80 Million

80 Million is Polish historical cinema that turns its nose up at the usual pathos and flirts with a variety of genres. Director Waldemar Krzystek delivers a comedy thriller about one of the more unusual episodes of the pro-democracy Solidarity movement’s early years. In 1981, local activists withdraw 80 million złotys from Solidarity’s bank accounts in a bid to stop the government from crippling the movement. The film is an impressively genuine portrayal of communist-era realities in which Krzystek once again shows that he has few equals when recreating powerful mass crowd scenes – the film’s closing sequence, showing a demonstration on Wrocław’s Grunwaldzki Bridge, packs an emotional punch rarely encountered elsewhere in Polish cinema.