Kanal

In the dying days of the Warsaw Uprising, a company of Home Army fighters attempts to escape encircled German forces by fleeing through the city's sewer system. As they wade through darkness and filth, hope curdles into despair and disorientation. The film offers an unflinching, poetic vision of a doomed struggle.

The Warsaw Uprising of August-October 1944 saw the Polish Home Army rise against German occupation, hoping for Soviet support that never fully materialized. As the uprising collapsed, surviving fighters used the sewer network to move between besieged districts, often with tragic results. The uprising's defeat led to the near-total destruction of Warsaw.

Wajda, who lived through the German occupation, based the film on a novel by uprising participant Jerzy Stefan Stawiński and is regarded as historically and emotionally authentic.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, joined by the Soviet Union on 17 September. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after the invasion began.

The Westerplatte depot near Danzig held out for seven days against overwhelming odds and became a national symbol. Warsaw was besieged and surrendered on 28 September; the last regular units capitulated in early October.

Directed by Andrzej Wajda

Cast: Teresa Iżewska, Tadeusz Janczar, Wieńczysław Gliński

Positioned at September 1944 within the Late 1944 phase of the war, as part of the Warsaw Uprising. This is entry 123 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Warsaw Uprising
• Home Army
• sewers
• Polish cinema
• resistance

• 

  Warsaw '44

  August-October 1944

• 

  Ill Met by Moonlight

  26 April – 14 May 1944

• 

  Valkyrie

  20–21 July 1944

• 

  Son of Saul

  October 1944

• 

  1939 Battle of Westerplatte

  1–7 September 1939

• 

  Westerplatte

  1–7 September 1939