Far from Poland Reviews

What began as a straightforward documentary on Poland's Solidarity fight gradually developed into this pseudodocumentary that employs footage from Poland and interviews with Polish Americans, and reenacts speeches. While in Poland in August 1980, Godmilow found herself in the midst of a strike in the Lenin Shipyards at Gdansk. She returned to New York, raised $20,000, and hired a crew of five to go back with her. Martial law was quickly declared, however, preventing her return. Even an appeal from famed Polish director Andrzej Wajda (who would soon leave his country) failed to sway the Russian-backed government. Receiving film footage from the Solidarity Film Agency in Poland, Godmilow began constructing her documentary. It was not long before the agency was disbanded and the film stopped coming. Rather than abandon the project or resort to a cliched "open" ending, Godmilow cast actors from the Mabou Mines company to portray famous Poles (Maleczech as Walentynowicz, a 55-year-old crane operator whose firing began the strikes in Gdansk, and Raymond as "K-62," a bureaucrat's bureaucrat) and had the nonprofessionals recite their famed counterparts' published speeches. An insightful look at the situation in Poland, FAR FROM POLAND is not only highly informative (an expectation of any documentary) but manages to stretch the boundaries of fiction and documentary dramatically.