Interrogation

The story behind Polish director Ryszard Bugajski's Interrogation (1982; released 1989) is a fascinating one; one which some have compared to "a scene from a Cold War novel". Originally filmed in 1982, the film underwent a series of complications and set backs, mostly due to the communist state it was made under, as well as several fortunate near misses; for example, Bugajski, and Poland for that matter, ran out of 35mm film during production, leaving Bugajski to rely on the help of Western European and American friends to bail him out by shipping him enough film to finish the project. Luckily, the film was completed days before martial law was declared across Poland in December of that year, giving Bugajski and his assistant director time to hide the film - bury, in fact - in order to protect both the film and themselves from the state. After editing the film, Bugajski had to present it to the Cultural Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Incredibly, someone present at the hearing managed to record the whole discussion on a smuggled-in Dictaphone, the transcript of which provides an intriguing insight into the mechanisms - and paranoia - of the censoring state, who unsurprisingly shelved the film.

However, the story does not end there; far from it. In his notes on Interrogation, Andy Townsend explains how the film managed to slip through the hands of the state:

Bugajski realised that the film could be 'lost' or destroyed and so, risking imprisonment at the very least, he surreptitiously made a copy on tape... In what seems like a scene from a Cold War novel, Bugajski then met a friend at a bus stop and gave him the tape for safe keeping. From this tape VHS copies were made and were leaked out into general circulation. Interrogation became a genuine underground hit. A population otherwise fed propaganda were holding secret viewings of the film all over Poland.

"While Bugajski's harrowing film of Stalinist-style police tactics was being seen all over Poland, the director himself was forced into exile in Canada" notes David A. Cook. The film stayed underground until its eventual release in 1989, gaining critical acclaim and winning Krystyna Janda the accolade of best actress at the 1990 Cannes festival.

Perhaps the  moral of the remarkable story behind Interrogation, is that it illustrates that cinema is more than just entertainment. In stark contrast to the glamour of Hollywood, for several Eastern-European directors it is a matter of life and death: "Interrogation remains a profoundly powerful film. It is a testament to the determination of a director who risked everything to bring it to an audience" whilst simultaneously highlighting the irony that "a Communist regime, for whom 'propaganda' was once the proudest weapon in its ideological arsenal, has in the end come to fear it too."