The Promised Land

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This article is about "The Promised Land" film. For the novel, see The Promised Land (novel). For other uses see Promised Land (disambiguation).

Ziemia Obiecana
Polish promotional poster for the theatrical release of The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana)
Directed by	Andrzej Wajda
Written by	Andrzej Wajda
Starring	Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn
Music by	Wojciech Kilar
Cinematography	Wacław Dybowski, Edward Kłosiński, Witold Sobociński
Editing by	Zofia Dwornik, Halina Prugar
Release date(s)	1975
Running time	179 min.
Language	Polish
IMDb profile

The Promised Land (Ziemia Obiecana) is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.

Wajda presents a shocking image of the city, with its dirty and dangerous factories and ostentatiously opulent residences devoid of taste and culture. The film follows in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, Émile Zola and Maxim Gorky, as well as German expressionists such as Knopf, Meidner and Grosz, who gave testimony of social protest.

1 Plot
2 Selected Cast
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Karol Borowiecki (Daniel Olbrychski), a Polish nobleman, is the managing engineer at the Bucholz textile factory. He plans to set up his own factory with the help of his friends Max Baum (Andrzej Seweryn), a German and heir to an old handloom factory, and Moritz Welt (Wojciech Pszoniak), an independent Jewish businessman. Borowiecki's affair with Lucy Zucker (Kalina Jędrusik), wife of another textile magnate, gives him advance notice of a change in cotton tariffs and helps Welt to make a killing on the Hamburg futures market. But more money has to be found, so all three characters cast aside their pride to raise the necessary capital.

On the day of the factory opening, Borowiecki has to deny his affair with Zucker's wife to a jealous husband. But while Borowiecki accompanies Lucy on her exile to Berlin, Zucker apparently takes his revenge by burning down the three partners' uninsured factory.