TALE OF A CITY [Main Title]

An impression, built around "scenes... taken in occupied Poland" of the war history of Warsaw.

The film first recalls Warsaw's 4-week siege by the Germans in 1939: the Western Allies did not learn the lesson of Warsaw until one year later they in turn experienced the power of the German army (film of siege and of German 1940 advance). "But Warsaw was not defeated; the Nation did not die." 'Clandestine' film suggests the work of urban resistance (underground newspapers, poster and slogan campaign) and still photographs of rural partisans; a heavy toll on German East Front supplies claimed. Film of Ghetto wall, ruins, and an impromptu shrine recalls the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Hitler is hung in effigy. Final section talks of the August 1944 uprising (although in the absence of actuality film, 'illustrative' material is limited to pre-war or 1939 scenes, some in negative as "ghosts"); it is suggested there may again be "lessons" to be appreciated in future years. The city "died a soldier's death in the common cause, and to die in battle is to live forever."

35mm