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MUNDIAL. THE HIGHEST STAKES

POLISH TITLE: MUNDIAL. GRA O WSZYSTKO

REPRESENTED BY KFF

The “España '82” World Cup was the last big success of the Polish national football team. Viewers all over the country, glued to their TV sets, marvelled at the goals scored by Boniek and Smolarek, the extraordinary agility of Lato, Kupcewicz and Buncol, the spectacular goalkeeper parades of Młynarczyk. For a brief moment, Poland forgot the bleak reality of Martial Law: censorship, troops on the streets, prisons overflowing with members of the political opposition. The national team's performance was so successful that it was nicknamed “the best TV series of Martial Law Poland”.

“Mundial. The highest stakes.” tells the fascinating, untold story of sport and politics in the aberrant period of Martial Law. The World Cup was watched with equal devotion by interned activists of the delegalised “Solidarity” and censors, who's job was to diligently cut any signs of Polish political opposition from the live TV broadcast (mostly banners with the word “Solidarity” displayed in the bleachers of the stadium). The film shows us also the perspective of the football players, who, apart from having to deal with the pressure of playing in the World Cup, had to live up to the expectations of their fans and skilfully manage the political regime themselves. 

The documentary Mndial. The highest stakes.” is a combination of unique archive materials from *Polish Television, Polish Film Chronicles, *materials from *FIFA, *3D-animated photos from the Białołęka internment camp, drawings and interviews with the football players sports commentators and the interned members of political opposition.

GENRE:
documentary
COUNTRY:
Poland
RUNNING TIME:
96'
YEAR:
DIRECTING:
Michał Bielawski
SCRIPT:
Michał Bielawski
DOP:
Petro Aleksowski, Tomasz Suski
EDITOR:
Grzegorz Mazur
MUSIC:
Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz
PRODUCTION:
Unlimited Film Operations

Michał Bielawski »

Michal graduated from the Humanities Department at the University of Warsaw. For ten years, he worked as a journalist for radio and television. In 2013, he got the Polish Film Institute Award for the TV program “One scene”. In the same year, he debuted with the feature documentary „Mundial. The Highest Stakes”, in which he mixed the perspective of political prisoners of the communist regime with the story of the polish national team tournament during 1982 World Cup in Spain. In next years he directed documentaries: “1989”, about the end of communism in Poland, “The Team” and several documentary series in collaboration with Canal+Discovery and Discovery channels. His last film, “The Wind. A Documentary Thriller”, co-produced by HBO, is a journey into the community of Polish highlanders who are affected by an extremely destructive wind. Recently he took part of screenwriting program “Less is More”, where he developed scenario of his first fiction feature film.


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