Original subtitles

KRONIKA and Program 1 present

Malgosia was my girlfriend.

The first time I filmed her

was when she became a teacher.

Wojtek finished film school

and wanted to start shooting films.

We decided to go together to Siberia.

I was supposed to teach Polish and Wojtek would shoot his film.

Until the last moment we weren't sure

if we would actually go so far for a whole year.

I left everything in Poland.

All my everyday issues.

I really wanted to leave that behind,

to pull myself out quickly.

I defended my master's thesis

to be able to come here,

to have some peace and quiet.

Fourth day of travel. It's now cold and wet.

It was the end of August.

They turned the heating on. The driver gave us an extra blanket.

I was a bit scared.

We were getting close to Novosibirsk.

7000 km from Poland. It exceeds the possibility

of imagining oneself there.

SIBERIAN LESSON

It's Sunday. September 8.

I feel very tired.

And scared of what I found here.

I was sent to Usolye-Sibirskoye.

100km from Lake Baikal, on the Angara River.

There were some schools, a chemical factory,

and one tramway line.

I went to the school. There was nobody there.

The teachers were on strike,

because they hadn't gotten paid in months.

They were all out in the streets.

I was afraid to think of what would come.

...They'd give us posters and we'd just shout like sheep.

That's right!

In Soviet times there were no kids rummaging in garbage

or begging on the street!

And yet now you're all smearing the Soviet rule!

What does your conscience tell you when you look in their eyes?

Aren't you ashamed?

Even in Soviet times when these children were hungry,

our school could still at least feed them something.

Now you are saying

that their parents are drunkards and that's why they are begging.

They were robbed!

The strike was supposed to last a week, then it lasted for two weeks.

In the end, it turned out to last

for one and a half months.

I realized it will be hard for me.

I knew that it isn't possible

to completely run away from the world in which you lived.

I thought nobody would go to those lessons.

I decided to hang some posters,

welcoming everybody that would lke

to come and learn Polish.

BECAUSE OF THE ARRIVAL OF A TEACHER FROM POLAND, WE INVITE EVERYONE TO LEARN POLISH.

I didn't know if I could do it,

if I'd manage to make the kids interested.

I felt I wasn't strong enough.

I hoped everything would be all right as the lessons began.

Listen...What is the first letter of the alphabet?

A.

Very well. A.

A. Lowercase a.

And uppercase? B.

- A, B. - Be quiet!

Then I.

- What is the next letter? - B.

Pay attention. Now we'll have these letters:

A, O, B...

I felt weirdly on this side of the board.

I talked, and they all looked at me and listened to me.

The first person that I became really close to

was Father Ignatius.

He's been living in Siberia for six years.

He visits the towns

and tries to establish the first religious communities.

I looked at him and felt

that if he managed, then I'll manage too.

There's no need for hints.

First question: in what country was Miss Malgosia born?

In Warsaw.

- In what country? - In Poland.

Bravo! Because she is a Pole.

He was my guide in that world.

It felt good... I lived more peacefully,

knowing that he's also there, that he can always help.

I was scared when I heard that without harvesting potatoes

you have no chance of surviving the winter.

Regardless of who you are, what you do,

everybody must have a field in which

to plant potatoes.

Nobody's thinking about the strike, about work...

About school, about problems...

Each family member concentrates

on digging out those potatoes.

At first, my dreams...

For two months, my dreams were about Poland.

I couldn't get used to the fact that I am

in Usolye. Everything I dreamt was about

my life in Warsaw.

And then, after two months... That was it.

Everything I dreamt took place there, in Usolye.

Get into the tram.

I will close the door now.

Nobody paid for tramway tickets because nobody had money.

The driver would come and check the tickets.

People would pretend they didn't hear, or didn't understand that somebody

wants something from them, and she wouldn't have the strength to react.

We happened upon a sports club.

In this big club there's only a gym.

I ended up going to this gym

and meeting the people who go there.

The coach was Tatar.

Everybody was afraid of him. His whole family were criminals.

But I thought Zinnat was a good man.

He was very happy when he learned that I'm a Polish language teacher.

He allowed me to come to the gym for free.

He prepared for me a special set of exercises.

I felt good there.

There are two girls who want to go to the police academy.

They are 14 years old.

They go to the gym to become stronger

and be better prepared for the exams

of the police academy.

They have large, thick eyebrows,

with such a thick layer of mascara...

You can get used to everything.

Each day a different lipstick, from violet to green.

I taught some weird people.

People who... were also looking for something,

in that world in which there's no more...

in which there are no more planned ideals.

And now want to occupy themselves with something, do something.

Polish was for them an escape from everyday reality.

When Valery came to us the first time,

he said in clear Polish: "I'm Valery and I'm a watchman".

He lived in a village called Mishelyovka,

where he was considered to be crazy because he was learning Polish.

He spent time translating the Polish Bible into Russian.

When he goes stand guard at the House of Culture,

through all night he translates that Bible.

For half a year they haven't paid him his salary.

He lives in some kind of vegetation.

I feel sorry for him.

Burn, burn, my star, my star...

"For we saw His star in the east and came to worship Him..."

- Yes, just... - Worship?

- Worship. - Worship.

It's not worship, but worship.

"...to worship him."

Oh, if I could learn with you it would be much faster!

Let's do this part again.

"And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah..."

- Not in the land, but in the land. - "In the land of Judah..."

- Iudah. - The land of Judah...

It's not "yu".

You have to separate the vowels. "I - u."

Teb-ya, teb-ya, all foreigners say it like that.

- And how do you say it? - Tebya.

- Just tebya. - Tebya.

I'll write it for you.

Now life is... life in Russia...

The soul... is tearing apart...

Tearing apart... yes... falling to pieces.

And when his soul falls to pieces,

a man becomes insecure in life.

He can barely stand on his feet.

Material life... none left. Yes... No faith left at all.

In the soul of man... Emptiness. A void.

Marxism-Leninism is also a religion.

Many find in alcohol...

I don't reject alcohol. But if the alcohol is good for you.

I will translate Judaism. That will be better than drinking.

After these two months, I realized that

I'm different from these people, even...

Even in small things, like what I eat and what they eat.

I always thought I wasn't picky, that I can just eat everything.

And here, I see that I just can't take what they eat here in winter.

Pure fat, things like lard, bacon...

The kitchen is at our disposal,

so we can come here and cook food I'm not suspicious of, like at home.

Christmas is coming.

For the first time, I'll be so far away from home.

I would like to wish all my students

my best wishes and a merry Christmas.

Not only my students, but all the guests here in this Christmas Eve.

The symbol...

The symbol of the coming of Christ is this wafer.

In Poland, everybody shares this wafer.

And so now I would like us, too...

to share this wafer.

Each of you should take half of it.

Here you go.

I wish you all a merry Christmas.

And I hope somebody understands me.

Today, in school, a girl came to me

and said: "Miss Malgosia, I would like to talk to you

for a second in private".

We moved away, and she asked: "Miss Malgosia,

are you getting your salary?". I replied that I'm not.

She said: "Miss Malgosia, in that case, maybe we should get you some food.

Last year we did, and thanks to that the teacher survived winter."

Many people fished,

and then sold the fish for vodka.

And how wonderful, how tasty is canned meat!

In comparison to all those meats that you can buy at the shop,

Canned meat is just delicious,

I managed to eat a whole can in just two dinners.

Sometimes I've cut off a part, left it for later...

The market is expensive and doesn't have much either.

People are going crazy here. They go to work just to stay sane.

To be psychologically well, because when it comes to money, well...

So it was weird, because they finally stopped coming.

Winter was hard. People had nothing to eat.

And so the teachers decided to do something.

They called it a strike, they blocked roads, but...

As for me, I had imagined such a protest entirely differently.

They were so passive, so ill at ease.

It was clear they weren't used to such protests.

They just stood and pretended they hadn't come.

That they had just come to keep company to a friend.

The teachers haven't been paid for nine months.

So they're waiting, but it's hard just to sit and do nothing.

And they're sitting hungry.

They felt embarrassed in this role. They said:

"This never happened here before. This is our first time.

But we're standing here, they'll certainly give us the money."

The biggest holiday in the academic year was Women's Day.

For the occasion, we had five days off.

And before these five days, everybody celebrated

that we'd soon have this holiday.

For me it was incomprehensible, but they said that

they preferred the holidays over the money.

MAIN ACCOUNTANT

My first pay came unexpectedly.

The very situation in which I got this money was...

Demeaning.

They treated me

like I was taking from the Russian children

their money for bread.

It was awful.

There was an education division there, where I had to go.

First, the lady wouldn't open, then she wouldn't listen to me.

She finally gave me the money, but in so many banknotes...

I couldn't follow what was going on. Nobody said a word to me,

as they delivered the money. Everything was done in silence.

As if we were robots.

The grid goes up, goes down... And that was all.

- Is Vova writing? - Nightmare.

Vova, behave... Please.

And then we have: Mela has beehives, Mila has a doll.

What does it mean... Twenty-one.

"Mela ma ule", what does it mean?

Not "Myela", but "Mela". And what does "ma" mean?

Ma...ule...

"Ma" means "has".

Mela has beehives, and Dad has... a butterfly.

One day we went to Pikhtinsk with the priest.

There turned out to be some Poles there... Germans, rather.

They have German names: Ludwig, Kuntz, Hildebrand...

They have songbooks

and prayer books which are written

in Polish but in Gothic font.

So you think wet snow is more slippery?

Yes, yes.

The sleigh will go easy.

- 'Cause the snow is wet? - Yes.

Yes, it goes smoothly.

Good Lord, feels good!

- Wow! - You know, you should move here!

Build a house here and live nearby, closer to us.

It's already winter.

It's cold and freezing,

and if I don't cover my body warmly,

in warm clothing, I might even end up de...

- Dead. - Very good.

Does man have only a body or also a soul?

Man has a soul, a soul in the body.

Did you take care of your soul today?

If man is the image of God, who does he seek?

If the soul is the image of God, who does it seek?

To whom does the soul want to fly?

To God. Very good.

The majority are romantics,

dreamers...

Looking for...

For some interesting experiences.

Encounters with another culture.

They want something interesting to happen during these lessons.

Something different, which they can't see or experience.

Here, among themselves, in this corner of the world.

They come and they enjoy it very much.

Alexander also came.

He was a pathologist. He worked at the morgue.

At each lesson he brought me an apple and a letter.

Miss Malgorzata, it was very nice

that you and Mr. Wojtek came to see me today.

I'm very glad and will always remember

your kindness and attention to me.

I wish you all the best, my kind, wise, affectionate, good friends.

I will pray for your health and happiness.

Alexander invited us on a trip.

We walked for a day on the frozen Angara,

to finally reach, hidden in the middle of the Taiga,

the biggest Tsarist prison from the time of Alexander.

It turned out that after the war,

the prison was turned into a psychiatric hospital.

I'll never forget what I saw there.

It was cold, humid... The bed linen stank.

To fall asleep, I had to wear all the clothes I had.

The morning after that night there was a Solar eclipse.

Sun over the stud.

The horse's mane hides its face.

Ribbon over the meadows.

Even the fog lifts.

They stand, tense,

Like the arrow,

By the vibrating bowstring

Taken out to fly again.

Horses, proud horses.

Listening to the noise of grass.

Lightweight and free.

Like a bird in the clear sky.

When I look,

They go out running.

I'd like to run away,

I'd like to chase after my longing.

Where the horizon shines.

The blue line twitches

On the open gate of clouds.

Gray clouds.

Where in the forge of the sun,

A new day rises.

Where the rhythm of the road is set,

The rhythm of the heart.

Nobody was afraid of coming to the lessons.

It was not about the lessons,

homework, practicing.

It was like a reunion.

A meeting in which each of them...

Delved a bit in another world.

Happily, I have this peace inside.

Here, I have that.

Lots of it, the most I've ever had.

Just... profound tranquillity.

It gives me strength, and allows me

to keep some sort of distance to everything I do.

After the end of April, everybody went fishing to Lake Baikal.

The cars went off track and drove into the lake.

Then they jumped over some gaps in the ice.

It's cheerful, everybody gets out and wants to touch the lake.

This lake is like something holy.

On behalf of the UPTK collective

and the entire collective of our well-crowded back row,

we want to sing our favorite song,

so that our Polish friends can hear it too.

Dear comrades, ladies and gentlemen, let us sing.

It's our favorite song.

Farewell to you, you rocky mountains.

Our Fatherland calls us for a feat.

The wide sea is spreading before us

For the harsh, distant task we have to meet.

The waves, they are moaning and weeping

And splashing onto our vessel's board.

In the fog the Rybachy is now disappearing,

Our native land that we so adored.

In the fog the Rybachy is now disappearing,

Our native land that we so adored.

I wanted to make you a sweater

so that you'd have something warm from me, a winter sweater.

Made with my hands. And I like knitting anyway.

I like it, especially when I know it's for someone close.

Knitting is also about contemplation, wondering, silence...

A good moment.

You are with yourself, not just next to yourself.

I can't imagine this...

I just can't imagine a film about myself.

I thought it would be about us.

A film about me is just not truthful,

I don't exist by myself... Enough...

Zhenya was a friend of Alexander.

He was a painter.

He had an asymmetrical face.

Basically, he was the only person whose thoughts were as mine.

In the past, Zhenya lived off his occasional paintings.

Nowadays... he feeds only on what his soul needs.

They were Russians, not nobles though...

They were merchants. She was illiterate,

his wife, my great-grandmother, and he was a merchant.

That's my grandmother, she always had to be in the center of the picture.

She was director of a bank. That's her...

No, it was taken here. But later he moved to Moscow...

He got a raise and moved.

That was before the war.

- He sings well, no? - Yes, yes.

The beginning is very interesting...

A toast to our guests.

I got used to everything being different here.

All Saints' Day was in May,

Alexander wanted to show me where his parents were buried.

What awaits me?

Almost nothing.

There are people who collect marks.

Marks, that's their hobby.

When you ask them why do they collect marks,

why collect these...stamps?

"That's our hobby. We don't understand why."

Just as I don't understand why I study Polish.

Funny thing. And why not?

Then I started dealing with the Bible.

I translated a lot already.

But I don't know why.

Did it help me or not?

Is this necessary for somebody besides me?

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

In the room, bright as yolk, Stands a table made of oak.

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

Dear Vanya, curly hair, has no money whatsoever.

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

Has no money whatsoever, But he's cheerful as ever!

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

Give me, give me my dear balalaika.

On Victory Day, I saw for the first time

so many happy people in one place.

Kartoshka was a typically Russian phenomenon.

The most important event of the year.

Everybody is subordinated to the rhythm of the potato.

Life is punctuated by this rhythm.

BIOGRAPHY

In the first part of your biography, one should find:

date of birth,

date and place

of birth.

I, Natalia, was born in the year 1979

in Usolye-Sibirskoye. My parents work and live in Usolye-Sibirskoye.

My great-grandfather, Józef Wojciechowski, was Polish.

ROOTS

Since I was born,

I was brought up in my family's house.

In 19... 97

I finished high school and I want to go study in Poland.

I want to study economy.

I learn...

very well.

I went five years to ballet studio.

I was going to acting lessons,

circus, singing. For six years I was

a guide at our school's museum.

Parents... No father. Divorce.

Mom... was born.. in the central city...

About myself:

I like to read

crime stories and documentary books.

I adore fishing.

I plan to go to university in Poland.

I want to find out...

I want to know more about the fatherland of my grandfather.

Maybe stay...

and live there.

POLISH

I felt responsible, but thanks to that

I realized what my place is, knowing who I am to these kids.

And these kids made me

realize that I'm also important to somebody.

I never could imagine

the moment of my own marriage.

I don't know how to call it, like an internal peace.

No fighting...

No indecision...

Such... peace, and such...

strength of that which is now between us.

I really feel something like... God has united us.

And thanks to that, it's easier for us.

Being ready

to enter into the holy bonds of matrimony

in the church of Jesus Christ,

the apostolic, Catholic church...

Join your right hands.

Face each other.

Allow me to

join your hands.

And now, repeat after me

the words of the oath of matrimony.

I, Wojciech, take you, Malgorzata, to be my wife,

and swear you love, marital fidelity and honesty

and to be with you until death do us part.

So help me Lord God Almighty in Trinity and All Saints.

I, Malgorzata, take you, Wojciech, to be my husband,

and swear you love, marital fidelity and honesty

and to be with you until death do us part.

So help me Lord God Almighty in Trinity and All Saints.

What God has put together, let no man separate.

I affirm your marriage by the authority of the Catholic Church.

Malgorzata Waradzyn Reymonta 21 m. 33, 01-840 Warsaw.

Malgorzata Staron Reymonta 21 m. 33, 01-840 Warsaw.

I have my students in front of me,

with their smiling faces,

as they ask me: "What is this, what is that?".

They tell me that

it's hard, that they won't make it.

At this time...

I associate Russia with these kids.

I just feel I came to know deeply

a fragment of reality there.

MALGORZATA

It will be sad to leave the kids here and go.

Just take everything and say goodbye.

To pack and go away.

We spent so much time together, as if it would last forever.

I want life to always be...

as good to us as it was there,

in Siberia.

Subs by bruno321 with contributions by Veikko & Baofu @ KG