Creating a Sacred Space: On Some Film Frames from the Warsaw Uprising
Bartosz FILIP
John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , PolandAbstract
The text comprises a scrutiny of some documentary film materials made by the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Headquarters of the Home Army during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
The focus of the discourse is the filming of the battle of the Holy Cross Church in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, one of the most spectacular actions of the insurgents, and one of the few victorious ones. The materials in question, which carry a deep symbolic appeal, seem, from the perspective of a few decades, to utterly contradict the image of the religiousness, or rather irreligiousness, of the Warsaw insurgents, created in Polish feature films from the period of the People’s Republic of Poland.
In the present essay, the author reconstructs the attitude of the insurgents towards the Catholic religion based on extracts from the press published at the time of the uprising, and then provides an aesthetic analysis of the frames in question pointing to their symbolism.
Translated by Dorota Chabrajska
Keywords:
Home Army, Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw Uprising newsreels, the sacred, religiousness of the 1944 Warsaw insurgentsJohn Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
