Farewells AKA Lydia Ate the Apple
(Pozegnania)
With Maria Wachowiak, Tadeusz Janczar, Gustaw Holoubek.
Poland, 1958, 35mm, black & white, 97 min.
Polish with English subtitles.
Print source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
A melancholy and unexpectedly frank study of the inextricability of love and regret, Has’ second feature subtly observes Poland before and after World War II through the lens of an unlikely young couple suddenly torn apart by the winds of war. Farewells centers upon a seemingly doomed love affair between a bourgeois young student and a jaded bargirl, subtly revealing the social pressures mounting against their relationship before the outbreak of war sends the young man to the battlefield and ultimately to Auschwitz. Are redemption and love made possible or impossible by the end of war? One of Has’ great early works, Farewells revealed his flare for literary adaptation in the evocative screenplay co-written by Has with the author of the source novel, Stanislaw Dygat.