Janina Seredyńska

A family saga of Barbara Ostrzeńska-Niechcic and Bogumił Niechcic against the backdrop of the January Uprising of 1863 and World War I. The film is a rather straightforward and faithful adaptation of a novel by Maria Dabrowska with the same title. The plot is woven around the changing fortunes of a noble (upper-class) Niechcic family in the pre-WWI Poland. There are two main crossing threads: a social history one and an existential one.

Wacław Kaczmarski has been breeding pigeons for many years, which is a family tradition (his grandfather and father bred pigeons before him). The birds are an important part of his life; he spends every free moment with them, and they are his escape from everyday worries. Kaczmarski and his family live in Targówek in old apartments that are scheduled for demolition. He gets a new apartment in Ursynów, where he immediately installs pigeon boxes on the balcony. The neighbors are outraged.

March 1945. After crossing the Oder River, one of the Polish Army units heading for Berlin encounters resistance from German defensive formations. After a fierce exchange of fire, a doctor operates on seriously wounded soldiers. Private Józef Łopuch helps him in the field hospital and also serves as a barber. Łopuch, who despite sending over twenty letters has received no reply from his wife Sabina, composes another letter assuring his wife that although war is a nasty business, nothing can happen to him, as he was born in a forge...