Two Polish films are on a ‘must see list’ of movies banned in Russia – with Wojciech Smarzowski’s Róża (Rose) taking top spot.
The Russian blog Rufabula.com published a list of the top ten films that should be seen… but that were not allowed to be shown in Russia.
Number one on the list was Róża, banned because of the rape of the title character by a Red Army soldier. The film shows her further humiliation when she is threatened with expulsion from Poland by the post-war Soviet authorities.
Number three on the list is Jan Komasa’s Miasto 44 (City 44). This film was banned in Russia because it suggests that the Red Army deliberately delayed its entry into Warsaw, to allow Nazi German troops to brutally put down the Warsaw Uprising of that summer.
However, Miasto 44 is also controversial in Poland. It has been criticised as being anti-patriotic, depicting the Warsaw Uprising as a lost cause with no leadership from the start, and with putting too much emphasis on a ‘good German’.
Also on the list are films critical of more modern Russian policy, including the Estonian-Georgian production Tangerines (for Polish viewers, Mandarynki). This film, by Zaza Urushadze, is set during the 1992 war in Abkhazia, Georgia.