Tomasz Piasecki

A story, warm and full of humor, about Maszenka, an 11-year-old girl from an orphanage in the Bieszczady Mountains who loves ballet. The first stage on her road to fulfilling her dream is the entrance exam to the ballet school in Gdansk. To make it there in time, she escapes from the orphanage, taking newly hired educator Kordula with her. They travel all the way across Poland, hiding from the police and meeting people who help them in need.

All of Europe was affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, but some parts were hurt less badly than others. France, for instance, was relatively prosperous. In this grim drama, a sturdy Polish boxer and his family have settled into a mining town in northern France because that's where the work is. Like European "guest workers" in the 1990s, the Polish immigrants then were frequently treated badly by the locals. In this drama, the romantic aspirations of the boxer's son are thwarted by the concerted efforts of the local men and his own family's preference that he marry another Polish girl. After his romance fails, the son becomes a union activist and sacrifices a great deal to try to gain higher wages for the miners, but the contract he works out is reneged on by the duplicitous owners.