The Lesser of Two Evils

Year 1980. Kamil, the student of Polish, publishes an experimental poem in a prestigious magazine. Drunk with success he doesn’t care of what’s going on around him. There, the revolution of Solidarność and the new reality call for taking one of the sides. But Kamil is incapable of choosing. The inspiration flees, studying doesn’t go well either. In order to avoid the recruitment to the army, he arranges a stay under observation in a psychiatric ward. There, he finds a manuscript of an excellent novel left by a roommate who committed suicide. Except for Kamil nobody knows about its existence…

Written by: Janusz Morgenstern, Janusz Anderman
Based on Janusz Anderman’s short story “Cały czas”
Director of photography: Andrzej Ramlau PSC
Music by: Michał Lorenc
Production design by: Andrzej Haliński
Sound: Andrzej Bohdanowicz, Jacek Hamela
Editing: Elżbieta Kurkowska PSM
Costume design by: Magdalena Biedrzycka
Make-up: Janusz Kaleja
Production manager: Ewa Jastrzębska
Produced by: Studio Filmowe PERSPEKTYWA
Producer: Janusz Morgenstern
Executive producer: Dorota Ostrowska-Orlińska
Co-produced by: Vision Film; WFDiF;
Co-producers: Włodzimierz Otulak, Włodzimierz Niderhaus
Distributed by: Vision Film
World sales: Vision Film
Country and year of production: Poland, 2009
Cast: Lesław Żurek (Kamil Nowak), Anna Romantowska (Kamil’s mother), Janusz Gajos (Mieczysław Nowak, Kamil’s father), Wojciech Pszoniak (patient), Magdalena Cielecka (actress), Tamara Arciuch (doctor), Borys Szyc (Mareczek Kolenda), Edyta Olszówka (esseist, the doctor’s sister), Sylwia Oksiuta (student), Olaf Lubaszenko (a member of the SB), Władysław Kowalski (publicist), Krzysztof Kowalewski, Zofia Czerwińska, Krzysztof Kolberger, Andrzej Zaborski, Daniel Olbrychski, Wiktor Zborowski, Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Grzegorz Wojdon
Length: 110 min.