The Last Day of Summer

• Irena Laskowska: you
• January Machulski: He

The last summer day is a Polish film from the year 1958.

Action

A lone Baltic Sea beach. A woman bathes in the sun. A young man watching them. No one else to linger at this beach. The idyll is disturbed only by over-flying combat aircraft. She is a few years older than the young man and feels disturbed by him. When the young man runs into the open sea and is no longer visible from a distance, she jumps into the water and saves him. The young man had forgotten that he can not swim. Slowly they are getting closer now. You have a barbecue fish, protect yourself from a brief rain shower. After a kiss followed by a cut. In the next scene they are together. She falls asleep and he leaves. When she wakes up and finds that he is gone, she is looking for him on the beach. She goes into the water and disappears beneath the waves.

Background

The film is a twisted, black-and- white experimental film that looks almost like a silent film. The young people are still influenced by memories of the war and do not seem to find their way in the new communist Poland. The repeatedly over the beach away flying military aircraft awaken the memory of the Second World War and the lonely beach symbolizes peace.

The film was created by a group of friends with an old camera reporter. Overall, there were only five film crew. The film is considered the first Polish film author.

Reviews

• Kabeleins.de ( Filmlexikon ): The directorial debut of Polish writer Konwicki has in his consistent sparseness - he only plays on the beach - lots of allegorical poetry and an eye for the subtleties of the human encounter.