Man Of Marble Review essays

Man Of Marble Review essays Man of Marble is an epic film about two periods of Polands life, the 1950s when Poland became a Peoples Republic, and was at the height of the Stalinization period, and the 1970s when a revealing look back of that time takes place through a young film student and a camera crews investigation of a former workers hero. Agnieska is a determined film student who feels she has found the ideal subject for her diploma film: an investigative documentary on former post-war working-class hero Mateusz Birkut. Birkut was a leader and a public figure who becomes unpopular with the communist government and disappears from the public eye. Her producer reluctantly agrees to the project, yet he holds reservations for the possible political implications the film could produce. Agnieska conducts her first interview with a man named Burski who was a renowned filmmaker who found the photogenic Birkut in the industrial town of Nowa Huta. He decided to showcase the young man in a propaganda filled documentary known as Architects of Our Happiness. With a support team of bricklayers including his best friend, Witek, Birkut sets a record for laying bricks and becomes a hero to the people. Birkut is publicized as an exemplary worker, a Stakhanovite, and is honored for his skill and productivity with larger than life posters hanging from government buildings and impressive museum sculptures formed in his image. Birkut becomes an instant celebrity and rises with social prominence until an ill-fated day. During a demonstration, Birkut is sabotaged by being passed a burning hot brick in front of a camera. He hands are badly burned and his career takes a bad turn. Witek disappears one day after being summoned to a government official. Birkut is outraged and searches in vain for his good friend. He is imprisoned and while locked up, his wife denounces him. Upon his release from prison he seeks to men...