With Fire and Sword

The seventeenth century, on the eastern edge of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the Cossack uprising breaks out, a Polish officer and a Cossack colonel fall for the same woman. The triangle dissolves into the war; sieges, betrayals and changes of side follow each other. Jerzy Hoffman directed, from the first book of Henryk Sienkiewicz's trilogy. Izabella Scorupco plays Helena, Michal Zebrowski plays Skrzetuski, Russian actor Aleksandr Domogarov plays Bohun, Boguslaw Linda plays Zagloba. Hoffman filmed the trilogy backwards. He shot the last book in 1969 and the middle one in 1974; the first had to wait another twenty-five years, until after Poland's change of system. It was the most expensive Polish production to that point and repaid it: more than seven million tickets sold, a record for the country's modern era. Its most contested aspect is its view of the Cossack uprising, criticised in Ukraine for taking the Polish side. Who it is for: viewers who like large-cast historical war films. Who it is not for: anyone new to the source; names and factions come fast.