„Returns”, the most recent doc­u­ment­ary by Krzysztof Kadłubow­ski, may, to put it mildly, sur­prise the audi­ence who fol­lowed the events related to Smolensk air crash in television.

The idea for this film was born on April 15^th, last year, when people gathered at Warsaw Chopin Air­port were wait­ing for the plane car­ry­ing the corpses of those who died in Smolensk. Kadłubow­ski, watch­ing the events at the air­port apron, decided to register the pre­par­a­tions and rehears­als, which took place an hour before the cere­mony.


Already the ini­tial scenes sur­prise the audi­ence. A plane lands at the air­port. The officers take their places, stand to atten­tion, wait in read­i­ness. Slowly, cere­mo­ni­ally the back cargo door opens. As soon as the first sol­dier steps onto the plat­form, the funeral march from Chopin’s Piano Son­ata No. 2 resounds. Slowly, in front of a wall of salut­ing officers, come sol­diers car­ry­ing “some­thing” (surely, coffins). After a cut, we see them car­ry­ing (just so!) “noth­ing”.


Kadłubowski’s doc­u­ment­ary should be com­pared with TV accounts from this event. Firstly, the doc­u­ment­arian pays atten­tion to moments which were not in the focus of the media. Although report­ers informed about the rehears­als and pre­par­a­tions to the cere­mony, this inform­a­tion was inter­twined with state­ments made by, among oth­ers, politi­cians, guests, experts. Secondly, Kadłubow­ski used styl­ist­ics which today is not present in the tele­vi­sion. The poet­ics of “Returns” resembles films from the so-​called Kara­basz school. The dir­ector avoided any kind of sta­ging and focused exclus­ively on an astute obser­va­tion of the real­ity. The lack of any off screen sound illus­tra­tion is vital. The only sounds present are the clacks of sol­diers’ shoes and the men­tioned above Chopin’s funeral march. It should be added that the film is only seven-​minutes long, and the cine­ma­to­graphy is in black and white. This “crude” form evokes the mood of true mourn­ing – ascetic and pens­ive.


“Returns” draws the audi­ence in – after seven minutes of intense recep­tion, they look for the emo­tions which accom­pan­ied them dur­ing the screen­ing; they feel the need of mourn­ing, which the media accounts lacked and poet­ics which is not present today in tele­vi­sion.


Krzysztof Kadłubow­ski on „Returns”: The Smolensk mourn­ing was for me a time of intense work, film­ing, regis­ter­ing the events of that days. Wait­ing at the air­port for the coffins with corpses, I wit­nessed all the rehears­als and pre­par­a­tions to this pain­ful cere­mony. I remem­ber the rhythm of the shoes clat­ter­ing on the apron, which emphas­ized the solem­nity and grandeur of the moment. The coffins appeared in my eyes an hour before their real arrival. The idea for the doc­u­ment­ary was born pre­cisely at that moment – on the apron. Life writes the most improb­able scen­arios. „Returns” is the best example.


By Daniel Stopa

(Trans­lated by Olga Brawańska) (20.05.2011)