Rose (2011 film)

In summer 1945 Tadeusz, an officer of the Armia Krajowa and veteran of the Warsaw uprising, whose wife was raped and murdered by the Germans, moves to Masuria, a region in former German East Prussia, which became part of Poland as a result of the Potsdam Agreement after World War II. He visits Róża, a widow of a German Wehrmacht soldier whose death Tadeusz had witnessed, to hand over her husband’s possessions. Róża invites Tadeusz to stay at her farm to protect her against marauders and the brutal rapes she had previously experienced during the Soviet East Prussian Offensive and in the lawless atmosphere of postwar Masuria. From this partnership of purpose, slowly respect and love arises - a "frowned-upon relationship" attracting the "unwelcome attention of the new Polish nationalists as well as the notorious Soviet NKVD".{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2011/film/markets-festivals/rose-1117945460/|title=Review|magazine=Variety|date=16 June 2011}}

While Róża is regarded a German by the new Polish authorities, thus facing her expulsion, Tadeusz wants her to declare her Polish nationality as many Masurians did in a "humiliating nationality verification procedure"

As director Wojciech Smarzowski calls it, the Masurians "fell victim to two instances of renationalisation and were later destroyed".{{cite web|url=https://culture.pl/en/article/wojciech-smarzowski-rose-interview|title=Wojciech Smarzowski - Rose - interview|publisher=culture.pl|accessdate=24 July 2021}}{{cite web|url=http://www.filmneweurope.com/news/poland/rose-dominates-the-14th-polish-film-awards|title=Rose dominates the 14th Polish film awards|publisher=filmneweurope.com|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423002731/http://www.filmneweurope.com/news/poland/rose-dominates-the-14th-polish-film-awards|archivedate=23 April 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://berlin.polnischekultur.de/index.php?navi=002&id=800|title=Polnische Filme auf der Berlinale|publisher=Polnisches Institut Berlin|accessdate=26 May 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071705/http://berlin.polnischekultur.de/index.php?navi=002&id=800|archivedate=4 March 2016}}

• Agata Kulesza as Róża Kwiatkowska
• Marcin Dorociński as Tadeusz
• Edward Linde-Lubaszenko as pastor
• Szymon Bobrowski as Kazik
• Jacek Braciak as Władek
• Malwina Buss as Jadwiga Kwiatkowska
• Kinga Preis as Amelia
• Marian Dziędziel as Mateusz
• Eryk Lubos as Wasyl
• Lech Dyblik as Woźniak
• Robert Wabich as Hawryluk
• Grzegorz Wojdon as Madecki
• Mateusz Trembaczowski as Georg{{citation|title=Róża|url=https://www.filmweb.pl/film/R%C3%B3%C5%BCa-2011-564694|language=pl|accessdate=24 July 2021}}

File:Wojciech smarzowski.jpg with the Polish Academy Award for Best Film, 2012]]

Variety has called the movie "almost unbearably brutal yet hauntingly romantic" and commended "Genre-savvy helmer Smarzowski's gritty mise-en-scene augments the force of the narrative, putting into visual terms its themes of ill-fated love and a nation doomed by nationalism. What in other hands might have played as costume melodrama focused on the victimized title character here takes the perspective of the loner hero, as Smarzowski gives the pic the hallmarks of a latter-day Western."

Giuseppe Sedia in a review for the Krakow Post wrote: "From a moral point of view Róża is a Western crammed with violence but filmed without complacency. Smarzowski referred to himself as the “third Cohen brother” and there may be a kernel of truth in this, at least in his commitment to injecting a dose of realism into movie genres that have never been fully developed in Polish cinema"."{{cite web|last=Sedia|first=Giuseppe|date=26 March 2012|url=http://www.krakowpost.com/4539/2012/03/kino-mania-march-2012|type=Review|title=Kino Mania: March 2012|work=Krakow Post|accessdate=24 July 2021}}

Róża distribution in Russia has been banned by authorities in 2015 for depicting rapes and other atrocities committed by Red Army soldiers in East Prussia.{{cite web|url=http://www.offcamera.pl/en/aktualnosci/polish-films-banned-in-russia|author=Jędrzej Skrzypczyk|title=Polish films banned in Russia|publisher=offcamera.pl|accessdate=26 May 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227125353/http://www.offcamera.pl/en/aktualnosci/polish-films-banned-in-russia|archivedate=27 December 2016|url-status=dead}}

• Grand Prix, Warsaw Film Festival 2011{{cite web|url=https://www.screendaily.com/festivals/wojciech-smarzowskis-rose-takes-top-prize-in-warsaw/5033383.article|title=Wojciech Smarzowski's Rose takes top prize in Warsaw|work=Screen Daily|publisher=Screen International|date=17 October 2011|accessdate=24 July 2021}}
• Polish Film Awards: Best Film, Best Directing, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Script, Best Sound and the Audience Award
• Critics' Award National Film Festival in Gdynia 2011{{cite web|url=http://archiwum.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/85375|title=Rose goes on general release|publisher=Radio Poland|date=3 February 2012|accessdate=24 July 2021}}
• Special Jury Prize of the 23rd Polish Film Festival in America for Artistic Excellence and Importance{{cite web|url=http://www.pffamerica.com/2011awards_en.htm|title=2011 awards|publisher=pffamerica.com|accessdate=26 May 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406104805/http://www.pffamerica.com/2011awards_en.htm|archivedate=6 April 2012|url-status=dead}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|2043979}}
• [http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-film-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/wojciech-smarzowski-rose Wojciech Smarzowski - Rose] at culture.pl

{{Warsaw Film Festival Audience Award}}

{{Polish Academy Award for Best Film}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2011 films

Category:2011 war drama films

Category:2010s Polish-language films

Category:Polish war drama films

Category:Polish World War II films

Category:Films about Polish resistance during World War II

Category:Films set in Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship