a film by Bo Persson & Joanna Helander
“Like Ariane Mnouchnike´s film on Molière, it is a remarkable depiction of
theatre as life and life as theatre, an inspired work about inspiration.”
Erland Josephson
The film is an authentic human drama about theatre and freedom, about exile and revolution in the on-going metamorphosis of Europe We accompany a legendary Polish theatre company in the period before, during and after the upheavals in Eastern Europe. During the 1980´s, the company is forbidden to pursue its profession in Poland and is forced to present its plays underground; in selected monasteries and churches. Several members of the company succeed in leaving Poland and start touring Western Europe. Years pass before the entire company can be reunited in the West. The company then journeys from country to country, constantly facing new existential and psychological trials. Is their exile temporary or permanent? How will Western Europe react to the company´s merciless depiction of the East European apocalypse? Finally, the totalitarian glacier in the East begins to melt. Censorship in Poland eases up. Solidarity forces the collapse of the communist state, and the Eighth Day Theatre returns to Poland in rapid and radical transition. Filmed in Poland, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany.
Original title: Teater Åttonde Dagen
Directors & Screenwriters: Joanna Helander, Bo Persson
Directors of Photography: Jacek Petrycki, Jacek Blawut a.o.
Sound: Owe Svensson, Krszysztof Sucholdolski
Editors: Ewa Smal, Dorota Wardeszkiewicz, Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk
Music: Zygmunt Konieczny a.o.
Swedish voice: Stina Ekblad
German voice: Jutta Lampe
French voice: Dominique Sanda
Produced by Kino Koszyk HB in co-operation with the Swedish Film Institute,
Swedish Televison & ARTE
Year of production: 1992
Voices from the press:
This extraordinary film offers us rare insights into the workings of a traveling theater group which, in its life and in its work, is a paradigm of the transformative power of art. A film of amazing clarity of purpose which depicts with compelling intimacy the group´s resistance to a tyrannical state apparatus. The creators of the film take us with bold and brilliant sequencing from country to country to follow the drama of historical interaction between the makers of culture and the political matrix that defines them.”
Judith Malina, The Living Theatre, New York
The film succeeds in creating a compelling vision of the nature of avant-garde performance in the late 20th Century Europe. It also succeds, on a different level, as a thoughtful rumination on the difficult relations between culture and authority in the post-World War II decades. An important meditation on the social meaning of modern theatre. This film should be widely seen.”
John Bell, Theatre Week, New York
An engaging chronicle of the final throes of Polish political repression.”
Variety, New York
Filmen sällar sig till de förnyande verken i svensk dokumentärfilm. Fascinerande inblickar i expressivt sceniskt skapande och den politiska vekligheten förenas med en stark filmisk uttrycksfullhet.”
Jan Aghed, Sydsvenska Dagbladet
En fantastisk, intelligent och passionerad film.”
Ingela Brovik, Helsingborgs Dagblad
Äkta och levande konst med ömsint inkänning och stor artistisk precision.”
Lars Hansegård, OBS Kulturkvarten, Sveriges Radio P1
En rik och varm film om en handfull människor som valt teatern som livshandling. En film om vår tid.”
Elisabeth Sörenson, Tidskriften Chaplin
Ett helgjutet och inspirerande verk om en grupp skådespelare son lever sin konst och spelar sina liv. En angelägen film för var och en som är intresserad av samspelet mellan liv och konst. Filmkameran har utomordentligt fint fångat mötet mellan teater och verklighet. De intensivt vibrerande bilderna gör oss till deltagare i det drama som Åttonde Dagen spelar upp. Filmen visar hur teatern växer fram som motståndshandling i en komplex, konfliktfylld tid.”
Sverker Andréasson, G-P
Den här filmen är inte bara en berättelse om några envisa förkämpar för en experimentell teaterkonst utan också en reseskildring från vägen in i det nya Europa.”
Bernt Eklund, Expressen
En film om den europeiskt ryktbara teatergruppen från Poznan. Men filmen är betydligt mer än så, den är som en av teatergruppens egna fräna, provokativa, poetiska, brutala och ömsinta föreställningar.”
Bertil Palmqvist, Arbetet
En film som får sin speciella spänning genom sammanflätningen av liv och konst mot bakgrund av den politiska utvecklingen i Östeuropa. Helanders och Perssons film har en varm och närgången puls.”
Hans-Erik Hjertén, DN
Utmärkt, välgjord och mångfaldigt prisbelönad.”
Gunna Rehlin, GT/Idag
Nominated for the European film prize FELIX, 1992 and for
the Nordic Filmprize, 1993
Winner of The Human Rights Prize, Pärnu International Film Festival, 1993
Nominated for ”The Best Film about Theatre”, Bobigny, France 1994
Invited by The Academy of Motion Picture in Los Angeles as a candidate for an Oscar, 1994
San Sebastian, Spain
Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia
Festival dei Popoli, Florens, Italy
Mannheim International Film Festival, Germany
Haifa International Film Festival, Israel
Cinema du Reel, Paris, France
Amsterdam International Film Festival, Holland
Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden
Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia
Munich International Documentary Film Festival
International Film Festival, Pärnu, Estonia
New York Film Festival on Human Rights
San Fransisco Film Festival on Human Rights
Györ International Film Festival, Hungary
Bobigny International Film Festival, Paris, France
Bremen International Film Festival
European Festival of Culture of the European Council, Kraków, Poland
Kraków International Film Festival, Poland
Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, New York
Katowice International Film Festival, Poland
Oldenburg International Film Festival, Germany
Sibiu International Festival, Romania
Berlin Festival of Culture, Germany
Portugal International Film Festival
Screened in European TV-channel ARTE, Scandinavian TV, Polish and Czech TV etc.