There were a few unfinished films.
As the chairman of the Assocaition of Filmmakers, all associations had been disbanded,
but I felt that I had a duty to go to the cinematographic authorities
and to the political authorities, too, somehow.
Apart from anything else, the authorities had changed, and so now there were people in uniform all over the place.
Suddenly, there were people in uniform in charge of cinematography.
But I felt responsible for these unfinished films
and it troubled me that
these films were condemned, months would pass or even longer
and the production on these films could never be reassembled in order to complete the films.
Among them was 'The Interrogation' which we had counted on greatly,
and a few other films that my team was working on.
So here I was, so to speak, battling for the existence of these young people
who were making the most important films of their lives when suddenly these films had been interrupted.
Initially, I had no chance of talking about these films
but gradually, I was able to use
a pretty underhand argument which they accepted.
I said, 'If you want to assess these films
to see if they're good or bad,
if they're ideologically acceptable or not,
you'll never know until the films are completed'.
They saw reason because the whole cinematic industry was idling.
After a while, these films were being completed.
Of course, most of them weren't released
because they were all films attacking this system as forcefully as was possible in Polish cinematography.
However, by this fortunate ruse, these films were edited, completed
and they came to be presented before those rabid authorities
who now assessed everything so differently.
These were no longer the authorities who ran away, signed agreements with the workers,
these were authorities who tried to impose their will with the help of tanks and the army.
It had paralysed our country entirely.
Just how far they were prepared to go
to defend their position at all costs
became clear during the committee viewing of 'The Interrogation'.
Words which we had never heard before were used,
unthinkable words telling us to burn the negatives.
So not only was the film not going to be released,
not only was its viewing forbidden -
- this was a tactic that we were familiar with - it was going to be destroyed so that there'd be no trace of it left.
Things like this didn't happen, and of course that whole demagoguery of anti-Semitism reared its head.
All the worst aspects of this Party
which had determined to defend its authority became apparent.
They were even more obvious in cultural issues,
especially the cinema,
than in any other field.
It was hard to think about making any sort of film.