Interrogation

Interrogation (Polish: Przesłuchanie) is a 1982 Polish film about false imprisonment under the Stalinist pro-Soviet Polish regime in the early 1950s. An ordinary, apolitical woman refuses to cooperate with the abusive system and its officials, who are trying to force her to incriminate a former incidental lover, now an accused political prisoner. It was directed by Ryszard Bugajski. Due to its anti-communist themes, the Polish communist government banned the film from public viewing for over seven years, until the 1989 dissolution of the Eastern Bloc allowed it to see the light of day. The film had its first theatrical release in December 1989 in Poland and was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, where Krystyna Janda won the award for Best Actress and the film itself was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Despite the film's controversial initial reception and subsequent banning, it garnered a cult fanbase through the circulation of illegally taped VHS copies, which director Ryszard Bugajski secretly helped to leak out to the general public.