All That I Love 2009

Janek is a young musician in a Polish coastal city where the early days of Solidarity, martial law, and street protests color daily life. His father, Andrzej Chyra as ojciec Janka, is an official in the local military police, and he uses that role to help Janek secure rehearsal space for his punk band in the officer’s hall of the police barracks, a setting that becomes a microcosm of the state’s control over youth culture.

Janek’s love interest, Basia Olga Frycz Martyniak, is the daughter of an active Solidarity member, and their developing romance unfolds under the watchful eye of a divided community. Basia’s family environment—especially Sokołowska, the mother figure portrayed by Katarzyna Herman—adds pressure and complicates choices on both sides of the political divide.

Motivated by their bond, Janek and his brother figure Staszek Mateusz Banasiuk decide to channel that energy into music, sending demos to a prestigious Polish summer music festival in the hope of reaching a wider audience. The band earns a spot, and the prospect of presenting lyrics that touch on repression and solidarity excites Janek, even as he worries about censorship.

However, the state’s censorship apparatus intervenes. Janek’s politically sensitive lyrics are challenged by the authorities, and he is forbidden from performing at the festival.

At the end-of-year concert, the censor arrives in person to block the Solidarity-themed songs before Janek’s classmates, but the moment shifts as the crowd seizes the opportunity to turn the event into a spontaneous youth celebration of Solidarity.