The famous play by Sławomir Mrożek, directed by Maciej Englert. A 1999 production.
Two friends recall the PRL. After serving time in jail, they took up an illegal currency exchange. Cheated by partner - they decide to take revenge. Preparations take many months, but the action ends differently than it was planned.
The action is set in the early 20th century. The film is made up of six sequences. In the first, Michal, young man who came from Poland to Germany, enrolls in a course on how to behave in social situations and on etiquette. However when he tries to approach girls using the rules which he's been taught... he only makes a fool of himself. Then, he goes to work for a man who owns a carousel and who loves to chase other women. In the next sequence, Michal meets the divorced landlady, Mrs. Luther, and goes through a whole lot of erotic experiences. When he escapes exhausted from his landlady, he starts working in a mine and visits brothels on a regular basis. He looks on women in a totally cynical manner. However, his persistent wandering must finally result in a true love.
As Poland is placed under martial law in 1981, two confidence tricksters try to evade both the police and the army. They become embroiled in a web of schemes engineered by the secret service, fellow criminals and the democratic resistance.
Four friends work out the interests of a dishonest businessman.
A well-known wheeler dealer joins the underground opposition to avoid responsibility after stealing valuable coins. When he is released from prison, he sets up a private bank with high interest rates together with a Security Service colonel. However, the colonel has bigger ambitions.
Young man frustrated with his life and pointless job becomes one of the suspects in serial killer investigation, but he suspects someone else...
South Korean Kim lives alone in Warsaw, Poland, where he teaches taekwondo. His wife and daughter live in Berlin, just six hours away by train, but he's been traveling around Europe for 10 years and hesitates to even send a birthday card to his daughter. One day, he finds the bag of a woman, Yola (Eva Gabriluk), who has been pickpocketed, and the two become close. Another chance encounter with a delinquent young man, Mihau (Pavogiu Bourcik), brings them together, and they become an important part of Kim's life. Through Yola, Kim reconnects with lost feelings of love, and the always-flirtatious and unruly Mihau reminds him of his own restless youth...
The year is 1750. Europe is in a ravaged state following a plague. Victor Moritz and Rufolf de Sevre are gamblers, frequenters of elegant casinos and fashionable brothels. Rudolf is a young aristocrat, charming and charismatic. His degenerate behavior has an animal intensity. Victor, though leading the life of libertine, remains to one side. He is a man of a refined taste despite his low birth and buys his noble title thanks to his gambling skills. Victor and Rudolf have been inseparable friends for years. Then two young, beautiful and innocent people - a brother and sister - enter their life...
When cancer-stricken alcoholic actor discovers he's only got 3 months to live, he decides to change his life and reconcile with his estranged daughter.
Following a fire at an orphanage, the kids are moved into a seniors' home. A young girl tries to befriend and cheer up an elderly man who is full of regrets at the end of his life.
Klara, devoted to her work as a tax inspector, becomes infatuated with the dashing but irresponsible and cynical Marian who is about to be charged with tax evasion.
Journalist Anna is trying to make a documentary about an opposition activist she met years ago.
Jacek, a young violinist, falls in love with reciprocity with the cellist Ania. Ania's mother is against this relationship. So she sends Jacek to Cracow to get an antique violin. In the meantime, he and Ania go to New York. Jacek returns to Warsaw as soon as possible. However, the last train from Krakow has already left. On the platform, however, he meets people who are going to Katowice, from where the fastest train to Warsaw leaves. On the train, Jacek meets miners who are going to Warsaw to protest. He accidentally gets soiled with coal, which causes airport security to take him for one of the protesting miners who want to plant a bomb on the plane. Jacek runs onto the runway, but on the stairs to the plane is hit by anti-terrorists trying to prevent the alleged bombing.
Adam Horn, a young Polish scientist, is conducting research to discover a substance that makes personality swapping possible. Appearing before a committee granting funds for further research, he presents a somewhat "stilted" achievement, demonstrating on his experimental pet the personality swap of a dog with a goat Matilda. The fame of his research reaches the former KGB, which sends him an agent committed to intercepting the research results.
Zoska, is an attractive, well-educated and hard working woman who doesn't want to be stereotypically labeled by modern world. When she gets fired her world collapses, now she must realize what she really wants from life.
Ala is a frustrated housewife and mother of three children. When she suddenly gets killed in a car accident, her family have to learn how to cope with the new situation.
The story of a family that is forced to flee the ČSSR in 1969 and seeks a new home in Germany.