An epic period drama, which is interpreted as criticism of industrialisation and capitalist greed.

Three friends of different nationalities develop a plan to invest in the textile industry in the rapidly developing city of Łódź. The men eventually succeed in building a factory, albeit at a steep cost, both financially and personally.

The stunning authenticity of the picture by the Polish director is, to a large extent, the result of perfectly preserved post-factory buildings. The directors of photography have captured an incredibly precise and wide panorama of a bustling metropolis, whose inhabitants become slaves to money – a place where moral values and ideals were long ago forgotten in favour of cunning politics and pure greed, symbolised by the final scene suppressing a workers’ strike and a shot fired in the direction of a worker wielding a red banner.

Based on Władysław Reymont’s 1897 novel.

The screenings mark the climax of the celebrations of Andrzej Wajda’s centenary in Estonia.