The Birthday (Urodziny młodego warszawiaka)

THE BIRTHDAY

Scenario by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński based on their own novel

The filmmakers thank the Polish Army for their help and cooperation

I was born on September 24, 1921 in Warsaw.

I have never left my town before.

I wish to tell you about the four days of my birthday.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1938 MY SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY

In May that year I graduated.

I was getting ready for yearly military service.

I was an adult.

I could drink, smoke and get acquainted with women.

On my birthday, my father invited me to a glamorous dinner.

Oh, here you are!

My son, Jurek.

Good evening.

My wife, Jadzia.

I am glad to meet Jurek.

I am glad that you're here, my son.

You still have a week off, but what's next?

When we were coming back from Venice,

on the German side of the border were the columns of army trucks.

On the Czech's two customs officers were watching the barbed wire.

Will they defend themselves?

The officer said they won't give away any land.

He was a very handsome man.

I drink to your future, Jurek.

Next birthday you'll be after the military service,

and then I'll send you to Sorbonne.

How was the honeymoon?

Did you like Venice?

Yes it was very nice.

I almost fell into canal.

We are facing a great danger, military service is not a good idea.

We should all go to America.

Yes, yes, to America!

It's my duty to go to the army.

Last week I've delivered a beautiful Chrysler to the General.

He could give you a break.

You'd save your back.

Don't you dare.

Bravo. I thought the same, when I was seventeen.

Later I got over it.

Because you've got rich.

Only poor people love their country.

May I dance with your daughter?

Would you like to dance with the lieutenant, my darling?

Go, have some fun.

You don't know how long the world will last.

She'll be safe with me, Sir.

A great explosion awaits us, my son.

We were lucky to have twenty years of peace.

We need to leave. Too bad I can't take your mom with me.

I know, you'll take your fourth wife.

This is the last time I'll play Pygmalion.

I already thought it up.

Intelligent, interested in the world,

loyal, in love with her creator.

Don't laugh, I know she nuzzles this young officer.

One day, you'll understand.

That's for your birthday.

My Dad was repulsive and appealing at the same time.

Like a jealous woman, I thought that the more money he spends on me,

the more he loves me.

Thank you.

Think about my proposal.

I already refused it.

- Hi. - Hi.

Fred Astaire used to drive a car like that in "Let's Dance".

And here, we're just looking at a shabby motorbike.

I wish I had a bike like that.

- Is it yours? - Yes.

His dad bought it for him to wipe off his tears.

Stop it, Ziemowit.

He is sickly, got C category. The army doesn't want him.

So, now he feels bad.

At school he was released from physical education classes.

I have an inflammation of the cardiac muscle. I'll go to uni.

Or he'll kill himself.

Cheers to the conscript with census.

A seventeen year old boy is perfect to scrub latrines.

Excuse me, but I've got allocation to the communication in Zgierz.

It's a school for the smart ones.

You have to understand how voice travels through a wire.

And why a bell rings.

It's better than cleaning horse dung.

Please eat, or it will be spoiled in this heat.

We won't allow that to happen, Madam.

Where did you get allocated?

I'll join the infantry in Zambrow.

Ziemowit the aristocrat is probably going to cavalry.

No, rather to artillery.

Same as my great-grandfather in the November 1830 rising.

You can't beat Ziemowit.

- And you, the best mathematician in the whole class? - Me?

I'm going to Armour.

In Modzylin.

That was our last meeting before the army.

This was the last time I saw Krzysztof.

He will burn to death in a tank, in September 1939.

Officer cadet.

Officer cadet!

What is going on?

We need wires in the castle.

I know.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1939 MY EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY

This is Karol. Answer, Wanda. Do you hear me?

Alright, that's it!

That's Kako. She poos in red.

She was at the zoo, next to the monkeys.

She is useless. You can't eat it, or use it as an appetiser.

We could hunt a boar or a zebra.

Everything has been hunted already.

Let's make soup out of it.

The meat is better than the pigeon.

If you let her live, gentlemen.

Tonight, I will make a feast for you.

Damn it.

Sir, we are almost done.

May I go home?

Be back for supper, or I'll have you shot.

Yes, sir. Unless I get shot.

If you get shot, you'll be punished.

Yes, sir.

This is crazy to conduct the war at your home town.

You're here.

The soldiers that were here were always in the toilet.

And now the stairs are dirty.

I've explained to them, but they didn't get that.

- Where did you get that? - Nice, huh?

- Could you feed her something? - Sure. Today is your birthday.

Wash your hands.

For whom is the third dish?

For your mother.

Now she is somewhere in the east.

She was stupid to run away.

They'd do nothing to her. She's a simple clerk.

They're evacuating the ministry.

That murderer made a mess of her life.

What about my father?

He sent you sugar, alcohol, chocolates.

Now he remembers, big-head.

I'd have refused if it wasn't for you.

Let's have some liquor, Grandson.

Where did you get that, Grandma?

The soldiers buried their horse and gave me a piece of tenderloin.

I wish you'll outlive this.

Nice times I lived to see.

My daughter's away, alive or not.

My son's in the infantry.

Maybe already dead. I only have you.

But still we don't know the day, or the hour.

Have you heard about any coming support?

From the east, there is Rydz coming with Bolsheviks.

And to Gdansk English are coming.

I always pray for that.

If they don't help us, we won't have Poland again.

Damn it. Damn it.

Thank you. St. Anthony.

It didn't fire.

Lieutenant colonel, cadet Bielecki reports his arrival.

This is my son.

Weren't you able to get him out of the army?

He didn't want to.

Good decision, cadet.

Please, sit down.

They're bombing the Mokotów Fort.

Tomorrow they'll try to take it.

It's hopeless now.

Act I ends with a catastrophe.

Don't you believe in a happy ending, lieutenant colonel?

We are on the right side.

It's been like that for centuries, and what of it?

Now they're shelling Krolikarnia.

- We can't give Krolikarnia away. - What is that?

It's an 18th century palace.

A monument, madam.

It overlooks the embankments.

I liked this colonel.

He didn't have to hide his fear like me.

He knew his duty. You could see he'd fulfil it to the end.

The next day, leading his soldiers to counterattack,

he will die by the ruins of Krolikarnia.

I have to go.

Good luck, cadet.

I always wanted to have a parrot.

You'll have it for a bottle of vodka and snack.

Let's have fun, we don't know how long the world will last.

Lieutenant colonel says we have ammunition only for three days.

Why did you did you stay in this trap? Surely not for love of your country?

They didn't want me in the army, even though I'm a reserve captain.

But the government is abroad. You have money. They could take you.

Quiet! You know, I don't know, how it happened.

We were packing our suitcases. The General Motors representative came.

He said this is the last moment.

I told him to have a toast for victory and leave.

He liked Jadwiga, so he was so eager to help.

He was a redhead, and he wasn't my type.

I came because it's my birthday.

I totally forgot about it.

You were supposed to go to the Sorbonne.