The Devil

1793. Prussian troops enter Greater Poland under the partition treaties. A Stranger arrives at a convent-prison to take Jakub, an epileptic and failed regicide, with him. From now on the mysterious man guides Jakub’s fate and, having supplied him with a razor for “cleansing”, will persuade him to commit a series of crimes.

Another example of the director’s auteurial, creative cinema, with a distinctive combination of symbolism and extreme naturalism, a nervous rhythm of narration and overacting. A tale of a conspiracy as a story of Polish Romanticism, madness of history but also a film allegory of March ’68 with an excellent performance from Wojciech Pszoniak. One of the Polish films “arrested” by censors and not authorised for distribution, used in political party games aiming at removing liberals from power, it actually initiated the director’s international career.

written by Andrzej Żuławski
director of photography Maciej Kijowski
music by Andrzej Korzyński
production design by Jan Grandys
set decorator Stanisław Ledóchowski
costume design by Jadwiga Przeradzka-Jędrzejewska
make-up by Anna Włodarczyk
sound by Aleksander Gołębiowski
edited by Krzysztof Osiecki
cast Wojciech Pszoniak, Leszek Teleszyński, Małgorzata Braunek, Iga Mayr, Wiktor Sadecki, Michał Grudziński, Maciej Englert, Monika Niemczyk
produced by Zespół Filmowy X
production manager Jacek Moczydłowski
digital restoration Cyfrowe Repozytorium Filmowe 2015
co-financed by PISF