Guest
The Year of Frank W. is a 1967 Polish documentary film directed by and based on a screenplay by Kazimierz Karabasz. The film depicts a year in the life of a twenty-year-old boy from a small village, Franciszek Wróbel, who emigrates to large industrial Silesia to join the Voluntary Labor Corps. Karabasz’s method was based on careful and impartial observation of the protagonist’s fate; the only commentary was provided by letters read by Wróbel himself. Rok Franka W. was a festival success, winning the Grand Prix “Złoty Lajkonik“ at the Krakow Film Festival and an award at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen. However, the timing of the film’s premiere was unfortunate as it coincided with the student protests of March 1968; when the film was released in April 1968, the author’s objectivity “sounded like a political dodge; Ochotnicze Hufce Pracy became associated with repressions against students“. (Tadeusz Lubelski)
