The Scar (1976) User Reviews (9)

The Man in the Middle- Middle period Kieslowski

[max von meyerling · 8/10 · 24 April 2006]

BLIZNA (THE SCAR) Stephen Bednarz is a successful manager who is handed a plum assignment: to construct a huge synthetic fertilizer factory and a new town to go along with it. The magnitude of the project is stunning. It involves not only the preparation, design and construction of the plant but the social services of the town built for the plant's workers.

As dedicated as Bednarz is to his work he is alienated from his family. His wife refuses to accompany him to the town where they once lived because as the head of a local Party committee she had to fire a teacher which caused a scandal whose exact nature is never explained except through the coded use of a key year in Polish history, 1956, and she has no interest in returning to the site of her humiliation. Their daughter seems feckless and irredeemable, moving through a succession of men, residences and jobs, and, in her fathers estimation, abortions.

The committee of the locality had been petitioning the Central government for years to improve the backward conditions of the area and now, at last, it was their turn. There were dissidents to be sure. Those who bemoan the destruction of a 200 year old forest and acres of meadows. There are those who live either on the site or in the path of the highways that will have to built to access the site or the town which will house the workers and they'll have to be removed by force. All of which, somewhat reluctantly, Bednarz has to oversee. Yet, he opines, its painful for some but the best for the most people.

A documentary filmmaker begins to film the project from the beginning and points out, as they watch the forest being destroyed with brutal industrial efficiency, that the next area over had large tracts of unused wasteland. But it isn't as economically backward so the factory goes here, Bednarz replies, mouthing the official line but not sounding quite convinced but, again, confident of the overall sense of things.

There is one stumbling block at the beginning. The local party wants him to accept their choice for second in command rather than Bednarz's long time assistant. This man happens to be the very man whom his wife fired years before. Bednarz tries to be diplomatic about rejecting the suggestion but the Party insists. Bednarz acquiesces thus setting up another of Kieslowski's Faustian bargains and questionable ethical choices.

The plant is built and cracks in the facade begin which include dropping solid pollution in a five mile shadow down wind. Protest graffiti are painted on the plant. Things break down. Quotas are not met. Bednarz talks with one of the higher ups and voices his doubts, that in fact it had been a seriously flawed project from the beginning. The Party official shrugs his shoulders and says that at least their consciences are clear but Bednarz disagrees, at least his conscience is not totally clear. He asks to be let out of the job. The Party official refuses, reminding him of his duty.

Bednarz carries on in a deteriorating situation. Eventually the workers organize against conditions, caught up in the wave of national discontent (1976 is another milestone year in recent Polish history) and meets the demonstrators in front of his office by agreeing with them and joining their protest.

Of course he is removed, and despite other synopsises, he seems to be quite content playing with his grandchild.

This is the bare outline but by this point in his career Kieslowski was beginning to enrich his films with layers of meaning. Bednarz is established as an earnest and sincere character by turning down a large double apartment for a two room flat. One room is for his darkroom as he is a serious amateur photographer.

The documentary filmmaker returns some years later to do a follow up documentary and acts as something of a Greek chorus to measure the evolution of both the project and Bednarz but also of wider public attitudes. The filmmaker is played by Michal Tarkowski who was the presumed sacrificial lamb in Kieslowsi's PERSONAL (1976). Bednarz assistant is played by Jerzy Stuhr who would star and co-write Kieslowski's AMATOR (1979) (CAMERA BUFF) where he plays an amateur filmmaker turned documentarian. The conversation that Bednarz has where he attempts to resign recalls a scene in his friend, and sometime boss, Zanussi's film an excerpt of which is seen in AMATOR, a film in which Zanussi actually appears as himself. Zanussi's protagonists are invariably engineers and scientists.

His daughter gets pregnant again but this time will marry and have the baby. Her fiancé turns out to be a photographer which is also satisfying for Bednerz. When the documentarian visits Bednarz he notices one large photo on the wall made during the liberation of Poland. The filmmaker notices a relative in the picture and realizes that he must be the child at the center of the photo. This trope would be developed in Kieslowski's later film where sometimes unexplained coincidences exist, warps in the fabric of existence, where non sequitur intersections in time and space produce non consequential crossing of paths (the court scenes in THREE COLORS).

Bednarz is a typical middle period protagonist type- the man in the middle. He is trying to achieve a socially useful goal while acting as ethically as possible but torn by the needs of people below and the demands of people above. The center, as Yeats says, cannot hold, and the only recourse is disengagement which is the tragic ending though it doesn't appear to be in BLIZNA (THE SCAR). Rather than feeling disgraced by being taken off the project, Bednarz he is content, at home with his wife, and playing with his grandchild..

In the name of progression, in spite of ecology

[ilpohirvonen · 8/10 · 23 July 2010]

Krzysztof Kieslowski became a highly appreciated art-house director in Europe when he made his TV-series about The Ten Commandments, "Dekalog" (1989). Later on, in the 1990's he directed The Double Life of Veronique and The Three Colours trilogy, which confirmed his position in the international art-house. As most filmmakers do so did he start by making documentaries, then he made two films for the Polish television and after that his first film for the big screen, Blizna (The Scar, 1976).

Kieslowski himself called the film horrible. He criticized its screenplay and categorized the film as socialist realism. He probably saw something I can never be able to see; something that only the one who made the film could see. Blizna is a realistic film about a socialist society, but socialist realism was never even close to realism. It's full of that blind optimism which Stalin so idealized. But Kieslowski's film, Blizna, is incredibly pessimistic: it shows how socialism works, how it doesn't work, how it cannot work and how it's impossible for anyone to make a change in a society like that. However, one shouldn't feel that Kieslowski was a man cheering for individualism, market economy or economic liberalism. He always called himself unpolitical and criticism for the new, capitalist Poland can be seen in his later film Three Colors: White (1993).

Blizna is a story about a corporation which decides to build a new factory in spite of ecology, or the people living in the area. They choose a man with a family to lead the project. Quickly he reveals to be a man who takes responsibility and tries to finish the project with honor. He soon starts to see the flaws of the project, where moral is only one defect. In his journey through Machiavellist politics he finds making a change incredibly difficult.

The authorities of Poland didn't ban Blizna, but they treated it badly, and basically no one saw it until the producer of The Three Colours trilogy brought a bunch of films from Kieslowski's early career to the screen. Having seen Blizna today, it might have partly lost its grip, since it is tightly tied to its own time. The 1970's can be seen in just about everything: in the style, in the narrative, in the dialog and in the costumes. This isn't a bad thing, by any means, but Blizna certainly isn't a timeless classic. But what it is, is a good description of it's time. It shows how Poland worked in the 1970's under the socialist government; how it did not worked. Kieslowski said in his interview book, Kieslowski on Kieslowski by Danusia Stok, how sad it is that no one takes responsibility on what happened during the era -- not even today.

Blizna is very pessimistic and has got inconsolable despair. It shows how impossible it was to make a change in Poland and how hopeless the era was. To put it briefly, it's a satirical description of the authorities of Poland. It is funny, political, pessimistic and very interesting for those who love Kieslowski, European art-house or are interested in history of the 20th century.

The feature film debut of Krzysztof Kieslowski

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 18 February 2017]

Kieslowski did go on to better things later, especially in his later and more internationally renowned period starting with 'Dekalog' all the way through to 'Three Colours: Red'. 'The Scar' however is a highly impressive feature film debut.

Like as was said for 'The Calm' (a relatively obscure work and undeservedly so), 'The Scar' doesn't have an awful lot wrong with it, it's the sort of film that does almost everything correctly and with very good skill but it's also a case of Kieslowski's style and all his components (while present and correct here) became more refined later on. 'The Calm' does lack the intensity and emotional resonance of his later work, especially with the best 'Dekalog' stories, 'The Double Life of Veronique' and 'Three Colors: Red' and 'Blue'.

Maybe it does get a touch heavy-handed in places too (then again that was not unexpected with themes as heavy and controversial as hypocrisy, compromise and contradiction) and occasionally a touch jumpy.

Again, however, as was said for 'The Calm', these nit-picks are not massive and much of 'The Scar' works very well. It is a good-looking film, as well as being beautifully shot with atmospheric use of colour to match the mood, it is gritty yet beautiful with many thoughtful and emotionally powerful images lingering long into the memory. Kieslowski's direction is quietly unobtrusive, intelligently paced and never too heavy. Very intriguing use of sound and silence, music is sparsely used but effectively intricate.

It's a thought-provoking film too, rarely rambling and makes what it has to say stick. Much of the story is sensitively told and poignant (if not as much as Kieslowski's later work), hardly cold. While deliberately paced it intrigues, engaging a good deal while also suitably challenging the viewer in spots. The themes are explored well, though there are thematically richer films from Kieslowski, and the characters (portrayed fairly bleakly but realistically) carry the story well. As ever, the complexity and nuances of the acting is to be admired.

Overall, interesting and very good early Kieslowski, though he did go on to better things later. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Slowly progressing

[huopa · 6/10 · 5 February 2002]

I only got the idea of this movie on the second time I saw it. It is actually like a documentary of a fictious character (or who knows he didn't exist) living in a socialist Poland who is being commissioned to conduct a new chemical factory. The movie shows quite realistic portrait of a man who tries to keep his values in order in the middle of all corruption and chaos of different social movements of the time. The movie doesn't go into any character's side actually, but tries to display the difficulties of the system and how an individual is powerless in many ways.

The storytelling is very slow and at times a bit jumpy. The music scenes of the movie, that are very rare, are quite bizarre, almost eerie.

I cannot recommend the movie to anyone who tend to fall asleep in slow dramas, but those who like other Kieslowsky films or documentaries of socialism, this is an interesting flick.

Kieslowski May Not Have Liked This Movie, But I Did

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 January 2023]

Engineer Franciszek Pieczka is deputed to take over the construction of a factory in a small city in Poland. Although there are problems with the plans, he sets to work with a will. Soon, however, he finds opposition from the locals whose lives are disrupted, or can't get jobs on the project. As the project haltingly advances, the opposition grows, and he finds himself in conflict with the Party and the unions.

Krzysztof Kieslowski's first feature often has a documentary feel to it, but it's more of a character study. Pieczka is a technocrat, someone who knows how to get things done in terms of taking plans and allocating resources, but cannot factor in the personalities and conflicts of people into his equations. His relationship with his wife is a long-distance one; with his daughter, a criticized one. Although Kieslowski was later dissatisfied with the movie as an artifact of "social realism", and blamed the script, Pieczka's performance makes it very watchable.

the scar

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 31 January 2023]

I cannot think of another film that so violates the founding principal of Cinema 101...show, do not tell...as consistently and completely as does this dull, bleak Polish offering from Kryztof Kieslowski. Just one long, uninvolving scene after another of Communist Party apartachik Stefan Bednarz wrestling with his conscience while being told of worker discontent at the nitrate factory he runs. At no point do we actually see the bad work place conditions that are causing the problems with which Bednarz, to mention nothing of the workers, who remain largely faceless, nameless and voiceless, is struggling. What we do see, repetitively and wearyingly, are shots of Bednarz grimacing, sighing, and looking bereft and forlorn as he smokes (did I mention this is a Polish film?) and drinks and gazes inward which may work in a novel or a play but is not gonna cut it on film. Oh, and the stuff with Bednarz and his daughter, where Kieslowski is trying to go mainstream, is like The Socialist Lifetime Channel. C plus.

Poignant tale of a simple man trapped under a hard to follow system.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 8 August 2007]

Scar is a brave film which takes its time to settle nicely in viewers' minds.It starts in a highly official manner and later develops into a family tragedy.In Scar the best thing to watch is the manner in which all the elements of human weaknesses are portrayed.Helpless characters not being able to come out of their shell is an accepted trait of Kieslowski's films and it is very much evident in The Scar too as its leading player Bednarz is trapped from all sides.He can neither free himself from family pressures coming from his wife and daughter nor from his job under a communist regime.It would be wrong to judge this film's characters based on their actions but it would nevertheless not be wrong to claim that they are victims of unfortunate circumstances as they are being trapped under a system in which change is slow to come and consensus is really reached.For all those interested in Polish cinema they are some very good glimpses of 2 of the most outstanding figures of Polish cinema : a young Agnieszka Holland as an actress and Jerzy Stuhr as a young communist party worker.

The politicians are a joke!

[DukeEman · 8/10 · 25 July 2000]

Kiewslowski's first film is an impressive study on a man who has been thrown in the deep end and put in charge of a Factory that the locals don't want. This is a very subtle and effective attack on the hypocritical Communist party.

A timeless look at The System

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 8/10 · 13 March 2023]

Nominally, this is a movie about a quaint town in Poland where the local communist party hack lobbies to bring a chemical factory to town.

He uses dubious photos of impoverished locals to convince his fellow local party flunkies that the town desperately needs jobs. Then he brings in the regional party hacks for lobbying, and has a bunch of locals stand outside the offices to show their support for the factory (it's implied they were actually told it was a demonstration AGAINST the factory).

And on it goes like this, with our main character being appointed from out of town, against his wife's wishes, to head up the project.

The project bulldozes a forest. The party flunkies condescend to the locals, with their social and ecological concerns. Our main character expresses his misgivings. But at no time does the project - a nitrate factory - ever slow down. It's all in service of The Party, you see.

The amazing this is, however, is that the theme of this movie transcends its time and place.

Think about Your Town, where the local billionaire sports team owner paid off the local town council so he could bulldoze a few downtown city blocks, get a new arena/stadium built at taxpayers' expense, and then spread the manure of ''revitalization" to sell the concept to the locals.

Billionaire gets richer. Councillors put their kids through college. Contractors get rich. Tradesmen get jobs for a couple of years. Poor people stay poor. And the town is left to clean up the social and ecological long-term damage.

Today, towns and states rush to built light rail transit projects. Rinse and repeat.

There's no ranting and raving or pounding of fists. No car chases or gun play. Just a man trying to navigate his way through a system. The genius is that this system persists everywhere, across all ideologies.

The director himself might have thought he'd made a bad film. Maybe in the immediate aftermath, with ambitions to do more polished work, he was justified in his self-criticism. But with the perspective of 50 years I'd say he turned out a timeless masterpiece. It makes anything cranked out by serial polemicist Michael Moore look like cheap home-made fluff by comparison.