-called “Solidarity carnival”.
This profound and dramatized documentary exposes dangerous social phenomena such as conformism, intolerance and submission to authorities.
Summer of 1977. “A Model Family” competition is announced during a holiday camp for young married couples from the Polish Socialist Youth Union (ZSMP). Tempted by a valuable main prize, the film’s protagonists accept the rules and requirements imposed on them, which gradually become more and more preposterous and humiliating. The family which refuses to succumb to the outside pressure and violates artificial standards ends up victimized by a community.
The film is a bitter portrayal of the real Poland and Poles. It is also a warning against giving in to a temptation of accepting totalitarian regime for personal gain.
„Jak żyć” is not a “pure” documentary. Among the film’s characters are Marcel Łoziński’s colleagues such as the Zymans who are cast as the key activists, the Rozhins who dare oppose the camp’s community and psychologist Andrzej Samson who was one of the authors of the experiment. Consequently, the film’s creators were accused of manipulation, while their work should be defined as a docudrama or a document where some of the situations were prompted by its authors.
