Fall 2024—Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 p.m.

A still image from the film of a woman confronting a man on a horse.

Lotna

1959, 89 minutes
Directed by: Andrzej Wajda
Written by: Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Żukrowski
Music: Tadeusz Baird
Principal cast: Jerzy Pichelski, Adam Pawlikowski, Jerzy Moess Mieczysław Łoza, Bożena Kurowska, Bronisław Dardziński 

Description

The film, based on Wojciech Żukrowski story of the same title, is set in the beginning of World War II, when the Polish cavalry still fought with lances against German troops. The story is told through the trials of Lotna, a beautiful white thoroughbred horse that passes from one cavalry-man to another during the September campaign. The film features one of the most discussed scenes in Polish cinema: the symbolic attack on the German panzer troops undertaken by the Polish cavalry, and an image of a cavalry-man hitting the barrel of German tank with a sabre in an act of desperation.