The Deluge

In the middle of the seventeenth century the Swedish army invades the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The nobleman Andrzej Kmicic is at first crude and uncontrolled, damaging his own side; then, accused of treason, he hides his identity and sets out to defend the country. Personal redemption and national resistance run on the same line. Jerzy Hoffman directed, from the second book of Henryk Sienkiewicz's trilogy. Daniel Olbrychski plays Kmicic, Malgorzata Braunek plays Olenka. It was one of the largest Polish productions of its era: thousands of extras, real cavalry units and a shoot spread over months. The siege of Jasna Gora is its widest sequence. It was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar in 1974. Viewing figures in Poland were extraordinary; it was shown again and again on television for generations and its lines entered everyday speech. Hoffman filmed the trilogy backwards, so although this adapts the second book it was his second film in the cycle by coincidence of order. Who it is for: viewers who like large-scale historical war films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting something short; it comes in two parts and runs very long.